142 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



arise from any unfavorable change, but from the 

 embryo thickening and darkening in the shell. This 

 development and the filling up of the shell with 

 the embryo proceeds rapidly till about the same 

 time has elapsed that was required for the eye-spots 

 to appear, when the whole figure of the fish, thick 

 and black and fully formed, will be seen, usually 

 lying quiet and motionless, but occasionally stirring 

 with a little spasmodic leap or wriggle. The time of 

 their release is now near at hand, and you may expect 

 to find a newly hatched trout or two in your earlier 

 hatching boxes any day.* 



An inexperienced person might suppose that all 

 trout eggs will produce fish that are just alike when 

 hatched. But this is very far from the fact. There 

 is just as much difference in a brood of newly hatched 

 trout as there is between the brawniest and puniest 

 of a litter of pigs or brood of chickens. Some will 

 be large, strong, and full of vigor ; others will be 

 small, weak, and inactive. It is a desirable thing to 

 be able to know how to tell a lot of eggs that will 

 produce good fish from a lot that will produce poor 

 fish, and it is very easy to learn. If the embryo in 

 the egg is seen to be dark, firm, thick, clearly defined, 



* As you will probably want to procure specimens of eggs 

 and fish at different stages of growth, it is a good plan to 

 have a set of homoepathic phials in readiness, and some alcohol. 

 One part alcohol to three parts water is a good preserving 

 mixture at this stage. This* mixture will congeal, but will not 

 expand in congealing sufficiently to burst the bottles. More 

 alcohol with the water will destroy the delicate tissue of the 

 embryo. 



