54 THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH. 



whether around or upon the box, or within it upon 

 the eggs, forms soon a thick bed, which oftentimes 

 destroys the eggs. I have seen boxes deposited in 

 the streams at Versailles, of which all the holes were 

 so stopped up with a calcareous deposit, that the 

 water could not penetrate them, and when opened, 

 the contents were found to be decomposed. 



Lastly, the difficulty experienced after the young 

 fish are hatched to extricate them from their inac- 

 cessible bed without wounding them, is an obstacle 

 to their transport to the ponds where they need to 

 be placed to mature. 



These inconveniencies have led us to seek modes 

 the employment of which would enable us, when 

 needful, to handle these products with as much facil- 

 ity as we would inert matter. They are so simple, 

 and of such evident utility, that they must be adopted 

 when explained and understood. They can as well 

 be applied to a regular trade as to the experiment 

 of a laboratory, — to an enterprise on the largest scale 

 as well as to the stocking of a pond or rivulet. 



On willow hurdles {jplate 2,~fig. 2 a) or flat baskets, 

 in our hatching streams, we place the fecundated eggs. 

 Their fine meshes form a sieve through which passes 

 the sediment of the running water underneath, but 

 near the surface of which they are placed. In this 

 superficial position, they can be so easily observed 

 that nothing will escape a careful guardian. If he 

 finds the current so strong as to displace and heap 

 them up, he will moderate it. If any hurtful sedi- 



