St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1910-04-06


Then water is added to the pan of eggs.
poured off and more added. The process
| is repeated until all sediment has foated
| out of the pan. leaving it about halEfull
| of beautiful, amber-co1ored eggs, nearly
all of which have been fertilized. This
work is continued day after day until all
| the brood fish have been stripped of eggs.
1 Each day, when the stripping process
has been completed, the eggs are carried
wire cloth, and laid down in the troughs
| where current of clear, cool water is
constantly passing over them.
| It will be recalled that Mrs. Trout laid
about thousand eggs; that only
small part of them were fertilized, and
| that a much smaller number were
! destined to hatch into little fishes. By
| stripping eggs into dry pan and then
| applying the milt, nearly all of them are
| tage of the artificial method of fertilizing
the eggs; then, too, they are protected
from the dangers of enemies, floods and
sediment in the Matching troughs, as we
have already seen.
All of the breeders are returned to the
ponds after being stripped, none the
worse for being thus handled.
The orphan and his companions do not
know anything about what has been 60
AAS OI Liz O1OGA AASA1S5 Va IhaI
the next year they will be called upon to
help stock the hatchery with eggs.
Springtime comes around again, and
the hatchery is full of fry, just as it was
year ago, when the orphan arrived. The
ice has melted from the ponds and the
frost is all out of the ground. Only one
lot of fish have met with any rnishaps
during the winter. When the snow
melted there was telltale path made by
4s..T~ So
leading from the stream, under the snow
and plank walks, to the edge of one of
the ponds. No one knows for how long
time the willy minks have been carry
ing off nice two-year-old fish by this
underground passage, but prompt meas
ures are taken TO prevent any more
thefts.
Another summer passes by, the or
phan and most of his friends surviving
the depredations of the various enemies
that prey upon them; the beautiful
autumn foliage appears again on the
hills, and the heightened color again
comes to the older fishes.
The orphan is now year and half
old, seven inches in length, and weighs a
quarter of pound. He and his COM
panions at the hatchery have grown
more rapidly than those which were put
into the streams year ago. In fact,
H. WILL pLOOdOlY DE d WAO1C yCd4 AAOAC
before the latter weigh even quarter of
a pound.
The fish man has been watching the
orphan lately. for he sees that the little
waif has more color than his compan-
ions; the red spots are more distinct and
the nothing of his sides more beautiful.
1t occurs to him that it is wise to in
troduce new blood at the hatchery now
and then. and he determines to secure
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thing to be done is to catch the fish, and
his mind turns to the stream and pond
on the mountain from which our orphan
came. So he builds trap on the brook,
not far from where Mrs. Trout lived. 1t
is so constructed that when the trout as
cend the stream they enter a pen and
then cannot find their way out. In fact,
they will not try to turn back, because
they have started on a journey up
stream; and when a fish makes up its
mind to reach the nesting place. it per-
sists in its undertaking regardless of all
obstacles.
Soon very rainy season comes and the
stream is so swollen that it nearly
washes over the top of the trap. The
high water is signal for the fish to rush
up the stream from the pond, but they
soon find themselves in the trap. No
matter how often they try to jump, they
GcAAOl SUI LuOuAL ILLS OOSlc1@ICs n Nv dlCL-
man camping in a shanty near by dips
them out of the trap as fast as they
come in and puts them in adjoining pens.
What a run of trout! Some weigh as
much as two pounds, but there are all
sizes, from quarter of pound up, and
all beautifully co1ored. By night time he
has counted a thousand into the pens.
Alone, he cooks and eats his supper to
the tune of rushing water, varied by the
~,1Je Il <,f~, A~0] ,S01,
ing to leap over the rack of Stats that
forms the upper side of the trap. The
black darkness of rainy night has shut
everything from view when he lies down
on his bunk for short nap. An hour
later he is awakened by the screech of an
owl in an adjacent tree. AS he springs
from his bunk he lands in the water that
now covers the floor of his shanty. For
tunately, the water is not yet over the
platform on which he stands and dips,
nor over the tops of the Stats forming
the trap and pens, and as there are fish
in the trap he begins dipping them into
the pens. At first he counts as he dips,
but when a hedgehog brushes by his
bare legs in the darkness he loses his
count. It is long and weary night for
him, but so long as there are fish to be
dipped from the trap, both mind and
body are kept occupied. Towards MORN
when the fish man arrives at daylight
they take account of stock, while the
Waterman relates his experiences.
There are fifteen hundred fish in one of
the pens, but only a few in the other. A
closer examination reveals the fact that
there is a washout underneath one of
the pens adjoining the trap. The watch
man had been dipping the same fish over
and over all night. All that were put in
to the washed-out pen reentered the trap
in their persistent efforts to stem the
current and getup stream. 1t was not
qnite as bad as bailing water from the
brook, but the Waterman thought that
it was when he retired to his bunk that
morning. The fish man Immediately