166 THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH. 



eggs are of course devoured, but the remainder find 

 their way into crannies, and under stones inaccessible 

 to an enemy. From the slow manner in which 

 the salmon spawns, it might be thought on the first 

 view of the subject that a large portion of the eggs 

 in the body of the fish were in an immature 

 state ; but such is not the fact. [It is the fact in 

 this country, and therefore a female salmon of large 

 size is obliged to continue the operation of spawning 

 for several days. The ova next the throat are imma- 

 ture, and cannot be expelled except by violent pres- 

 sure. Eepeated experiments have proved that they 

 will not absorb the milt, and therefore cannot be im- 

 pregnated. Mr. Keiller's experiment, proving the 

 contrary, is very extraordinary. I am bound to be- 

 lieve it, but cannot account for it. Can you, " Sal- 

 mo" and " Y ? "] To prove this, Mr. Keiller once 

 took the roe in a mass from the belly of a salmon 

 recently captured, divided it transversely into three 

 equal parts, and applied to each the needful quantity 

 of milt. [What, without separating the ova ?] In 

 due time the several portions produced fry, though 

 it is true that the portion taken from the upper part 

 of the beUy when the eggs were of a somewhat less 

 size, was less productive than the other two. [To 

 be sure it was, because the unproductive ova were 



immature.] At the tail of a 



spawning ground the work of a single salmon — or at 

 all events never occupied by more than one at a time 

 — there is, towards the close of the season, an im- 



