OF THE SALMON. 31 



at about twelve feet distant the one from the other, 

 and the same stream of water ran through and supplied 

 the four ponds, after which it fell into the river by an 

 artificial fall; so that no fish from the river could 

 enter into the artificial stream. The ponds were also 

 closely grated at the lower or outlet end, so as to 

 prevent the fry from escaping from the ponds until 

 required to do so ; although at a certain age, I allowed 

 them to occupy that part of the stream that con- 

 nected the one pond with the other, and on a sunny 

 day they seemed much pleased in that shallow 

 stream. I also roofed over the ponds with wicker- 

 work, to prevent the wild fowl or any other de- 

 structive vermin from getting at the young fish ; 

 and as soon as the ponds were perfectly ready, and 

 the water running through them for some time, I 

 set about 



COLLECTING THE SPAWN. 



This was done by dragging a net over the fords and 

 spawning beds, at the time the fish were busy at their 

 spawning operations, whereby we brought them ashore 

 in numbers. "We had a can with a little fine gravel 

 and water ready for the reception of the seed ; as soon 

 as I got the fish ashore with my left hand, I held up 

 a female fish by the gills, and by a gentle pressure 

 with the fingers and thumb of the other hand down 

 the belly of the fish easily caused the emission of all 

 the ripe ova into the can. I repeated the same oper- 

 ation with a male fish, and as soon as we got the milt 

 of that fish into the same can with the ova, I with the 

 hand mixed the ova, milt, gravel, and water all together. 

 This process I continued until I got the quantity of 

 impregnated seed required, but never in any case trust- 

 ing to the milt of one male impregnating the ova of a 



