46 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED 



" The Chinese have taken a fancy to hatch fish 

 under fowls. For this purpose they collect from 

 rivers and ponds the gelatinous matter which con- 

 tains the eggs of fish, put it into vessels, and sell it 

 to the proprietors of ponds. When the hatching 

 season arrives, a fowl's egg is emptied of its usual 

 contents, and this gelatinous matter is put in. The 

 entrance is hermetically sealed, and the egg is then 

 put under a hen. After some days it is opened, 

 and placed in a vessel of water heated by the 

 sun ; it is kept in the rays until the little fish 

 become strong enough to bear the external tem- 

 perature." 



Not to derogate from the ingenuity of the 

 celestial nation, I have no doubt but that fowls 

 may be dispensed with, and that a river may be 

 stocked with any sort of common fish by trans- 

 mitting the ova and milt amalgamated, embedded 

 in gravel, and placed in a vessel filled up with 

 water. One of our best fish, namely trout, cannot 

 be sent alive even to a moderate distance. It is 

 worth while, therefore, to try the experiment. 

 According to a letter published by the late Sir 

 Anthony Carlisle, something nearly approaching 

 to this was done by him in the river Wandle about 

 thirty years ago. He then imbedded the ova of 

 the salmon in the gravel without the milt of the 

 male, leaving the river trout to impregnate them : 

 he asserts that they did so, and that the river was 

 afterwards full of the fry so produced. It would 

 be interesting to put the salmon eggs properly 

 impregnated with the milt of the same species in 

 one of our best streams, in the upper parts of the 



