Ixx • BREEDING. 



Lochleven trout were stripped on the same day in November, 1882, the 

 parents of one being six-year-olds, and of the other seven-year-olds. The 

 eggs were similarly treated, hatched in the same room during January and 

 February, 1883, and turned into two ponds of similar size, each 100 

 feet long, and fed by the same stream. In the upper pond were the 

 progeny of the six-year-old ; in the lower, which received the stream after- 

 passing through the upper pond, those from the seven-year- old. On 

 November 29, 1883, the fry. in the upper appeared to average about 

 2^. in', in length, and in the lower about 3£ in., showing that the offspring 

 from the older parents had developed the most satisfactory results. I 

 selected three of the ' finest fish from each pond ; those from the upper 

 averaged a little over 3 in., while from the lower they were nearly 4 in., 

 or at nine months of age those which were the progeny of seven-year-old 

 parents were nearly a quarter longer than those which were descended 

 from six-year-old parents. In March, 1884, I 'again visited these ponds, 

 and found the foregoing results were being still continued. The ponds 

 were subsequently cleaned out and restocked with young trout, the offspring 

 of parents of the same age, and in August, 1884, there was no perceptible 

 difference in the size of those in the two ponds. If the eggs of older fish 

 (up to a certain age) give larger and quicker growing offspring than do 

 those from younger ones, it shows us that fisheries in which only small 

 parents are left as stock may not improbably suffer a deterioration in 

 • the race, and this, irrespective of food, may be one cause of how fisheries 

 fall off. 



Finally arises the consideration of what benefit to mankind in general 

 are investigations into the breeding of fishes ? Here I shall merely enter 

 upon a few, some being now carried out successfully, some experimentally, 

 and, lastly, some theoretically suggested. In a state of" nature salmon and. 

 trout eggs are subject to destruction from many foes, and it has been 

 computed that although each female is provided with many hundreds of 

 ova, only about one in nineteen of such as are left in the natural redds 

 ever hatches, and only four or five of these out of 30,000 eggs arrive at 

 maturity and are fit for the table; whereas, taking Howietoun as an 

 instance, it is found that from 90 to 95 per cent, hatch in a well-constructed 

 fish cultural establishment, while the loss among the fry is inconsiderable. 

 Irrespective of this the young can be turned into the rivers at times when 

 they would be more able to shift for themselves than if they resided there 

 from their earliest days. Without entering into the reasons, still it is 

 patent to the most casual observer that the interests of the upper riparian 

 proprietors of salmon rivers are not always in agreement with those of the 

 estuaries and lower waters. The former consider the fish are reared in 

 their territory, but that the produce is almost exclusively captured at or 



