108 LAST SPAWNING SEASON. [CHAP. in. 



The latest has been the best spawning season experienced 

 since the commencement of the Stormontfield artificial spawn- 

 ing operations. On the 22d of December (1865) I found that 

 Peter Marshall, the resident pisciculturist, had up to that date 

 deposited in the breeding-boxes more than 300,000 salmon 

 eggs, and that he still had three adult fish to spawn, from 

 which he calculated upon obtaining something like 50,000 

 additional eggs, and he told me that that number would com- 

 plete the total quantity required that season viz. 350,000 ; 

 indeed, the boxes cannot conveniently hold many more, 

 although another row has been constructed. 



Upwards of a million of pond-bred fish have now been 

 thrown into the river Tay, and the result has been a satis- 

 factory rise in the salmon-rental of that magnificent stream. 



I have compiled the following summary of what has been 

 achieved in salmon-breeding at the Stormontfield ponds : 



On the 23d November 1853 the stocking of the boxes 

 commenced, and before a month had expired 300,000 ova were 

 deposited, being at the rate of 1000 to each box, of which 

 at that time there were 300. These ova were hatched in 

 April 1854, and the fry were kept in the ponds till May 

 1855, when the sluice was opened, and one moiety of the fish 

 departed for the river and the sea. About 1300 of these were 

 marked by cutting off the dead or second dorsal fin. The 

 smolts marked were about one in every hundred, so that 

 about 130,000 must have departed, leaving more than that 

 number in the pond. The second spawning, in 1854, was a 

 failure, only a few thousand fish being produced. This result 

 arose from the imperfect manipulation of the fish by those 

 intrusted with the spawning. The third spawning took place 

 between the 22d November and the 16th December 1855, 

 and during that time 183,000 ova were deposited in the 

 boxes. These ova came to life in April 1856. The second 

 migration of the fry spawned in 1853 took place between 



