THE AETIPICIAL INCUBATION OP OVA. 57 



once becomes the case, nothing but the entire re- 

 moval of the taiated gravel, and the substitution of 

 fresh, will stop the mischief, as I have had very 

 good reason to know. For indoor apparatus I think; 

 for the purpose of incubation, there is nothing like 

 the glass grilles, because the stream which can be 

 used for hatching purposes is so small that great 

 cleanliness is required : for if great cleanliness be 

 not enforced, although it is quite possible to scramble 

 through the operations somehow, if you have good 

 luck and a cool season, with a dirty apparatus, yet, 

 with bad luck and a hot or bad season, if anything 

 does go wrong, everything goes wrong, the dangers 

 that wait upon fish-hatching are multiplied tremen- 

 dously, and a grand and inevitable slaughter is the 

 melancholy result. I once heard of an old Puritan 

 whose dictum was regarded with great veneration by 

 his fellows. A chapel was about to be built; two 

 plans were discussed, one plan was for a handsome 

 building in good taste, the other, which the saintly 

 affected most, was not only plain, but was painfully, 

 hideously so. On submitting the plans to the vener- 

 able elder, he heard the arguments, and gave his 

 voice for the handsome building, saying, " There's nae 

 godliness in ugliness." And I say there's no virtue 

 in dirt, so by aU means get rid of it where. you can. 



