of the Fishery Board for Scotlaiid. 



347 



involves a portion, and in these the liquid gelatine forms a clear layer of 

 varying depth with a copious yellow sediment, beneath which, in the 

 non-liquid jelly, may be seen a greyish streak, the lower portion of needle 

 track, which has not exhibited any marked evidence of growth or develop- 

 ment. 



Bread Paste Cultivation-. —Extension of growth is rapid on the surface 

 of bread paste. On a moderately moist soil it presents a beautiful canary- 

 yellow colour with a somewhat glazed appearance, and slightly elevated 

 above the surface of the bread paste. If the bread paste is more moist 

 the progress of growth is more rapid, but the colour is at first not so 

 well marked. Afterwards, however, it assumes its characteristic canary- 

 yellow appearance. 



Microscopically. — Round or ovoid Torulse, varying in size from *5 /x to 

 1*5 fx. The larger ovoid Torulee measure in their longest diameter 1*5 /x, 

 and 1*1 fx in their narrow. 



In a future Report we hope to continue the consideration of this 

 branch of the investigation, and to take up the other branches already 

 mentioned. 



APPENDIX F. — No. XIII. 



, NOTE ON THE SPAWNING OF THE PIKE. 



By George Brook. 



A number of pike which had been in the tanks of the Rothesay 

 Aquarium for some years, together with some small ones added in the 

 early spring, spawned in the month of May. The earliest ova to be 

 deposited were shed on the 6th of May. The tank in which they were found 

 contained one female and three males. The eggs were strewn all over the 

 rockwork and gravel at one end of the tank, and it was evident from their 

 scattered arrangement that the female had not been resting near the 

 bottom at the time the ova were extruded. On the following day the 

 movements of the pike were watched closely, as I was anxious to observe 

 the spawning process. In the previous year pike ova had been deposited 

 in this and the adjoining tank, but I was not present at the time. When 

 I first saw the eggs, a week or ten days after they had been shed, I found 

 them arranged in clusters at the bottom of the tank, each cluster being 

 overgrown with fungus (Saprolegnia.) No eggs could be seen in the 

 tanks which were not surrounded by the fungus, though some may have 

 escaped my notice. I concluded the eggs would all be dead, many being 

 quite opaque, and no further attention was paid to them. Mr Shields, 

 however, informed me that many hatched out some weeks later, and that 

 in one of the tanks a large number of embryos were observed swimming 

 about in the water for some days, but all died before I visited Rothesay 

 again, probably from want of proper food. On another occasion I have 

 observed the ova of the pike to have been deposited in clusters. The 

 clusters were somewhat irregular oval in outline, and from 3 to 5 inches 

 in greatest diameter. In the centre the mounds were several rows of eggs 

 deep. In the present instance, therefore, I was curious to know how the 



