49 



out. The gravel should be well washed before use, and 

 we would even recommend boiling it, to destroy any 

 eggs of insects which may be adhering to it. After the 

 nests are prepared the gravel may be put in, one and 

 one-half inches deep, which will bring it within one-half 

 inch of the top of the cross-piece. 



Implements. — The implements of the fish-culturist are 

 few and simple. A few feathers may be kept on hand to 

 use in spreading the eggs when placing them in the 

 troughs, in collecting them for packing, and moving them 

 in the search after dead eggs. Several plans are in use 

 for removing dead eggs from the trough. Some use a 

 siphon to draw them up ; others bend wire into the shape 

 of a small spoon, or bend an eye upon the wire just large 

 enough to hold the egg. We recommend the use of 

 nippers. These may be made of wire or soice elastic 

 wood like red cedar, bent or cut into the shape of the 

 letter U, elongated to about six inches, and with loops of 

 wire at the ends about the eighth of an inch wide. These 

 will hold the egg without trouble. A small homoepathic 

 phial is used to examine the eggs. The manner of its 

 use is to fill it with water, put in the eggs to be examined, 

 cork it, hold it up. before the window in a horizontal 

 position, and with your microscope look v/p through the 

 side of the phial. This brings the egg which lies at the 

 bottom of the glass within the focus of the microscope, 

 and the water does not distort its shape. This seems to 

 be a very simple thing, and hardly worth telling but of 

 the hundreds who have tried to examine eggs in our 

 hatching house, not a half dozen got it right until told 

 how to do it. The microscope need not be very strong ; 

 one magnifying eight or ten diameters is amply suflBcient. 

 A small net will be of use in removing the young fish 



