1 16 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



with the milt, but it will do harm to move them too 

 soon. Some authorities say that thirty minutes is long 

 enough to leave them, some say twenty minutes, and 

 one late authority says one minute.* I should rather 

 leave them together forty-five minutes than less. It 

 depends, however, very much on the temperature of 

 the water, the adhesive period lengthening as the 

 temperature decreases. You are more likely to err 

 on the safe side by keeping them too long together, 

 than by not keeping them long enough. 



5. Rinse thoroughly. The eggs should be thor- 

 oughly rinsed before removal to the hatching boxes, 

 for the effete milt clinging to them eventually putrefies 

 and kills the eggs if left on them. They should 

 therefore be rinsed till the water in the pan is per- 

 fectly clear. Some authorities recommend washing 

 the eggs when first taken from the fish, to get rid of 

 the mucus enveloping them, which is thought unfa- 

 vorable to impregnation. There is no sort of sense 

 in this. 



6. Practise to acquire dexterity in handling the fish. 

 Time is so valuable in impregnating eggs, that it is 

 worth while .to practise, as in any accomplishment, 

 for dexterity. Dexterity, when acquired, saves time at 

 the very moment when time is the most precious, and 

 often secures the impregnation of eggs which would 



* Mr. Samuel Wilmot, of Newcastle, Ontario, Canada, said, 

 at the meeting of the American Fish Culturists' Association at 

 New York, in 1877, that he thought the impregnation of the egg 

 was instantaneous, and in proof of this he stated that he had 

 met with excellent results from placing the eggs in the hatching 

 troughs as soon as they were mingled with the milt. 



