396 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



Afterwards I continued to receive consignments of ova of 

 Salmo ferox, Salmo fontinalis, and of other kinds of trout, from 

 the American and Canadian Government establishments until 

 five years ago, when, under the supervision of my new pisci- 

 culturist, Mr. Walter Silk, who came to me in December, 1876, 

 on the recommendation of Frank Buckland, I had succeeded 

 in rearing so many fish, and in having so many of a large size 

 from which to obtain ova, that my fish-breeding establishment 

 became self-supporting. 



Under the able management of Mr. Silk, who had had 

 several years' experience at a large fish-hatching and rearing 

 establishment in America, improvements were introduced both 

 into the hatching and rearing boxes (these obtained the medal 

 and first prize at the International Fisheries Exhibition, South 

 Kensington, in 1883), and in the feeding of the young fish, 

 so that the Burghley fish-culture establishment has progressed 

 immensely, and, as before mentioned, is quite self-supporting. 

 1 have from sixty to seventy female and twenty male fish, all 

 hatched and reared at Burghley, varying between f lb. and 

 7 lbs. in weight, which are kept in a pond and fed morning 

 and evening through the year, so that the smaller fish are 

 never in danger of being eaten by the larger ones. About 

 the end of October each year the female fish are full of spawn, 

 and ready to deposit their ova, the males being full of milt. 

 The water is run off, so that the trout can be removed with- 

 out injury, the ova is pressed from the females into basins, 

 and then the milt from the male trout into the same basins. 

 The milt and ova are then gently stirred together to impreg- 

 nate the latter. After the ova has settled again at the bottom 

 of the basins, the water is drained off, and the ova is poured 

 out into trays made for the purpose, and taken away to the 

 conservatory at Burgliley to be laid on the zinc trays^ in 

 the hatching-boxes. I may mention that these hatching-boxes 

 are quite different from any I formerly used. They are an 

 invention- of Silk's. Each box is about twenty or twenty-five 

 feet long, and a foot and a half wide. The water enters at 



