114 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



and patience and practice will soon bring that time to 

 pass. To tell quickly and surely whether a fish is ripe, 

 is something that cannot be learned from books. 



There are certain signs, it is true, which usually ac- 

 company ripeness in a female trout, of which the loose- 

 ness of the eggs in the abdomen, after they have left 

 the ovaries, is the surest. There are others also, but 

 the specific signs are all fallible, and what an expert 

 tells by, is not one specified sign or another, but an in- 

 describable ripe look, which is neither color, shape, 

 nor condition of organs, but a something pervading 

 the whole, a tout ensemble, which tells at a glance that 

 the fish is ripe, as in a similar way you tell that a 

 peach or a blackberry is ripe. This you must learn 

 by practice. Books cannot teach it, but practice will. 



Further Directions for Impregnating the Eggs. 



The following additional suggestions may be of ser- 

 vice to the beginner in learning to impregnate trout 

 eggs. 



i. Use eggs that flow easily, and no others. It is true 

 that there will be some spawners which, from an ex- 

 ceptional construction of organs, will not give their 

 spawn readily when ripe ; but in nineteen cases out of 

 twenty, when the eggs come hard they are immature ; 

 and the best rule to observe, at least in beginning, is to 

 take only the eggs which come easily. Avoid all others. 

 If the first half come easily and the balance less so, 

 take the first half and leave the rest. When you 

 perceive the eggs lying in rows under the skin, do not 

 try the fish at all. The ovaries are not open, and she 

 is certainly not ripe. 



