WORK IN THE HATCHING-HOUSE. 49 



and the number a grille will contain varies inversely according to 

 the diameter of the eggs, it is necessary to use different measures 

 according to the age of the spawn ers. The number of eggs in a 

 box (four grilles) varies from 14,000 of the finest salmon eggs to 

 30,000 fontinalis eggs. These latter are so small that special grilles 

 are required containing a greater number of glass tubes of con- 

 siderably less diameter. 



After the boxes are all charged, the hatching-house attendants 

 dress the eggs into rows by feathering. This operation is much 

 better performed by girls, as it is difficult to prevent men touching 

 the eggs with the feather. The proper method is to move the 

 feather in front of the eggs towards the position they are wished 

 to occupy ; the eggs are carried by the slight current thus created 

 after the feather, and the operation is both rapid and harmless. 

 A trained girl should be able to dress ten boxes an hour, always 

 supposing the Manager has laid down the eggs evenly at first. 

 Ova should not be disturbed after the first twenty-four hours 

 from spawning. 



The next morning any shells which have not been removed in 

 the washing are picked out, and after this the boxes are daily 

 examined, and a record kept on a printed form, a facsimile of 

 of which is given on next page, signed by the principal attendant. 

 These forms are collected weekly by the Manager, and entered in a 

 book, a page of which is reproduced, one-half size, in the Appendix. 



Each box is entered, the number of eggs being written across 

 the upper left corner, and the species marked across the upper right. 

 The season and date of spawning are entered below the number of 

 the box, and the dead eggs picked out are written in the space 

 corresponding to the day of the month. The total of each month 

 is entered opposite T., and the grand total is written in the lowest 

 line below the month in which the eggs were sold or hatched. 



When eggs are sold, and the box re-stocked, a new account is 

 opened for it. In this manner a very large quantity of statistics 

 have been collected, and the daily conduct of many a batch of eggs 

 can be compared at a glance with that of any other batch of the 

 same or the preceding seasons. 



D 



