44 FISH OULTUEE. 



use a homely proverb, it is as ■well to be "on the 

 right side of the hedge," and we may add, with a 

 comfortable margin between us and the ditch. 

 Calculate the worst that you think can befall, leave 

 a little margin for something a little worse, which 

 you may not foresee, and you may sleep in peace. 



Now, I have seen it stated, and by a gentleman 

 who is supposed to be an authority on such matters, 

 that the same stream of water can be carried on 

 from tray to tray, ad, itifinitwm, and will hatch any 

 quantity of ova it may be required to put under it. 

 He neglected, however, one rather vital condition in 

 forgetting to add, provided it be only large enough. 

 This, however, resolves itself very much into the old 

 joke of How many cows-taUs will reach the moon ? 

 One, if it is long enough. The fact is this, if you 

 drive a stream of more than reasonable bulk through 

 ordinary trays, you drive the ova about all over the 

 trays in heaps, causing eddies and whirls, and keep- 

 ing the wretched eggs in a perpetual turmoil, where- 

 by a vast number of them come to an untimely end, 

 as eggs, and many more as weakly, stunted, and 

 deformed bantlings. If the stream is so strong as 

 to disturb the ova in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of the fall, you may most beneficially break that 

 fall by placing a bent strip of perforated zinc under 



