THE ARTIFICUL INCUBATION OF OVA. 67 



if possible, be kept moving, to confuse the fish, and 

 should be worked as quickly as possible coincident 

 with the lead line being kept on the bottom, a con- 

 dition which it is needless to say is absolutely 

 necessary. 



There is a very handy net called a "shoe net," 

 which is sometimes used in shallow rivers and 

 ditches, up which the fish will work to spawn. It 

 consists of a longish bag set upon a bow of arched 

 ash strung with stout string, and some four or five 

 feet in width. To this is a long handle, so that the 

 net has somewhat the appearance of a common 

 shrimp poke-net. If a fish is seen to dart into a 

 weed in shallow water the mouth of the net is held 

 at the tail of the weed, and the fish is trodden out. 

 into it. 



I mention these points because it has often been 

 my lot, as no doubt it has that of others, to reach 

 the river I desired to net, perhaps, after a long 

 and expensive journey, with a net quite unfit for 

 it, and possibly to lose a whole day in fruitless 

 endeavours to net the river, albeit the same was full 

 of spawning fish. 



I have, in the frontispiece, shown how to hold a 

 trout or greyling when taking the spawn from it ; a 

 large fish, however, will, like the salmon, often need 

 f2 



