AKTIFICIAL BREEDING OF SALMON. 195 



fish placed itself alongside of the female in such a 

 position that its head reached to about the middle of 

 the body of the latter. He further noticed, that whilst 

 the process of discharging the ova was going on, the 

 female turned somewhat on her side with a quivering 

 sort of motion, and that the male emitted his milt 

 simultaneously. It therefore occurred to him that by 

 pressing the spawn out of the female, and the milt 

 from the male at the same time, in water, he would 

 obtain a quantity of fructified eggs, which, by being 

 placed in convenient places in brooks, would in due 

 time bring forth fish. No sooner conceived than exe- 

 cuted. He threw out his nets and caught a male and 

 a female fish ready to spawn. His wife took the one 

 and he the other, and they squeezed their contents 

 out into a bowl of clean water. He then took the eggs 

 and placed them in a sheltered place in a stream where 

 there were previously no trout. The following summer 

 he was rejoiced to see that it swarmed with fish. Con- 

 vinced, therefore, of the success of his plan, he con- 

 structed for himself a breeding-box close to his house ; 

 and notwithstanding the jeers and scoffs of his neigh- 

 bours, who thought it impious, to say the least, in 

 interfering and meddling with things which belonged 

 to Nature alone, continued to breed fish every autumn. 

 Such was the first attempt at hatching ova in Norway ! 

 I will now proceed to give a brief account of the 



