APPENDIX. 243 



spawn in the Almond comes to very poor account. 

 Had we a field for it we could have planted the 

 whole of the produce as at Stormontfield. But 

 our works are on a small scale only, having room 

 for 300,000 ; and having only one feeding pond, 

 we can only fill our boxes once in the two years, 

 because the first year's fish would devour the young 

 of the second if allowed to go among them. This 

 season thirty of the boxes were so leaky by decay 

 of the wood that we put nothing in them. 



"Of the 275,000 ova in our boxes, the whole are 

 now quick and bursting into life, a great many of 

 them are already hatched, and the others are very 

 healthy, and the young fish may clearly be seen in 

 them, and are bursting the shell daily. In con- 

 sequence of the fine open winter, the eggs have 

 hatched in our ponds in 115 days, and have done 

 so corresponding to the days on which the eggs 

 were deposited. Thus the eggs on the 13th of 

 November have hatched on the 8th of March, and 

 have continued doing so in the corresponding days. 

 In former seasons they have taken from 130 to 140 

 days, according to the temperature of the water. 

 In spring water flowing from the rock in winter, 

 where the temperature is always equal, I have 

 known them to hatch in about sixty days." 



