FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 171 



fall I procured ova and milt from very fine salmon, taken 

 at Les Ecureuils, and the boxes were well stocked with healthy 

 and carefully impregnated ova, which I transferred by steam- 

 er from Portneuf to the Ovarium, as being safer than land 

 carriage and less liable to friction. The success with the sal- 

 mon ova, each season, was everything that could be hoped 

 for, and at least seventy per cent, of the spawn vivified and 

 became young fish. There was an exception, however, in one 

 season's operations, and it baffled my every endeavor to dis- 

 cover the reason of ill-success. Whether it arose from natural 

 causes or from any deleterious matter that might have found 

 its way into the spawning boxes I was unable to determine. 

 The conditions of the whole operations were the same as in 

 former years, the water was kept flowing continuously into 

 the boxes, and up to a short time before, the spawn looked 

 very healthy and full of life, and the percentage of loss from 

 'parasites' was even less than at any other season. The time 

 of incubation had fully arrived, and I became very anxious. 

 I waited some time after the usual period and then examined 

 the spawn through my powerful microscope, bringing the ova 

 under its full power, in a glass dish covered with water. The 

 result of our observations led to the conclusion that one of 

 two things had happened, viz., that either the metal lining of 

 the boxes had acted injuriously on the ova, or that lime water 

 had, by some mysterious means, found its way into the boxes, 

 and had tended to harden the outer shell of th spawn. Such 

 was the opinion formed after a close examination with the 

 microscope, and to test the matter I performed the 'Cesarian 

 operation' by piercing the outer shell with a sharp pointed 

 needle, taking care not to puncture any vital spot. By this 

 means I liberated quite a number of little prisoners, but still 

 there was a large percentage of loss, as many of them were 

 dead 'before delivery.' 



"This partial failure of the ova to mature, under the 

 favorable conditions they were in up to the last stage of 

 maturity and the dread of some other similar occurrence 

 caused much anxiety. I began to realize the fact that, under 



