OUR RIVER HARVESTS. 277 



yolk of the egg attached to its abdomen. This egg 

 vesicle is of a bright reddish orange colour, traversed 

 by the minutest imaginable vessels of bright scarlet, and 

 remains visible for about seven weeks. As long as the 

 little creature retains this vesicle it needs no food, 

 and takes no trouble about feeding until it has lived 

 for seven or eight weeks, when the supporting vesicle 

 is absorbed into the body, and the fish is then thrown 

 on its own energies for subsistence. 



Now comes a critical time in the life of a fish, and 

 one where many pisciculturists have failed. What is 

 the little creature to eat, and how is it to obtain its 

 food ? Liver, dried and reduced to powder, is held in 

 some estimation, and so are little worms and caddis 

 chopped very fine. Stale bread grated into a fine pow- 

 der is another useful kind of food. But it often hap- 

 pens that the little fishes are so delighted with the un- 

 accustomed gratification that they continue to gorge 

 themselves until they die of very repletion. Some- 

 times the pisciculturist who has succeeded in hatching 

 the eggs under cover forgets that his little favourites 

 must needs eat, furnishes them with no food, and so lets 

 them perish of slow starvation after the supporting 

 vesicle has been completely absorbed. 



Practically it has been found that the combination 

 of the slate troughs within the house, and the wooden 

 boxes in the open air, afford the best chance of 

 success, the young fish being removed from the former 

 to the latter after they have assumed the perfect shape 



