The large trout are harder to handle, struggle more violently, and are more apt to be killed than the smaller ones and do not average so many eggs, although now and then one will have a very large number. Therefore, we consider that the best fish for breeders, when the operation is conducted by hand, are those weighing from one-quarter of a pound to one pound.

The pan should be elevated at one side, during the operation of taking the spawn, by standing it on a block half an inch thick, and enough water will drip from the fish so that by tilting and shaking it the milt can be brought in contact with the eggs. Formerly it was the custom to half fill the pan with water, but now the eggs are mixed as dry as they can be, and it is found that a far higher percentage are impregnated. The milt seems to drown in water quickly. Only enough eggs should be taken to cover the bottom of the pan with a single layer. If more eggs are to be had, more pans should be used, and as soon as all the fish have been handled they should be returned to the water.

It takes very little milt to impregnate a large number of eggs; but, in practice, we generally take all the milt we can get out of the haul. It is sometimes our custom also to put the male fish, whose milt has been exhausted, into a pond by themselves, to keep them from running up into the race again and troubling the females. This is a very good plan, if you have plenty of ponds and plenty of fish. If you have but a small number of males compared with the number of females, put them back again into the pond, as they will probably have a second and third renewal of milt.

After stripping a female once she should be returned to the tub from which she was taken, and should be stripped again after a short time during which other fish are being handled. This is to get the last egg from her, and if it is not done a few will remain and she will go on the spawning beds to deposit them as if she had a full supply. If she is cleaned entirely she will not bother herself or her owner about the matter again that season. The California mountain trout retain their eggs and milt with more determination than our brook trout and must be humored like a cow that will not give down her milk to any one but the creature for which nature intended it. After the trout are handled they are returned to different tubs according to their sizes, as this is the occasion that we take for sorting them, and then they are returned to their proper ponds.

Twenty to twenty-five minutes having now elapsed since the pan of eggs was set in the trough, gently tip up the pan. If the eggs are loose and roll separately as you move it, they are ready for subsequent operations; if not yet loose, let them remain a while longer.

The semen of the male is lull of spermatazoa or animalcules. These will live for ten or fifteen minutes in water; dry, they will live six hours. There is a hole for the reception of these sperms in each egg. The egg always sinks into the water with this hole at the top. It receives one of the animalcules only by this opening, which then closes. There seems to be a special arrangement of Providence that the eggs shall agglutinate- stick fast to each other and to everything they touch- so that they shall not float away until they are impregnated and the trout has had time to cover them. In the eggs of other fish, such as bass and perch, the same arrangement is seen; only they stick fast the moment they touch anything, and stay there until hatched out, while the substance that fastens the eggs of the trout dissolves as soon as the mother has had time to protect them.

The eggs will now be loose and lying on the bottom of the pan. Pour off the dirty water until only sufficient is left to cover the eggs. If this is done very gently, the eggs, although very light, will remain at the bottom, as they are somewhat heavier than water; then sink the pan into the water, at the same time tipping it as described in the chapter on "Eggs," and take it half full of watre. The influx of water will wash the eggs around somewhat, and dilute the dirty water remaining in the pan. This is to be poured off, as before, and the operation repeated, until the water looks perfectly clear. There will be some dirt and droppings of the trout still left, which can be carefully picked out with the nippers. If an egg should happen to be broken, while being taken from the trout, every vestige of it should be carefully removed, as the slimy, sticky contents will get on the other eggs and kill them. The eggs are now ready to be placed in the trough, and having previously raised the water in the nest to which you wish to transfer them, by placing a strip across proceed as described in the chapter on "Eggs."

From the above description, it will he seen that a few lessons in artificial impregnation, from an experienced hand, will probably save the beginner much time and money. A written description of the process, however good, can never take the place of verbal instruction; partly because it never conveys exactly the same idea to all, partly because seeing a thing is better than hearing about it, and mostly because a written description is a general one, and hardly ever tells of the minutiae and variations which constantly occur in practice. As an example of this, it has been urged, all through this book, that in moving the eggs the beginner should not touch them with the feather, but should move the water over them, so that the eggs should follow the current thus created; also that he should be very careful, in removing the dead eggs, not to touch the others with the nippers. But, we constantly move the eggs with the feather, and push to one side the sound eggs with the nippers, in order to get at the dead ones. The reason simply is, that long practice has given the knack of doing it, without injury to the eggs, that a tyro does not possess.

In every process of the management and handling of eggs we have urged the greatest care and delicacy. Others however, claim that a rougher treatment will answer equally well and save much trouble. We give the following method adopted by Mr. Wilmot of Canada, as a specimen case. He says: "I have adopted a new plan this year, and I have found it to answer admirably, and infinitely better than the one I have practiced hitherto. I formerly practiced the same system that I allude to, namely, taking the eggs from the fish and putting the milt upon them, and then allowing them to remain twenty or thirty minutes. The system I have adopted this year, I think, will be conclusive in itself as showing the benefit that we have derived from it and the amount of labor saved. The system that I have adopted is this: we take the female fish out of the water and strip her as rapidly as possible; perhaps two or three fish are taken out one after the other, so that in some instances we will have nearly a gallon of eggs - a half of a gallon any way, or three-fourths of a gallon - in one vessel. We then take the male fish and begin stripping him in a like manner to get the milt. An attendant is standing immediately alongside of the other gentleman who is. manipulating. He has a measure which is calculated to hold a thousand or two thousand, as the case may be, and he stands immediately alongside and dips these eggs out as rapidly as possible and puts them on the breeding-tray, and the breeding-tray is put in the hatching-trough. In that way I have impregnated a larger number of eggs by far than I have in the last seven years in which I have been engaged in this work. It is simple in itself, and so different from what has hitherto been practiced, that I thought it advisable to mention it here, because it is so much better than any other system I know of."

This manipulation requires that the eggs should be ladled directly into dry trays and handled quite roughly. It may answer for salmon, but is not the practice that we recommend, either for them or tor trout. There is more trouble in our method, but the results we are con fident, are correspondingly superior.