THE SALMON FAMILY 75 
temperature of ordinary spring water during winter, viz. 
48° Fahrenheit, would hatch in, say, fifty-three days, 
may be retarded from hatching for one hundred and 
thirty days by being placed in a cold chamber or packed 
on ice. 
The actual procedure in collecting the eggs is as 
follows :— 
Permission having been obtained from the owners 
and conservators of a river, men and gear are sent to 
the spot to be in readiness for the run of fish. The gear 
consists of nets, retaining cages, spawning apparatus and 
travelling cans for the eggs, and I might add there is also 
required patience, endurance, and immunity from being 
upset by trifles. 
The men wait for the flood which will bring the 
salmon from the sea. At last it comes; for several days 
the river is a raging torrent, and netting is impossible 
until the water subsides. During this period of inac- 
tivity, the sight of the fish leaping one after another into 
the various pools, as they ascend the river, may gladden 
the heart of the collector, and he can start his work with 
the certainty that some hundreds of fish are gathered 
together in the field of capture. Should the flood con- 
tinue, however, there is always the possibility that the 
fish will run clean through the pools in which the collector 
is entitled to net. When the river subsides, the water is 
eagerly scanned. Here and there huge dorsal fins appear 
above the surface where the broken water rushes over 
a shallow, or long, red-brown shadows may be seen 
