OF THE SALMON. 37 



placed it where the ova, gravel, and water got frozen 

 into a solid lump. I allowed it to remain there for 

 three days, and then put it back to its former stream, 

 and at hatching time I found that the only injury 

 that the ova received during its frozen state was, 

 that they were three days longer in hatching than the 

 baskets that remained all the time in the stream. All 

 these experiments we have tried repeatedly, and at 

 all times have found them to produce the same results. 

 Artificial breeding of fish has now become general 

 in some rivers in Britain, as well as in France ; but 

 how far that system of producing fish will go to in- 

 crease the numbers, or to keep up a national supply, 

 has yet to be seen, for it is only yet on paper. How- 

 ever, with suitable laws and justice to salmon rivers, 

 artificial breeding might, in course of time, become 

 a supplimentary fund to natural breeding ; but, in the 

 present state of the laws, I beg to get the benefit of a 

 doubt. 



But, whatever effect artificial breeding may pro- 

 duce on the supply of a whole river, these experiments 

 have long ago had their effects if rightly followed out ; 

 for what we wrote in 1848 are facts, viz., " The 

 spawn of salmon is transferable, and can be carried 

 from one river to another with the most certain re- 

 liance of success, and with no great degree of trouble. 

 Only watch the spawning fords while the process of 

 spawning is going on, and then get hold of a pair 

 of fish who have actually begun their operations, take 

 them ashore, hold them up by the head with one hand, 

 and, with a slight pressure with the other hand over 

 the belly of the fish, you will cause them to produce 

 the whole ripe seed at once, which can be received 

 into a can or other vessel, among a little gravel and 

 water. This process should be gone through with 

 the female first, and then with the male, so that the 



