12 THE FISH IN VIEW. [CHAP. i. 



under the natural system of spawning are laid in the secluded 

 and shallow tributary of some choice stream, in a trough of 

 gravel ploughed up by the fish with great labour, and are there 

 left to be wooed into life by the eternal murmuring of the 

 water. From November till March, through the storms and 

 floods of winter, the ova lie hid among the gravel, slowly but 

 surely quickening into life, and few persons would guess from 

 a mere casual glance at the tributary of a great salmon stream 

 that it held among its bubbling waters such a countless trea 

 sure of future fish. A practised person will find out a burrow 

 of salmon eggs with great precision, and a little bit of water 

 may contain perhaps a million of eggs waiting to be summoned 

 into life by the mysterious workings of nature. During the 

 first three weeks from the milting of the egg scarcely any 

 change is discernible in its condition, except that about the 

 end of that period it contains a brilliant spot, which gradu- 

 ally increases in its brilliancy, when certain threads of blood 

 begin faintly to prefigure the anatomy of the young fish. 

 After another day or two, the bright spot seems to assume a 

 ring-like form, having a clear space in the centre, and the 

 blood-threads then become more and more apparent. These 

 blood-like tracings are ultimately seen to take an animal shape \ 

 but it would be difficult at first to say what the animal may 

 turn out to be whether a tadpole or a salmon. After this 

 stage of the development is reached, two bright black specks are 

 then seen the eyes of the fish. We can now, from day to day, 

 note the form as it gradually assumes a more perfect shape ; 

 we can see it change palpably almost from hour to hour. 

 After the egg has been laved by the water for a hundred days, 

 we can observe that the young fish is then thoroughly alive 

 and, to use a common expression, kicking. We can see it 

 moving and can study its anatomy, which, although as yet 

 very rudimentary, contains all the elements of the perfect fish. 

 Heat expedites the birth of the fish. The eggs of a minnow 



