170 THE TROUT 



the significance of these figures comes to be con- 

 sidered it will be seen that the trout stands at a dis- 

 advantage in the matter of reproduction. 



But if birds of many different kinds with only 

 four or five eggs apiece continue plentiful, how is it, 

 one may ask, that trout with upwards of a thousand 

 eggs each are not able to keep up their numbers with- 

 out man's assistance ? In other words, where does 

 the utility of the fish-culturist's art come in ? This is 

 a very pertinent question. Therefore on the journey 

 home with our precious burden of fertilised trout ova, 

 let us pause to consider what would have befallen 

 them had they been deposited by the parent fish 

 in the gravelly recesses of the natural spawning- 

 bed. 



As we have already seen, a large proportion would 

 have perished for want of being vitalised. But what 

 of the remainder ? Many being ineffectually caught 

 by the gravel are washed away by the current. 

 Numbers too are buried alive under heaps of mud and 

 debris brought down by floods. The waters of the 

 shallow tributaries sometimes recede leaving the nests 

 high and dry, with the inevitable result. In salmon 

 rivers a very severe frost has been known to affect the 

 spawning-beds and to destroy the whole of one year's 

 crop of eggs, and I have little doubt that to some 



