24 



water probably washing away the milt of the male before 

 the sperms could enter the eggs. • Mr. Livingston Stone 

 says that in digging up some spawn of the California 

 salmon, deposited by the parents in the natural manner, 

 in the McOloud river, he found only eight per cent, 

 vitalized. 



When the little embryo ot piscatory life has manfully 

 braved these perils and has escaped from his shell, he is 

 still by no means through his troubles. In the first place, 

 his physical conformation is much against him ; he is 

 encumbered by a belly which would do' credit to any 

 alderman. In fact, the belly is the larger part of him, 

 and, unlike that of his political prototype this impedi- 

 ment does not represent so many fat capons and good 

 dinners which have been .duly eaten and enjoyed, but 

 represents a certain number of dinners for the future. 

 For almost thirty days after birth the salmon or trout 

 eats nothing but is sustained by the absorption of this 

 stomach or what is more accurately termed the umbili- 

 cal sac. All this while as may be readily understood, 

 he is awkward and hampered in his movements, an easy 

 prey to any hungry enemy. Appreciating his position 

 he strives to hide himself during this period ; he crawls 

 into holes and under stones, and often hides so" effect- 

 ually that when he has been artificially hatched his 

 anxious foster father the breeder, never discovers what 

 has became of him unless his breeding troughs are well 

 made and free from worm holes. But in this, his hour 

 of weakness his enemies never desert him, they stand 

 by him from first to last. At that stage of his develop- 

 ment every miserable shiner, dace and minnow is his 

 master, a very great despair by comparison with his 

 feebleness. Cruelly is the superiority exercised, for 

 mercy does not exist in the watery kingdom. The pre- 



