176 SEASON 1874-75. 



motion by the funnel tube, and the amount of disturbance was 

 regulated by the height of the funnel. By raising or lowering this 

 any desired movement could be given to the food, which was 

 carried up the bent tube and fed evenly to the fry. The great 

 objection to the feeding jar is the waste it causes ; if left to feed 

 out all the food of a charge, the fashion is all gone off the latter 

 half. This is its worst fault ; as it is easily cleaned, one can see in 

 a moment if any dirt has accumulated ; and it does its work well. 

 Of course it is only suitable where the water-supply is high 

 enough above the box. 



The next day I ordered a delicate thermometer from Kemp's in 

 Edinburgh, reading from 30 to 50 F., and half an inch to a degree. 

 This enabled me to read tenths without going too near the glass 

 and raising the quicksilver by the heat of my body, a very necessary 

 precaution where minute differences are to be noted and compared. 

 On the 3d February the first of my own eggs hatched, that is, 

 the ova taken from the burn-trout caught at Sauchie. The tem- 

 perature of the water was 42 F. The descendants or rather 

 some of them of these Sauchie fry are now sporting in New 

 Zealand. 



The winter was a very severe one. The average temperature 

 of the water in the hatching-house at Middlethird for the 113 days 

 preceding the 20th March 1875 was 39787 F. The sea-trout 

 which hatched that day were 114 days in incubation. 



On April 7th I brought 1000 alevins, S. levenensis, from the 

 hatching-house at Middlethird, and placed them in rearing-box 6 

 at Craigend, and next morning I started at 7.30 A.M., carrying 

 them in a 2-gallon tin, to Thormanean, Mr. Horn's seat, near Mil- 

 nathort. I inspected Mr. Horn's pond and streams, and liberated 

 the fry at 11.30 A.M., they having been four hours on the journey 

 without change or aeration of the water. There were no deaths, nor 

 did a single fry seem sickly. The alevins were turned out imme- 

 diately before coming on the feed. I saw a very few (not more than 

 half a dozen) natural fry in a spring-hole ; they were slightly larger 

 than the artificially reared ones ; but although large swarms of 

 fry are frequently seen by the 1st of April in the burn above 



