nary way in which Salmon and Trout
are bred, the milt must be largely diluted with water, and the
contact between the milt and ova can only be momentary, for the
streams in which these fish spawn (particularly the Salmon) are so
rapid, that the milt on exclusion must be carried away immediately.

There is another method, which is preferred by Ramsbottom, to the
one I have been describing, and it is certainly less troublesome.
This is to take the ova from the female fish in the first place
(taking care to exclude the air from it, by immersing the fish
into water up to the vent), and when all the roe has been
collected into a large bowl or basin, then mix the milt with it,
the same diluted in the proportion which has been before
described, namely, until the water which covers the roe becomes
lightly opalescent.

I am quite aware that there is another theory which assumes that
impregnation takes place twelve months before the exclusion of the
ova. [8] But a very careful and long continued examination of the
spawning of minnows and lampreys (I have never been able closely
to examine the spawning of Salmon), convinces me that it is not a
correct one. Besides, did any one ever succeed in hatching the ova
of a fish which had not been allowed to come in contact with milt
after exclusion? If they have, when, where, and how has this been
accomplished, and where is it recorded? I know that I could never
succeed, although I have often tried the experiment. On the other
hand, it is the easiest thing imaginable, with due care and a
suitable situation, to hatch those which have been properly
impregnated after exclusion. But if, to avoid argument, I admit
that this theory is correct, it will not at all interfere with
artificial breeding of Trout and Salmon; on the contrary, it will
materially facilitate it. It will only be necessary to catch
female fish with the ova ready for exclusion, and place these ova
in clean gravel in a box, as before described, but there will be
no occasion for males. But supposing Trout and Salmon can be bred
in this manner, which I by no means believe, there would be no
means of breeding hybrids, which I consider a far more important
achievement, and to which I will now refer.

Ever since my attention was turned to the artificial breeding of
fish, it has always appeared to me exceedingly desirable and
important to breed hybrids between the Trout and the Salmon. The
fry of the Salmon, which, by-the-bye, i