OF THE SALMON. 53 



to mingle with it. I then removed the impregnated 

 ova, in a copper-wire gauze bag, in which some fine 

 gravel had been placed, to a little stream connected 

 with my experimental ponds. The temperature of 

 the water was at this time 47, but during the winter 

 it ranged a few degrees lower. By the fortieth day 

 after impregnation the embryo fish was visible to the 

 naked eye, and on the 14th January, 1840, seventy ~ 

 jive days after impregnation, the fish were excluded 

 from the egg." 



There is here a very great difference in the time 

 of hatching. Mr. Jacobi's trout were hatched in 

 thirty-jive days, and Mr. Shaw's took seventy-jive. 

 At the time Mr. Jacobi tried his experiments, perhaps 

 a hundred years ago, his views might have been right, 

 but I have not a shadow of doubt in the correctness 

 of Mr. Shaw's statements, and I only make these 

 observations to show artificial breeders that they need 

 not be disappointed although they have the ova 140 

 days unhatched in place of thirty-five. 



We have also accounts of artificial breeding of 

 fishes in China, but these accounts are so imperfect, 

 that from these we can gather no information that 

 can be useful in the present time. It is said they 

 gather the seed in large tubes or vessels in some 

 of the large rivers in China, and sell it to merchants, 

 who carry it into the provinces, where they sell it 

 to those who have rivers and ponds which they wish 

 to re -stock; and that the ancient Romans also bred 

 fish by procuring the ova, and sowing in the rivers as 

 we sow corn. I have no confidence to place in either 

 of these accounts, and I would advise all artificial 

 breeders to be of the same mind ; for these statements 

 are so ridiculous, that it is only those who have not 

 the most distant idea of the habits of salmon, that 

 will believe one jot of them. Who could believe 



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