On Slocking. 29 



housemaids' work it must be done for them at great trouble 

 and expense. Up to this stage the daily work in the hatch- 

 ing-house is much the same for eggs and alevins. It is not 

 advisable to begin too early in dark mornings ; eight o'clock 

 is quite soon enough to unlock the door. The Manager 

 should always enter the house first, check the thermometers, 

 and notice the overflows of the regulating-tanks. The 

 girls then look over the hatching-boxes, pick out the opaque 

 ova, and note the numbers on the printed form. The 

 Manager gives the head attendant a list of the boxes from 

 which all unimpregnated eggs are to be picked, for sale or 

 before laying down to hatch. If it is a bright morning he 

 sees that the swung shutters are tightly closed on the south 

 side of the house. Direct sunlight is not only injurious to 

 the embryos, but is apt to induce a cryptogamic growth on 

 the shells of the eggs. The particular fungus I have not 

 determined, its principal characteristic being the length and 

 delicacy of its filaments. 



' When any eggs are near hatching, boxes which have been 

 already emptied, for sale or otherwise, are prepared ; if not, 

 the Manager is free to go to the ponds. Should the follow- 

 ing day be one on which ova are despatched, he returns in 

 the afternoon to throw the eggs on to the frames; but on 

 other days he merely looks round in the evening to receive 

 the schedule of the dead ova picked out, and to see generally 

 that all is right. When the alevins are hatched, he has to 

 attend to the depth of water in each box, which is increased 

 by raising the flannel on the outlet screen, and to the weekly 

 increase of the supply when the water is raised. He has also 

 to see that a sufficient number of ova packing-boxes are 

 prepared, with sawdust carefully filled between the inner 

 and outer cases. In practice, it is found necessary to have 

 at least twelve ordinary egg-packing boxes and six foreign 

 always ready in the box-room. He also requires to take 

 stock of the quantity of swan's-down squares, and to check the 

 amount of sphagnum moss in the cellar, where it keeps best. 



' It must always be remembered that, in the case of a heavy 



