
KIDD’S OWN JOURNAL. 
183 

near the establishment have been formed into a 
stream of 1,300 yards long, which carries them to 
the upper end of a storehouse destined for the 
breeding of the fish. It receives the water of the 
stream by means of a tunnel, made of bricks, pro- 
vided with a flood-gate. As soon as the water has 
entered by the tunnel, it is stopped by a transverse 
ditch, provided with seven turning shutters, which 
correspond with as many equally distant rivulets, 
each 8 feet 3 inches broad, and 45 yards long, 
which are continued to the opposite end of the 
storehouse, and leave it under separate arcades ; 
thence they each empty themselves into a separate 
basin, into which they are destined to carry the 
fish as soon as they are hatched. 
Those artificial rivulets, whose banks are only 
three inches thick, are separated during the whole 
space which is covered by the storehouse, by deep 
pathways for the use of the keepers ; in order to 
enable them to watch without fatigue the water 
and its contents. The surface of the water is 
about breast-high. By means of the above said 
turning shutters, the current of the water can be 
slackened or quickened, according to convenience. 
From the moment the artificial fecundation has 
communicated to the eggs the power of developing 
themselves, till the moment when the young fish 
are hatched, and carried by the rivulets into the 
basins, the condition in which the eggs are placed 
must be changed as many times as is required by 
circumstances. 
The method of procedure is thus further 
stated :— 
A vase of iron, china, wood, or tin is taken, 
whose bottom is to be level, and of the same di- 
mensions as the aperture, in order that the eggs 
may be easily spread over the surface, and not 
heaped up, into which one or two quarts of water 
are poured ; a female is then taken with the left 
hand, seizing it by the head and thorax, and at 
the same time putting the thumb of the right 
hand against the belly of the animal, while the 
other fingers are moved over the back from the 
head to the tail, pushing the eggs softly towards 
the aperture. Ifthe eggs are mature and already 
loose from the ovary, the slightest pressure will 
suffice to expel them ; the abdomen becomes empty 
without occasioning the least damage to the 
female, and in the following year she will be as 
prolific as a female whose eggs have been laid in 
a natural way. If, on the contrary, a certain 
degree of violence should be required for ob- 
taining this result, the female is replaced in the 
fish-pond; for in that case, maturity is to be 
considered as not yet attained. 
The facility with which the eggs may be 
detached from the ovary proves their maturity, 
but not always their aptitude for fecundation ; 
for there are cases where the females are unable 
to deliver themselves, and the eggs lose the 
qualities they would have possessed if the ope- 
ration had taken place sooner. Persons who 
have acquired some practice, discover this altera- 
tion by two symptoms—the flowing of a purulent 
matter, which does not exist when the female 
is In a sound state, and which disturbs the 
water; and the white color the eggs assume as 
soon as they fall in the water. When neither 
of these two symptoms is present, the operation 
is to be considered as having succeeded. 
The water in the vase must now be quickly 
changed, to clear it from the mucous matter 
derived from the friction of the skin of the female; 
a male is then to be taken, and the milt pressed 
out, in the same way as it has been effected with 
the females. The mixture is complete as soon 
as it has assumed the color of posset; and it is 
to be softly moved, in order that the fecundating 
molecules may spread themselves with regularity 
over the whole; the eggs are to be softly moved 
with the end of a long pencil, or with the hand, 
for it is necessary that there remain not a single 
portion of them not in contact with the matter 
destined to fecund them; after two or three 
minutes, those eggs are placed in the hatching 
rivulets. 
We are told that one method which has 
been tried for the hatching of these fertilised 
eggs, is to place them in long wooden cases, 
with gratings at each end, upon a layer of 
pebbles. ‘This method, it seems, is found to 
occasion a great destruction of eggs and 
young fish, by their getting heaped together 
in the interstices of the pebbles. A different 
plan is therefore made use of at Huahingue. 
We place the fecundated eggs upon hurdles or 
flat baskets of osier, and put them at the surface 
of the rivulets ; the settling contained in the water 
passes through the meshes. As the baskets are 
placed on the surface, a man is able to survey them 
with great facility; he moderates the running of 
the water, if it is too strong, and heaps the eggs ; 
he takes the moss away with a pencil; and when 
after a too long sojourn in the water, the baskets 
are encumbered with nocive matters, he pours the 
contents of the dirty baskets into fresh ones, which 
proceeding secures the necessary cleanliness, with- 
out hurting in the least the young fishes. 
When the eggs are hatched, the baskets 
in which they are contained are incased in a 
floating frame, and carried down the current 
to the basins or ponds in which the fish are 
to live till fit for use. The manner of taking 
them is next described :— 
For this purpose, harbours are introduced along 
the banks, like those used by Lucullus and Pollion, 
with the fish-ponds of the Mount Pausilippi. But 
instead of being holes, these harbours contain 
wooden boxes, capable of being drawn out; they 
have an aperture similar to that of a dog-kennel. 
By means of a shutter, the end of which rises 
above the water, these apertures can be shut, and 
all the young fish which have taken a refuge in 
those treacherous harbours made prisoners. It is 
indeed known by experience that the salmon and 
trout, as soon as they are at liberty in a fish-pond, 
immediately assemble in the boxes which are 
placed along the banks. In case some of those 
animals should remain aside, it is only necessary 
to move the water, and they will immediately take 
a refuge in the harbour. These boxes, which can 
be constructed like boats, are then drawn out from 
their holes and towed over the Rhone Channel to 
the Rhine, whence they are prepared to be sent to 
all the rivers of France. 

