32 THE NATURAL HISTORY AND HABITS 



number of females, as is done in some of the new arti- 

 ficial breeding establishments. The ova of a number 

 of fish may be sufficiently impregnated by the milt of 

 one male ; but when we see fish in neat pairs in natural 

 spawning, and if a pair be undisturbed during that 

 process, the seed of the one is completely exhausted, 

 as well as that of the other, in that case, I am inclined 

 to think that the nearer nature we come in all arti- 

 ficial imitations the better, especially when the fact is 

 known that an impregnated grain produces nothing. 

 However, when we got the seed collected and mixed 

 after the manner we see done in rivers by the fish, I 

 set about 



DEPOSITING IT IN THE ARTIFICIAL PONDS. 



I got a number of copper wire baskets made, with 

 covers of the same material. Into these, mixed with 

 suitable gravel, I placed portions of the seed, and sunk 

 the baskets among the gravel at the upper end or en- 

 trance of the stream : these I covered over with two 

 inches of gravel. Another portion I deposited among 

 the gravel in the stream, and a third portion I deposited 

 in a still part of the pond where there was no stream, 

 which furnished the artificial planting for that season, 

 and of course I eagerly watched the result, and for the 

 appearance of the ova and its progress. We may just 

 state here the account of it we gave in 1848 : " The 

 ova when extracted from salmon in the spawning time 

 are of a pale or light blue colour, and about the size 

 of a small pea. It is composed of a white shell, and 

 a light red yolk, and from the crystalline nature of 

 the shell, the inward parts of the egg are quite per- 

 ceptible, and the yolk easily seen, the shell being full 

 of pores or small holes scarcely discernible to the 

 naked eye, which at the time of deposition fully pre- 



