> 



ClPHEEING SO AS TO ESTIMATE. 389 



continued for several days, and sometimes weeks, by a single 

 pair offish. The male trout or male salmon sometimes forces 

 the female to the spawning-bed before all the ova is sufficient- 

 ly matured for deposition.) We then shut down our upper 

 sluice, catch and examine all the fish, and keep in a large 

 wooden box all the fish ready for manipulation, returning the 

 rest to the dam till we see them beginning to spawn a second 

 time, and so on till we get them all spawned. 



We spawn them in a box three feet six inches long, seven 

 inches wide, and nine inches deep, with as much.water as will 

 cover the fish. We first take the female fish from a large box 

 filled with water close at hand, lay her in the little box as she 

 swims (that is, her back up), taking her by the tail with the 

 right hand, and with the left hand gently press from the neck 

 to the vent until you get all the roe exuded. We then pour 

 oif about half the water, and use the male fish the same way, 

 mixing the milt with the water by the hand. After mixing 

 the ova, we have a large filter that fits the neck of a bottle, 

 water-tight, with a rim of wire gauze two inches deep. We 

 then fill the bottle and filter with water; then, pouring off the 

 greater part of the water in the spawn-box, we empty the roe 

 and water into the filter. The roe, of course, sinks into the 

 bottle ; the water runs off through the wire gauze, and pre- 

 vents any of the ova from being spilled. The bottle is mark- 

 ed off in divisions, each division holding 800 eggs .of an aver- 

 age size. By this way we count our roe with little trouble 

 that we deposit in our breeding-boxes. In putting the ova 

 into the breeding-boxes, I have a tin tube that fills the neck 

 of the bottle, tapering to about a half-inch circle at the top. 

 This tube I place below the water in the breeding-box, and 

 gradually empty the roe into glass jars. Our breeding-boxes 

 are two in number, or rather a continuation of one. They 

 are laid quite level, so that the water circulates down the one 

 and up the other. The boxes are made of wood, four inches 

 deep, one foot wide, and the length of the two boxes com- 

 bined is 135 feet. These boxes are supplied with frames in- 



