280 OUT OF DOORS. 



above and silvery white beneath, and have a peculiar 

 darting action, flashing through the water like a 

 miniature rocket, and j ust turning on the side so as to 

 suffer a silvery gleam to appear for a moment and then 

 vanish. 



The eggs are delicate globular bodies, varying in 

 size according to the species of fish from which they 

 come. Those of the salmon are about the size of sweet 

 peas, and the 'perfect, healthy, and vivified egg has a 

 peculiar translucency, with pink or ruddy reflections as 

 the light passes through its substance. 



As the eggs approach maturity the blood-red hue 

 deepens, and when the little fish makes its escape from 

 the imprisoning envelope the egg vesicle retains its 

 warm hue. Indeed, it is only by this vesicle that the 

 presence of the very young fish can be detected as they 

 lie among the stones, the delicate bodies being of such 

 glassy transparency that they would escape observation 

 but for the ruddy hue of the egg vesicle which is 

 attached to them. 



Should the egg be unfortunate, and its vital prin- 

 ciple escape, the fatal result may be at once known by 

 the change of aspect, a gradually increasing opacity 

 spreading through the whole substance and the egg 

 looking exactly like a boy's c alley taw ' seen through 

 the wrong end of a telescope. By degrees a kind of 

 flocculent excrescence begins to grow upon the egg, and 

 it is soon surrounded with this growth to such an 

 extent that it becomes as large as a moderately-sized 



