FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 25 1 



may be strong enough to carry away some of the milt before the eggs touch it, or 

 for other reasons the contact may be very imperfect, although the depression in the 

 gravel acts after the manner of an eddy in the water once eggs and milt drop below 

 its edges, and it is for these reasons that the impregnation of the eggs is imperfect 

 and the percentage low in natural impregnation. 



The eggs being deposited in the gravel, fertilized and unfertilized alike, are 

 covered over by the fish and left for nature to work its will. Trout spawn from 

 October to January, and even later in some waters, and after one pair of trout have 

 selected a spawning place, prepared a bed and deposited eggs, an operation which 

 may take several days to complete, another pair spawning later may select the same 

 place and uncover the eggs in preparing a new bed. The new comers may eat the 

 eggs of their predecessors before the female is ready to deposit her own ova, but 

 should the original bed remain unmolested by other trout, eels may burrow into the 

 gravel of the bed and destroy the eggs ; insect larvae may feed upon them ; drouth 

 may come and the water recede uncovering them and exposing them to frost and 

 destruction; floods may visit the stream, bringing down mud and drift covering the 

 beds and burying the eggs beyond hope of hatching at the appointed time ; fungus, 

 a parasite always to be dreaded at all stages of fish life, may appear and destroy 

 them, and other casualties may occur to reduce if not to obliterate the entire 

 deposit of eggs. The impregnated eggs that escape the various enemies and 

 adverse conditions always contending against them, may hatch in 45 days or they 

 may hot hatch for 150 days, depending entirely upon the temperature of the water; 

 the colder the water the longer it takes to hatch the eggs. When the embryo trout 

 has broken the shell of the egg and emerges from this envelope that has confined it 

 coiled up, it has a large yolk sac nearly as large as the fish itself, and upon this sac 

 it feeds by absorption for from 20 to 30 days, the time again depending upon the 

 temperature of the water; the colder the water the longer it takes to absorb the sac. 

 This sac practically anchors the baby trout to the bottom of the stream, though 

 it does make spasmodic efforts to swim before it has been hatched many days, but 

 usually the little fish cluster behind some stone or obstruction in the bottom of the 

 stream, which breaks the force of the water and creates an eddy below it. During 

 the time that the little trout or fry are growing, nourished by absorbing the sac, 

 they are practically helpless and a prey to everything in the water that may desire 

 to feed upon them ; larger fish, water snakes, insect larvae, ducks, kingfishers, frogs 

 and an army of finned, winged and furred enemies, until it is a wonder that any are 

 left to grow to fingerling fish. So much in brief for nature's method in hatching 

 trout fry. 



