Collecting the Ova. 



"During our walk there a regular winter's 

 storm came on ; the telegraph wires sung out 

 their music as if laughing at us, and away 

 far in the north was a great jet-black, angry- 

 looking cloud, showing that a heavy storm 

 was gathering upon the moors and great hills 

 that separate England from Scotland. We 

 had no time to lose, as we knew the rain from 

 this cloud would soon send North Tyne down 

 in a heavy spate. Turning off the highway, 

 we passed down a hill to the river bank, and 

 then the cart with the nets, etc., went across 

 the river, and I waded over — not very pleasant 

 work in a rapid, rising river, with great, roll- 

 ing, slippery boulders under one's feet. How- 

 ever, we got to the island, and determined to 

 fish the stream on the other side of it. There 

 was great difficulty in getting tbe net across, 

 the stream was so rapid. At last Harbottle 

 and six men got her over, and then, beginning 

 some 60 yards above, the trammel was run 

 down-stream to her. Great was the excite- 

 ment when we quickly perceived, from the 

 bobbing of the corks, that the fish on the 

 spawning bed were ' masked in the trammel. 

 She's a beautiful net is my trammel, though 



