3-008-488 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Pisciculture - ponds at home and abroad: salmon breeding-ponds, 1862. 'The rough sketch...of a series of breeding-ponds is imitated from those at Stormontfield [in Scotland]...The supply of water is derived from a mill race which flows parallel with the [River] Tay. It is filtered into pond a, which is kept as a reservoir to supply the canal b, whence it flows over the breeding-boxes and into the canal c, out of which it flows into the reception-pond d. The two runlets e and f are employed, one to let away the surplus water, the other to conduct the fish into the Tay, when, the migratory instinct comes upon them. The various inlets and outlets are carefully guarded and regulated by sluices, to keep out such enemies as might prey on the eggs or the young fish. A hatching can only take place at Stormontfield every two years, in consequence of there being only one reception-pond. As one half of the fry migrate at the end of the first year, it would be dangerous to introduce newly-hatched fish into the reception-pond containing the half of the previous year's breed...The fact of so many thousands of eggs having been hatched at Stormontfield proves conclusively that it is practicable to protect the ova of the salmon till it is nursed into life'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.