PACKING THE TROUT OVA. 35 



One of these frames is floated in the sink, and a glass measure, 

 which has beforehand been ascertained by actual count to contain 

 about 10 per cent, over one thousand eggs that is, about eleven 

 hundred eggs, is used to measure the eggs out of the lead basin 

 on to the frame. One attendant immerses the frames in the sink, 



mm 



FIG. 7 scale J. Fio. 9 -scale J. 



and another removes them as each receives its quota of ova. When 

 the basin is nearly exhausted, the sink is refilled, and twelve more 

 grilles emptied into the wooden box, and this is repeated until the 

 whole of the consignments are filled. A quarter of a million of eggs 

 are frequently thrown on the frames in the course of an afternoon. 



After all are filled the basin is removed, and each frame im- 

 mersed a second time in the sink, and the eggs spread by means of 

 an undulatory motion. This is a very rapid process. The holes in 

 the peach netting are very nearly as large as a salmon egg, so that 

 without any manipulation the ova arrange themselves, one egg in 

 each mesh. The frames are then removed and placed in the pack- 

 ing-room, on the shelf described in Chapter xix., in piles, each 

 pile containing frames equal to the number of layers of one 

 thousand each (nominal), to be packed in the respective boxes. 



A tray, with loose moss, is then placed above each pile, and a 

 ticket with the number of the packing-box laid in the tray. Next 

 morning the frames are carefully examined in case any puny embryo 

 may have been overlooked ; these are easily known by the appear- 

 ance of the eye. In this process each pile becomes inverted, but the 

 piles being examined separately, there is no danger of the frames 



