28 THE FRESH- WATER TROUT. 



On their expulsion, the ova, as we have stated, are 

 covered up by the spawner with sand and small gravel, 

 through the action of her tail. This member, in all 

 fishes, possesses great power, and is quite adequate to 

 the task in question ; and that it is so used, the marks 

 of attrition it presents immediately after fully manifest. 

 But although, by its medium, a considerable portion of 

 the expelled ova is secured and made available, the 

 larger quantity makes its escape. Of this, much is 

 devoured in its progress seaward ; a portion is cast on 

 the bank, or carried to the salt-water, and rendered 

 useless ; and the rest, finding lodgement behind stones 

 and pebbles, in due time becomes vivified. 



The spawn of the fresh-water trout is brought to life 

 much in the same way as the spawn of the salmon. It 

 requires to be acted on, wholly by the temperature of 

 the water in which it lies. There is no process of in- 

 cubation at work to produce vivifaction; and as the 

 temperature to which it remains exposed is both 

 unequal and uncertain, so there can be no fixed or 

 determined interval betwixt the depositing and hatch- 

 ing of the ova. In fact, the roe shed in November, is 

 likely to become engendered nearly as soon as that 

 shed five or six weeks earlier, and both may make their 

 appearance as fry, in March, April, May, or June, just 

 according to the clemency of the season and the action 

 of solar heat. 



The trout, if well fed, grows with astonishing ra- 

 pidity ; under any circumstances not absolutely hostile 

 to its existence, it acquires, in the course of four or 

 five months, dimensions which entitle it to a place in 

 the angler's creel at any rate, in the frying-pan. Its 

 growth, in point of fact, is not greatly disturbed by 

 lack of food, during the first season of its existence; 



