168 SEASON 1874-75. 



about 900 of the eggs in Experiment 8 in the act of hatching. It 

 was a most curious sight : in about half an hour the water was 

 white with cast-off shells, and the bottom a dark salmon colour 

 from the yolk-sacs of the alevins. I poured off the shells, and left 

 clean quarters for the young strangers, who were extremely lively, 

 and in whom I hoped one day to see united the flavour of their 

 Loch Leven mother and the sport of their sea-trout sire. They 

 had been laid down 113 days. In Experiment 9 the eggs took a 

 day and a half longer to hatch, only half being hatched on Sunday 

 the 21st, after being down 114 days. 



On April 29th I carried the fry (Experiment 9) to the tem- 

 porary rearing-place at Milnholme, and on May 5th I brought 

 over the fry (Experiment 8). The water had by this time entirely 

 stopped in Middlethird hatching-house. On the 29th May I 

 removed the fry (Experiment 8) to Howietoun, and placed them 

 in the old 9-feet plank pond. On July 12th I removed the fry 

 (Experiment 9) from Milnholme, and placed them in the old 9-feet 

 plank pond, having fixed the screen across the pond. Next day I 

 removed this screen, as I then considered the experiment sufficient, 

 and I wished to give them more range. 



The experience I have since gained shows me I concluded the 

 experiments by mixing just when results might be expected to 

 commence. It is only by carefully comparing two lots like these 

 that any opinion can be formed of which parent is nearest the 

 common ancestor. Experiments in hybridism are now one of the 

 most prominent features of Howietoun, and I much regret an 

 experiment which promised (as I now know) so much should not 

 have been continued further. 



Mr. Burns Begg left next morning, and I spawned a pair of 

 sea-trout, and liberated all the sea-trout kelts from the rearing- 

 boxes in the hatching-house at Middlethird into the overflow 

 from the hatching-house. It was fun to see them scuttle down 

 stream as fast as a man could walk. One unspawned milter I 

 retained, and took over to Craigend. I placed it in the Francis 

 Francis box. Its after history and untimely end will be shortly 

 recounted. 



