SPAWNING OF TROUT. 29 



choose for their operations. Four or five weeks 

 are supposed to be sufficient for the hatching of 

 the eggs, but that depends a good deal on the 

 situation and the weather the eggs in a shallow 

 mountain stream, which is apt to freeze, being 

 supposed to remain unhatched till the ice be 

 cleared away in the spring. When the young 

 fish first make their appearance they are not 

 wholly detached from the egg, but have a portion 

 of the yolk attached to the lower part of their 

 bodies, which is understood to constitute their 

 first nutriment. It does not appear that the eggs 

 can be hatched in water that is distilled, or in any 

 other manner deprived of air, or in that which is 

 impregnated with lime, or any other ingredient 

 that is deleterious to the fish in a grown state. 

 Some have even said that they have seen the 

 young trout, still attached to the remains of the 

 eggs, upon a shallow sand bank, poking their 

 little heads above the water ; but, though we have 

 looked for this, we have not found it, neither have 

 we found the trout adhering to the place where 

 the spawn had been deposited. We have seen it 

 in the case of the salmon, and thus can have no 

 doubt that it also happens with the trout. About 

 a week or ten days after the first bursting of the 

 egg, the fry are entirely clear of it, and begin to 



