50 THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH. 



till it has been thus first charged with fecundating 

 particles. The medium being thus prepared before- 

 hand, the eggs reach it in a condition of peculiar apti- 

 tude for absorption, which they possess in the highest 

 degree the first moment of their immersion. This 

 mode then seems to offer the greater chance of suc- 

 cess. I do not mean to assert that eggs laid in the 

 water some time before the milt is brought in con- 

 tact with them, lose the power of receiving its influ- 

 ence. For, many times, on the Rhine, I have had 

 occasion to observe that those of the salmon and 

 trout that had been expressed into the water nearly 

 two hours before a male could be caught, still pre- 

 served their aptitude for fecundation. But still it is 

 an unfavorable condition, in which, if possible, they 

 should not be placed ; above all, when the eggs of 

 other species are treated, which have not, like the 

 salmon and trout, a protecting and resisting envel- 

 ope, but which are more sensitive to the influence of 

 the exterior world. 



Another mode of treating artificial fecundation, 

 and one more nearly resembling nature's processes, is 

 to spread the eggs on a sieve fitted in a channel or 

 trough of wood or stone, through which runs a cur- 

 rent from a water pipe, under the spout of which the 

 end of the trough is placed, and then to pour at 

 this point the spermatized water, and leave to the 

 running current the care of carrying the vivifying 

 particles to the eggs ; but to operate in this way re- 

 quires an apparatus not always at hand, and perbapa 



