THE NEW AET 01" BREEDING FISH. 53 



CHAPTEE SECOND. 



HATCHING APPAEATUS. 



A CENTURY ago Jacobi, author of the memoir pwh- 

 lished by Count de Groldstein, recommended the 

 spreading of the fecundated eggs among the pebbles 

 of the gravelly bed of long -wooden, hatching boxes, 

 grated at the ends, in imitation of the natural me- 

 thod of spawning practised by the females fish. With 

 this method he had complete success, and its applica- 

 tion is still continued in Hanover, where it has so 

 lowered the price of trout as to make that fish a very 

 common article of food. This method is the one 

 which has now been put in practice in France by the 

 two fishermen of Bresse, who, instead of long boxes 

 grated at the ends, have used circular ones riddled 

 with small holes. But modes which seem suitable 

 for experiments on a small scale, or in the beginning, 

 are found inapplicable or inconvenient for a large and 

 well organized trade. Some of these inconveniences 

 are so striking, that I need only name them to show 

 the necessity of recourse to other modes. 



In the first place, the dispersion of the eggs 

 among the gravel and shutting them up tightly in 

 boxes, prevents that care which could be given to 

 them if they were always accessible. 



Next, the sediment deposited by the water, 



