CPIAPTER II 



THE HATCHING AND PEOPAGATION OF FISH 



Trout egg ready to hatch. 



Almost everything material 

 is the result of a very small be- 

 ginning, and especially is this 

 true of fish. Their beginning 

 is in an egg, and in nearly all 

 cases a particularly small egg — 

 so small, in fact, that usually 

 ten or twelve will cover a space 

 only one inch long. There is absolutely no form 

 of life, either of mammals, birds, or reptiles, that 

 ISTature has planned to bring forth its kind so nu- 

 merously as does the tisli. That this was a most 

 wise provision will readily be understood when it is 

 known that the enemies that feed upon the eggs and 

 the fish themselves, through all stages of growtli to 

 full size, are innumeralde. As the season of the 

 year for spawning arrives, the female fish will be 

 found to contain a very large number of cngs— a 

 quantity difficult to estiiuate, hut usually avoragiiig 



