90 THE RIVER AND LAKE FISHERIES 



Mr. Eichard Nettle, of Quebec, the Inspector of Fisheries for Eastern 

 Canada, has been lately occupied in visiting the fisheries on the lower St. 

 Lawrence, and in enforcing the law, which enacts that all mill- owners who 

 have mill-dams on rivers, shall erect fish-slides, or passages, by means of 

 which trout and salmon may ascend and descend to and from their spawn- 

 ing-beds, and without which they must soon become extinct. He now 

 appears to be engaged in carrying out the views of the Legislature, by pro- 

 viding a supply of young salmon for the rivers in the lower province, in 

 the same manner that has been attended with such signal success in various 

 parts of France, England, Scotland, and Ireland. It may be interesting 

 to describe the method he adopts for artificially breeding salmon. 



In a large room, well ventilated in summer and sufficiently warmed in 

 winter, is a tank, about eight feet by twelve, divided into two mam com- 

 partments — one deep, the other shallow. The latter is again subdivided 

 into three divisions of different depths, from six inches to about one. Water 

 from the city pipes — which is supplied from Lake St. Charles, up in the 

 mountains, eighteen miles away — is kept constantly flowing into this tank, 

 with the proper contrivances for preventing any sudden stoppage of the 

 supply. The shallow parts of this, the ovarium, are floored with sand and 

 stones, in imitation of a river's bed. The deep part has only a few pieces 

 of rock at the bottom. 



Salmon spawn in September, and at that time the female fish are taken 

 with nets from the neighbourhood of their spawning-beds. A very gentle 

 pressure makes them shed their ova into a pail to the number of perhaps 

 20,000 each, and a single male fish then suffices for the impregnation of a 

 pailful of spawn, which is then very carefully brought to the ovarium and 

 placed in the shallow compartments above described. 



When first taken, the spawn is of a yellow colour, each little egg being 

 of the size of a small pea, and semi-transparent. Close observation detects 

 a little reddish spot on one part of the ovum. In a short time this spot, 

 which is where the impregnation occurred, grows larger and deeper in 

 colour, while the ovum gets more and more opaque. In December, the 

 rudimentary fish can be seen, curled up within the skin of the egg. In 

 January, the black spots become visible — the eyes of the embryo. Towards 

 the end of February, the little fish bursts from its confinement. Last year, 

 the first of the spawn completed these transformations in 113 days. 



When the salmon thus make their appearance, they are almost like small 

 tadpoles, or bullheads, in form, and lie quiet among the stones for a few 

 days until they become more shapely. Then they become lively, and rush 

 about the tank briskly. A fly, thrown upon the water, brings a host of 

 them up to the surface, eager for their prey. They grow but little for 

 several months, none becoming longer than one's finger. But if these little 

 creatures are then put into a river, they will make their way downwards to 

 the sea, grow with surprising rapidity in salt water, and return to the same 

 river next year, weighing from four to seven pounds. 



The advantages of breeding salmon artificially are several, but it is suffi- 



