THE NEW AET OF BREEDING FISH. 91 



there brought up. The following years he put in 

 practice the same processes on the magnificent do- 

 main of the Duke of Devonshire, at Chatsworth ; 

 then for Mr. Gurnie, at Carsalton ; and Mr. Hilbert, 

 at Chatford ; finally, the Angler's Club put under 

 his charge the important fishing-ground of Ansval- 

 Magna, in the county of Hertford, and M. Boccius 

 assured me that he had already artificially hatched 

 there at least 2,000,000 trout. He has pub- 

 lished a book upon his method of stocking streams, 

 and it seems that a society is about to be formed, 

 under the patronage of Sir H. Labouchere, with a 

 view of attempting to stock the Thames with salmon. 



The process employed by G6hin and Eemy is 

 very simple and easily practised ; it hardly differs 

 from that adopted by Boccius, and equally resem- 

 bles the method described by Jacobi, nearly a 

 century ago. 



Trout-breeding takes place in December, and in 

 order to have eggs for artificial hatching, it suffices 

 to press lightly, before and behind, the abdomen of 

 a female fish ready to hatch ; and her eggs in falling 

 should be caught in a vessel with water, and after- 

 wards sjjrinkled with milt obtained in the same 

 manner and diluted. 



If the eggs have not arrived at their term when 

 operations are commenced, they will only be run out 

 with a strong pressure, and in such case the fish 

 should be left in a preserve during some days, before 

 this forced birth is adopted, for neither the eggs nor 



