SMALL HATCHING APPARATUS. 89 



Teported as being caught. The smolts produced from the hatching 

 of 1858 left the pond in April. 1859, and 506 of them were 

 marked. The fifth spawning, from 15 th November to 13th 

 December 1859, produced 250,000 ova, which were hatched in 

 April 1860. Of the smolts that left in 1860, 670 were marked, 

 and a good many of them were reported as having been caught 

 on their return from the sea. The smolts of the hatching of 

 1860 left the pond in May 1861, but none of them were marised. 

 The number of eggs deposited in the breeding-boxes in the 

 spawning season of 1862 (November and December) was about 

 250,000 ; but in 1863 not more than 80,000 ova could be 

 obtained in consequence of the unfavourable state of the river 

 for capturing gravid salmon. During the last nine years the 

 hatching has been continued as usual, about half-a-mUlion 

 €ggs being now manipulated every season ; but, considering the 

 size of the river Tay, which has a water basin of 2250 square 

 mUes, four times that number of fish might be advantageously 

 thrown into the water. Peter Marshall has proved a most able 

 pisciculturist. The loss of eggs under his management forms an 

 almost infinitesimal proportion of the total quantities hatched 

 at Stormontfield. The pisciculture of salmon and other fresh- 

 water fishes is not now a novelty in the United Kiagdom ; many 

 experiments in salmon and trout breeding having been instituted, 

 with more or less success, both in Ireland and England. These 

 have been so firequently detailed by the newspapers of the day, 

 as to render it unnecessary to chronicle them here : they are all 

 more or less an imitation of what is done every season at the 

 Stromontfield breeding boxes. 



In order that gentlemen who have a bit of running water on 

 their property may try the experiment of artificial breeding, I 

 give a drawing of an apparatus invented by M. Coste suitable 

 for hatching out a few thousand eggs — it could be set up in a 

 garden or be placed in any convenient outhouse. I may state 

 that I am able to hatch salmon-eggs in the saucer of a fiower- 

 pot ; it is placed on a shelf over a fixed wash-hand basin, and a 

 small flow of water regulated by a stopcock falls into it. The 

 vessel is filled with small stones and bits of broken china, and 

 answers admirably. Out of a batch of about two hundred eggs 

 brought from Stormontfield, only fifteen were found to have 

 turned opaque in the first five weeks. Eggs hatched in this 

 homely way are very serviceable, as one can examine them day 

 by day, and note how they progress, and in due time observe the 



