CHAPTER II 



THE HATCHING AND PROPAGATION OF FISH 



ALMOST everything material 

 is the result of a very small be- 

 ginning, and especially is this 

 true of fish. Their beginning 

 is in an egg, and in nearly all 

 cases a particularly small egg 



Trout egg ready to hatch. SO 8tmll > in fact > that U8Uall y 



ten or twelve will cover a space 

 only one inch long. There is absolutely no form 

 of life, either of mammals, birds, or reptiles, that 

 Nature has planned to bring forth its kind so nu- 

 merously as does the fish. That this was a most 

 wise provision will readily be understood when it is 

 known that the enemies that feed upon the eggs and 

 the fish themselves, through all stages of growth to 

 full size, are innumerable. As the season of the 

 year for spawning arrives, the female fish will be 

 found to contain a very large number of eggs a 



quantity difficult to estimate, but usually averaging 

 6 



