42 TPIE NATURAL HISTORY AND HABITS 



days, as the eggs of the female and the sperraa of the 

 male become in some sooner and in others later ripe. 

 Trouts meet in great numbers, in rivulets, in the 

 before-mentioned months, and such as are ready for 

 spawning, fix upon a place where there is large 

 gravel, and where the water has a quick current : 

 there they rush, and rub their bellies against the 

 stony bottom, and so violent that they often make 

 great holes, and by means of this motion both female 

 and male get rid of their spawn and sperma. 



" As a single drop of sperma contains great num- 

 bers of animalculae, sufficient to animate hundreds of 

 eggs, and as the water is loaded at this time with the 

 sperma, it is no wonder that almost every egg be- 

 comes a fish. Every egg or spawn in the female 

 comes to its perfection and ripeness at the same time 

 and day. But it is not so with the sperma of the 

 male, for the sperma or white roe lies like a solid 

 substance divided into two parts in its body close to 

 the back, and grows gradually liquid, and dissolves 

 itself into a creamy fluid, beginning at the lowest 

 part, r and discharges about the sixth part of each 

 division every day, so that within eight days all the 

 sperma becomes liquid and runs off. 



Section IV. 



" 1st. To breed young trout according to this in- 

 vention, you must have some trout taken out of the 

 rivulet in December and January, when they gather 

 together to spawn, as in some rivulets their spawn 

 becomes later ripe. You may in the latter end of 

 January let part of the water ; by stemming the water 

 above that you may take as many out as you want : 

 if, after stroking their bellies with the fingers, some 

 spawn or sperma goes off, it is a sign that both are 



