92 
same way and the milt allowed to fall on the ova. A slight 
swaying of the dish from side to side tends to ensure the 
impregnation of all the eggs. Contact with the milt causes 
the colourless virgin eggs to change to a golden pink hue. 
The proportion of the sexes netted varied on different days; 
thus, on one day, six female fish to one male were taken. It 
is stated that the milt from one male is sufficient to im- 
pregnate the ova from two or three females. An excess of 
milt was supplied, however, in these experiments. This 
may have had something to do with the remarkable success 
of the hatchings. Possibly it may have assured the effec- 
tive impregnation of all the ova. The impregnated ova 
showed signs of life about six weeks after being placed in 
the trays. I ought to say that the ova and milt were all 
obtained from the native trout of the dale, it being con- 
sidered that the vigour and size of the breed could not be 
improved. The umbilical sac was absorbed within a month 
or six weeks after the hatching of the living and moving 
fry. 
In 1885 about 12,000 fry were hatched from the spawn- 
ing of 1884, and in 1886 about 28,000 fry from the 
spawning of 1885. The loss from the ova to the fry state 
was only about 2 per cent. The young fish have proved 
remarkably vigorous. From the spawning of this winter, 
about 26,000 ova have been placed on the trays, and the 
loss has been only about J per cent. As comparatively few 
of the fish can yet have attained the size at which it is 
permissible, according to the rules of the Association, to 
take them from the river, and only the earliest hatchings 
can yet be approaching the re-productive age, the efiect of 
the artificial hatchings upon the wealth of the river cannot 
yet have been felt. There is, however, already decided 
evidence of improvement in the yield to the rod^ and my 
own observation of a water which I knew before the railway 
