Trout Breeding. 73 



the harbor and walked home they had a box i foot 

 each way with a swinging door. In this there were 

 light frames -| inch deep with bottoms of canton flannel, 

 woolly side up ; on these the eggs were floated, under 

 water, and evenly distributed in a single layer until 

 each box was filled. An ordinary trunk or drawer 

 handle on the top served to carry it by. On arriving 

 at the hatchery the trays are put in the troughs, and by 

 the movement of water by a feather the eggs are 

 gathered to the lower side of the tray and then turned 

 out. It does not hurt them to fall when in water, but 

 to fall in air and strike the surface of water is fatal. 



To pack for a week's journey by rail the eggs 

 should be well advanced and the embryo quite well 

 colored say, forty-five days. old. If only a thousand 

 tre to be sent, a box of tin or wood 8x4x3 inches deep 

 will do, but not a cigar-box, because of the odor. Make 

 holes in the bottom for drainage, lay an inch of living 

 swamp-moss sphagnum on the bottom, then cover 

 with mosquito netting, one layer of eggs covered with 

 netting, a thin layer of moss, and so on, covering with 

 moss. Press the cover down hard ; you can't hurt them 

 by pressure of moss; and they should be put up so 

 (irmly that if dropped endwise on the floor not an egg 

 would stir. Then get a larger box and pack the smaller 

 one in it with at least three inches of sawdust on top, 

 sides and bottom, and mark: "Fish eggs; keep cool, 

 but don't let 'em freeze." 



The principle is this : The little fish within the egg 

 needs oxygen as well as an adult. It would die in still 

 water after the oxygen was absorbed, just as its parents 

 would. The living moss gives off oxygen and holds 

 the necessary moisture, and that's all there is of it. The 

 mosquito netting is a convenience to the one who un- 



