276 THE ANGLER-NATURALIST. 



The other species of fish are also multiplying under the 

 judicious management of the Society, to which the thanks 

 and cooperation of all anglers are due. 



At Stormontfield also, near Perth, the experiment of 

 hatching and rearing the Salmon has proved eminently 

 successful; for whilst between 1828 and 1853 the rental 

 of the Tay Fisheries gradually declined from ^614,574 in 

 the former, to £7953 5s. in the latter year, since the 

 commencement of the artificial breeding in 1853 it lias 

 been steadily increasing up to the present time, when it 

 surpasses that of 1828 — almost all the other Scotch fish- 

 ings having fallen ofi^ rather than improved during the 

 same period. The total cost of this breeding-establishment 

 is, Mr. Brown states, about £50 a year. The above figures 

 speak more eloquently than words as to the value of arti- 

 ficial fish-culture — an art which has been known and prac- 

 tised by the Chinese for centuries, amongst whom " fish- 

 seed," as they term it, is a regular article of merchandise. 



To revert to the spawning-beds. 



In from 40 to 60 days after being first deposited in 

 the spawning-bed, the egg begins to show faint signs of 

 animation, and the eye of the embryo fish appears, a 

 scarcely perceptible black speck, gradually increasing in 

 size until the time of hatching — an event which usually 

 occurs in from 90 to 140 days, according to the tempera- 

 ture of the water and forwardness of the spring *. 



* This period is liable to great variations. Tlie usual time in Scot- 



