474 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



power of receiving its influence. For, many times, on the 

 Rhine, I have had occasion to observe that those of the Sal- 

 mon and Trout that had been expressed into the water 

 nearly two hours before a male could be caught, still pre- 

 served their aptitude for fecundation. But still it is an 

 unfavorable condition, in which, if possible, they should not 

 be placed; above all, when the eggs of other species are 

 treated, which have not, like the Salmon and Trout, a pro- 

 tecting and resisting envelope, but which are more sensitive 

 to the influence of the exterior world. 



"Another mode of treating artificial fecundation, and one 

 more nearly resembling nature's processes, is to spread the 

 eggs on a sieve fitted in a channel or trough of wood or stone, 

 through which runs a current from a water-pipe, under tha 

 spout of which the end of the trough is placed, and then to 

 poui at this point the spermatized water, and leave to the 

 running current the care of carrying the vivifying particles 

 to the eggs ; but to operate in this way requires an apparatus 

 not always at hand, and perhaps only to be found in an 

 establishment designed for the business. For general use and 

 ready application I' recommend, therefore, the process de- 

 scribed at the commencement of this chapter. 



" The milt of a single male will suffice to fecundate the 

 eggs of a large number of females, provided he is fed while 

 in the pond or tank, and that care is taken not to take him 

 from the brook and shut him up there until his milt is fully 

 matured. Of this fact the author of the memoir published by 

 the Count de Goldstein was aware, and I have often had 

 occasion to verify it while on board the boat of the fisherman 

 Glasser, at Bale, where the male Salmon and Trout emptied 

 one day to fecundate the eggs destined for the government 

 establishment at Hhningen, are found gorged the next, and 

 so on every day, for the five or six during which their organs 



