168 How to obtain 11. 
that may still remain, and also any containing “puny embryos.” 
The latter are now easily distinguished from the good eggs, and 
may be detected at a glance even in a moderate light by the 
difference in colour, being much lighter, and the eye spots being 
very much smaller. The whole of the embryo is deficient both 
in growth and stamina, and should such eggs succeed in hatching, 
the fish will never live to grow up. 
Some day, in looking over the eggs, a curious streak will be 
seen amongst them, and on touching it with a feather, it will 
become violently active, and will probably run away, carrying an 
egg, or rather an egg-shell, in front of it, very much as a man 
holds an umbrella in a gale of wind. It is the tail of a young fish, 
which is the first to emerge, and is already ee with the power 
that it is in future destined to exercise should it live :—v7zz., that 
of a propeller. Soon others will follow, and if the temperature of 
the water be raised slightly a general hatching will take place, and 
all the eggs of that particular lot may be hatched off at once. 
Some unfortunates emerge head first, and unless helped a little, 
by means of a feather or a camel’s-hair pencil, they will probably 
suffocate and die. There are more of these cases amongst some 
lots of eggs than others, notably amongst char, and the manager 
has sometimes saved the lives of several hundreds of these, by 
giving them a little attention in the way already alluded to. It is 
easier to help the little fish to escape from their prisons than to 
pick them out dead afterwards, with all the accompanying dédris 
of burst yolk sacs, etc. It must be done one way or the other. 
When the eggs are hatching or have hatched, a dipping tube 
will be found a very useful instrument for removing little bits of 
débris that are sure to occur in the hatching boxes. A plain 
straight tube with a bulb is very useful for the purpose (see Fig. 
17), or indeed even a plain straight one (Fig. 16) about three- 
eights of an inch in diameter. Some persons preter a bent tube 
(as Fig. 18), and some use a tube that is provided with a cup and 
indiarubber drum (as Fig. 19). This one is used by pressing the 
drum slightly by means of the finger, before putting into the 
water, and, on letting go, the object over which the tube is 
placed is drawn into it, or is held at the mouth by atmospheric 
pressure. The position of the hand (see 16) in the diagram will 
