THE NEW AKT OF BREEDING PISH. 149 



progeny of which were to form the subject of experi- 

 ment. With the view, therefore, of securing two 

 salmon, male and female, while in the very act of 

 continuing their kind, I provided myself with an 

 iron hoop five feet in diameter, on which I fixed a 

 net of a pretty large mesh, so constructed as to form 

 a bag of nine feet in length by five feet in width. I 

 then attached the hoop and net to the end of a pole 

 nine feet long, thus forming a landing net on a 

 large scale. The weight of the net with its iron 

 hoop being upwards of 71bs. it instantly sunk to the 

 bottom on being thrown into the water. Being thus 

 prepared with all the means of carrying my experi- 

 ment into practice, I. proceeded to the river Nith on 

 the 4th January, 1837, and readily discovered a 

 pair of adult salmon engaged in depositing their 

 spawn. They were in a situation easily accessible, 

 the water being of such a depth as to admit of any 

 net being employed with certain success. Before 

 proceeding to take the fish, I formed a small trench 

 in the Single by the edge of the stream, through 

 which I directed a small stream of water from the 

 river, two inches deep. At the end of this trench I 

 placed an earthenware basin of considerable size, for 

 the purpose of ultimately receiving the ova. I then, 

 at one and the same instant, enclosed both the fish 

 in the hoop, allowing them to find their way into 

 the bag of the net by the aid of the stream. In 

 capturing these fish, I considered myself fortunate 

 in securing them by one cast of the net, for, in con- 



