THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH. 75 



and to tie the whole together or enclose them in a 

 large basket. 



Placed in layers alternately with this wet sand, 

 eggs of most kinds of the salmon family, that is to 

 say of the sorts with shells of a certain toughness, 

 can be perfectly preserved for many days, and even 

 during a month, if the box is kept at a somewhat 

 low temperature. This is proved by the following 

 facts. Salmon and trout eggs, fecundated artificially, 

 were put by Messrs. Berthot and Detzem, at the end 

 of December, 1851, in a fir box filled with wet sand. 

 The box was then /or nearly two months kept in a 

 cold room, but in which the temperature was never 

 so low as freezing point. After the lapse of that 

 time, the eggs were sent to me from Mulhouse. Be- 

 fore taking them out I dipped the. box in water, so 

 that the sand it contained might be gradually mois- 

 tened throughout ; for had I neglected this precaution 

 they would have perished, as did others not thus 

 treated. The box being then opened, I found them 

 a little withered or wrinkled ; but, placed in the 

 hatching apparatus they soon retook their spherical 

 form, and a large number of them gave birth to 

 young fish. Doubtless there were many eggs that 

 did not hatch ; but, under like circumstances, when 

 eggs are sent to a distant place to propagate a foreign 

 species, the number that can be hatched, however 

 limited, will still, as in this instance, suffice for the 

 purpose. 



This long sequestration in a box will not answer 



