THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH. 9 



and Keiuy to discover their method. Mr. Gehin has 

 detailed them to us, as follows : — 



Messrs. Gehin and Eemy, of the commune of 

 Bresse, in the department of Vosges, were fishermen, 

 living by their calling. Every year at spawning 

 time, they fdt regret at the vast destruction of eggs 

 contained in the female fish they took, and naturally 

 their thoughts turned towards the discovery, if pos- 

 sible, of some mode of preventing the evil. 



As long ago as 1841, they commenced to observe 

 carefully the habits of the trout, and in the month 

 of November of that year, during a full moon, they 

 passed night and day on the bank of a river, never 

 for an instant losing sight of these fish, and watch- 

 ing most intently all their preparations for laying 

 and preserving their eggs. 



The results of their observations were these : — 



The trout come together in a shoal, and choose 

 a current with a gravelly bottom as the best place to 

 lay their eggs. They dig in it a round hole, some- 

 times of the depth of seven inches by three feet in 

 diameter ; they place in the middle of this space, 

 parallel with the current, a line of stones, the size 

 of which varies with the size of the fish. 



The feinale then passes over this line of stones, 

 gliding over, rubbing against or resting upon them. 

 This she does again and again, some twenty or thirty 

 times, till her eggs are all laid in the crevices of the 

 gravel. 



When the female has done this, the male, in 

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