CHAPTER II. 

 HATCHING THE EGGS. 



THE eggs being taken and laid down in the 

 troughs, the next thing is to hatch them. This 

 is a long and slow process, and coming, as it does, in 

 the coldest season of the year, has, in the colder lati- 

 tudes of this country, some hardships connected with 

 it. For instance, the daily examination of the eggs in 

 a house hatching a quarter or a half million is some- 

 times a long task of almost still work, usually in a 

 room so large and damp that the stove has no effect 

 on its general temperature ; and when the mercury is 

 at zero or 15 below it, one can imagine what exposure 

 this work in ice and water must be. 



On the other hand, hatching the eggs is the very 

 simplest and surest of all the branches of trout breed- 

 ing. Any one can hatch the eggs with the knowledge 

 now furnished from past experience, by simply follow- 

 ing directions. It requires no skill or proficiency. It 

 is mere clock-work routine when the hatching appara- 

 tus is properly prepared. When you consider that the 

 eggs differ from the fish in these two points, namely, 

 that they cannot move of themselves, and that they 

 require no nourishment, you perceive at once how 

 much the care of them must be simplified in conse- 



