102 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



mated the method of the Russian by using a very little 

 water, never claiming over ninety-five per cent for his 

 best work. The result is that dry impregnation, or the 

 method of taking the eggs in dry vessels, has in trout 

 culture wholly superseded the old practice of impreg- 

 nating the eggs in water, among all who have heard 

 of it, the great gain in impregnated eggs being too 

 much of an advantage to be sacrificed. 



For the benefit of those to whom this part of the 

 subject is unfamiliar, I will say that the milt, or 

 seminal fluid, of the male fish consists of innumerable 

 living microscopic organisms, called spermatozoa or 

 zoosperms. These millions of infinitesimal creatures 

 during their brief career in the outer world are endowed 

 with great activity, and jump and plunge about among 

 one another with a motion as ceaseless as it is rapid 

 and vigorous. They appear all the while to be seeking 

 something. At the same time, the eggs, when taken 

 from the fish, exert a constant absorbing power, draw- 

 ing towards them everything in their immediate vicinity. 

 The eggs also possess on their surface a microscopic 

 opening called the micropyle, which is intended for 

 the entrance of the zoosperm. When, therefore, the 

 spermatozoa and the eggs are brought together, the 

 animalculae seek the egg with all their might, and the 

 egg draws them to itself with all its power. The con- 

 sequence is that one (or more ?) of the spermatozoa 

 finds the micropyle of the egg and is drawn into it, 

 and impregnation is the result. 



When the egg has finished its absorbing action, 

 or when the zoosperms have become inert, the power 



