STORMONTFIELD EXPERIMENT. 103 



forty spawning fish are required to fully stock 

 the Stormontfield boxes. These fish are taken 

 from a ford at Almond Mouth, where we have 

 witnessed many dozens of pairs spawning at the 

 same time; and we are convinced that where too 

 many fish are compelled to spawn on the same 

 ford, for want of water in the river to enable 

 them to ascend, a very large per centage of the 

 spawn is lost. We have again and again seen 

 a pair of fish busy at work, the female dropping 

 her ova, and the male shedding his milt the 

 female alone covering them with the gravel, by 

 digging into the upper part of the hole she had 

 made, allowing the stream to carry down the 

 gravel. This operation takes some time to per- 

 form; but we have more than once observed that, 

 some hours afterwards, another pair of fish were 

 as busy digging away in the same spot at a simi- 

 lar operation. Now there can be no doubt but 

 that the ova deposited by the first fish was nearly 

 all destroyed by the second pair working on the 

 same ground for we saw numbers of trouts and 

 whitlings (the grilse of the salmo trutta, or sea 

 trout) busily engaged devouring the spawn as 

 it was turned up. When fish are kept from 

 running up the river, either by late fishing, or 



