TROUT. FISH-HATCHING. 



'55 



bottoms made of glass rods side by side, close enough together 

 to prevent the eggs falling through, but wide enough to let the 

 water pass through freely. Over these troughs a continual 

 stream of water was directed. The eggs were pale yellow in 

 colour when alive, but if one of them became addled or dead 

 it turned white, and it was then picked off by means of a glass 

 tube, up which it was sucked by the force of capillary attraction 

 without disturbing the other eggs. By and by you could see a 

 little dot in the eggs. This got larger and larger until the 

 covering burst, and the fish came out, with a little transparent 

 bag bigger than themselves attached to their stomachs. They 



TROUT. 



ate nothing until this dried up, and they lived upon what they 

 absorbed out of it. When the fish were about an inch long 

 they were put into small pools up the brook, where they were 

 watched very carefully by the keeper, who set traps for rats 

 and herons. Then as they got bigger they were put into larger 

 pools, and finally into the river." 



" I did not know that water-rats ate fish," said Jimmy. 



" No, water-rats don't, although many people think they do. 

 They live only on vegetable food, and it is a pity to kill them ; 

 but the common rat, which is as often seen by the river side as 

 the other, will eat fish, or whatever it can get." 



It would be tedious to recount the capture of every fish, 



