Lanterna Rally

Author: Francis Francis

Publisher: Theclassics.Us

Published: 2013-09

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13: 9781230361895

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 edition. Excerpt: ...and withered in patches from certain causes. Here a trap should be set, strongly chained and pegged down to the bottom, and set under water, not on the bank; and see that the trap has holding teeth, for an otter has been known to bite his own foot off when caught in a trap; but usually he gets into the water, and the weight of the trap drowns him. The Enemies of Ova. CHAPTER V. THE ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION OF OVA. And now we come to the subject of the artificial incubation and hatching of fish. There can be no doubt at all that in the natural state there is a vast waste of ova and fry, and in order to make up for this necessary waste, fish have been endowed by nature with an enormous power of reproduction; and, indeed, if only a tenth or probably even a hundredth of the ova which a fish contains were to come to maturity, our waters would be greatly over-stocked; but, in the first place, a good deal of waste takes place at spawning time (let us take salmon or trout as a instance; the other fishes have fully as much or more waste attendant on them, though in other ways). Predacious fish wait behind the spawners, and pick up a portion of the ova as it drifts by. A good deal of it also is never fecundated, and this lies at the bottom of the river and rots, or is eaten up by the thousand and one destroyers of ova; for there is not a living creature which inhabits the water which does not prey more or less upon fishova, and particularly trout ova, for trout will force their way up into the very shallowest little becks, where their backs are almost above water, to spawn. I remember when quite a lad being out snipe shooting in Cornwall. In the midst of the moor I was shooting was a wee brook, not two feet wide, and here not three inches deep, but...