The Natural History And Habits Of The Salmon

Synopsis

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1854. Excerpt: ... number of females, as is done in some of the new artificial breeding establishments. The ova of a number of fish may be sufficiently impregnated by the milt of one male; but when we see fish in neat pairs in natural spawning, and if a pair be undisturbed during that process, the seed of the one is completely exhausted, as well as that of the other, in that case, I am inclined to think that the nearer nature we come in all artificial imitations the better, especially when the fact is known that an impregnated grain produces nothing. However, when we got the seed collected and mixed after the manner we see done in rivers by the fish, I set about Depositing It In The Artificial Ponds. I got a number of copper wire baskets made, with covers of the same material. Into these, mixed with, suitable gravel, I placed portions of the seed, and sunk the baskets among the gravel at the upper end or entrance of the stream: these I covered over with two inches of gravel. Another portion I deposited among the gravel in the stream, and a third portion I deposited in a still part of the pond where there was no stream, which furnished the artificial planting for that season, and of course I eagerly watched the result, and for the appearance of the ova and its progress. We may just state here the account of it we gave in 1848: The ova when extracted from salmon in the spawning time are of a pale or light blue colour, and about the size of a small pea. It is composed of a white shell, and a light red yolk, and from the crystalline nature of the shell, the inward parts of the egg are quite perceptible, and the yolk easily seen, the shell being full of pores or small holes scarcely discernible to the naked eye, which at the time of deposition fully prepares it for the receptio...