74 PACKING OF FISH EGGS. 



kept. The usual way of ascertaining the quantity is by means 

 of a little stamped measure, which varies according to the 

 particular fish-eggs to be counted. The ova are watched with 

 great care so long as they remain in the boxes at Huningue, and 

 any dust is removed by means of a fine camel-hair brush, and 

 from day to day all the eggs that become addled are removed. 

 The applications to the authorities at Huningue for eggs, both 

 from individuals and associations, are always a great deal more 



ARTIFICIAL MODE OF SPAWNING. 



numerous than can be supplied ; and before second applications 

 from the same people can be entertained, it is necessary for 

 them to give a detailed account of how their former efibrts 

 succeeded. The eggs, when sent away, are nicely packed in 

 boxes among wet moss, and they sufier very little injury if there 

 be no delay in the transit. 



" How about the streams from which the eggs are brought 1" 

 I asked. " Does this robbery of the spawn not injure them 1 " 



" Oh, no ; we find that it makes no difiference whatever. 

 The fish are so enormously fecund that the eggs can be got in 

 any quantity, and no difference be felt in the parent waters ; 

 what we obtain here are a mere percentage of the grand totals 

 deposited by the fish." 



Of course, as the operations are pursued over a large district 

 of two countries, no immediate difference wiU be felt ; but how 

 if these Huningue eoaploratews go on for years taking away tens 

 of thouands of eggs ? WiU not that ultimately prove a ca,se of 

 robbing Peter to pay Paul ? I know full well that all kinds of 

 fish are enormously prolific, and the reader would see from the 

 figures given in a former section that it is so ; but suppose a 

 river, with the breeding power of the Tay, was annually robbed 

 of a few million eggs, the result must some day be a slight dif- 



