EXPERIMENTAL WORK. 1G9 



Experiment 10. 



On November 28th I dissected two female burn-trout : one was 

 quite a fortnight from spawning, the other fully ripe, but in con- 

 sequence of some derangement of the organs I had been unable 

 to spawn her. I rinsed the eggs quickly, and milted them with 

 burn-trout milt. I kept them by themselves in the fish-room at 

 Craigend, and they eyed nicely ; but as I was short of room, I 

 mixed them eventually with the rest of the burn- trout eggs taken 

 on the same day. These hatched on March 19th. Total, 127 ova. 



Experiment 11. 



To complete the set of crosses, on the 4th December I spawned 

 a small burn-trout, and milted the eggs with the sea-trout male. 

 Total, 149 ova. 



This was the converse of Experiment 7. The eggs hatched in 

 107 days ; but as they were in the slate trays in the gun-room at 

 Craigend, I have no note of the temperature, and therefore cannot 

 compare them with Experiment 7. The hybrids seem all to have 

 been placed together in the octagon pond at Craigend, and on the 

 3d December 1876 I find there were only 180 alive, and two years 

 afterwards, viz., on 31st December 1878, the entry in the state- 

 ment of stock is 20-feet octagon pond : hybrids 9, three-year-old. 



So ended my first experiments. Much they left obscure ; they 

 did not fulfil the object with which they were undertaken ; but I 

 now find valuable guides in my present work. I now know that 

 crossing alone is not sufficient to produce the finest trout, but 

 that the age and condition of the breeders is so important that 

 it overshadows to some extent everything else. 



