A
COMPLETE TREATISE
ON
ARTIFICIAL  FISH-BREEDING:
INCLUDING THE REPORTS ON THE SUBJECT MADE TO TIIE FRENCIH ACADEMY
AND THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT; AND PARTICULARS OF TUE
DISCOVERY AS PURSUED IN ENGLAND.
TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY
All   HI. FR Y.
ILLUSTRATED  WITII  ENGRAVINGS.
NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
346 & 348 BROADWAY.
1866.




ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by
D. APPLETON & CO.,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York,




The following is a table of some French measures used in the
conurse of this wor':
A      6lfctre  is equal to about 31 feet.
A KilooE tre      "      "      1093, yards.
A Deci7Otlre nearly 4 inches.
A Ce2sti7ZBlre about one-third of an inch.
A JlilliN7?ts'e about one twventy-fifth of an inch.
A Iectare    about 22 acres.
The sBtm1e is tile base of all French measure, and is a fixed or
scientific meanas of determining length adopted by the French Institute and Government: it is the ten-millionth part of the are of a
meridian between the pole and the equator.








PREFACE.
THIS work has been prepared at the suggestion of a number of my scientific friends. Such a treatise is needed,
as various agricultural societies:' of the Union, and
e ARTIFICIAL FISn.-It is not often that the proceedings of the Farmers' Club, at the American Institute, supply a theme worthy of
much consideration. A practical farmer occasionally gets among
the judges, doctors, professors, &c., and relieves their forlorn incoherences with a few sensible suggestions and useful information;
otherwise the discussions of the fancy city-agriculturists who assemble in the Institute rooms are very incongruous affairs-grateful, no doubt, to the obfuscated vanity of a few bewildered fogies,
who can there make speeches on subjects of which they know nothing, or read dull translations from the French or Dutch, on other
subjects, respecting which nobody cares anything. But some new
blood has evidently been infused into the Club, and its proceedings
are becoming worth the space allotted to them by the newspaper
reporters. At a recent meeting, the subject of the artificial propagation of fish was introduced-and a more important one could
scarcely engage their attention.
The disciples of Isaak Walton have long deplored the gradual
extinction of trout in almost every stream in which they formerly
abounded, within a day or two's ride of the city.  The rapacity
with which they are pursued and caught, when too small for any




1V                        PREFACE.
likewise the Legislature of this State,  have shown
themselves alive to the importance of the new discovery, and hence indicated the necessity of a manual on it.
purpose-too paltry even to "send to market" —argues a coarse
spirit of destructiveness that cannot exist in the true lover of angling. We know parts of Connecticut famous for trout and game
not many years ago, where neither a trout nor woodcock can now
be found, and even the quail is a traditionary bird; yet there are
fine streams, and plenty of woodland. The unchecked lust for shillings has not left a fish or bird in whole counties. So, too, on
the south side of Long Island, once esteemed among the best
trotting localities in this State, where mischievous boys, and
vulgar men, have been allowed to destroy them, until now  a
trout can scarcely be found.  Nor are these worse than some
of our city "sportsmen i " whose highest idea of sport is wanton
destruction. We heard one boast last summer of having hilled
twelve hundred trout in two days at Catskill!  Of course they
were nearly all young fish, the largest probably three inches long.
A very few avere brought home (putrid when they arrived), and the
remainder were left to perish on the banks of the stream. Wve wonder the people of that region did not prevent such vulgar slaughter. The man ought to be prohibited from all " sport" but catching bull-frogs for ever after.
Mr. Pell, the celebrated horticulturist of Ulster county, who
has also turned his attention to pisciculture, predicts the speedy and
total annihilation of shad in our rivers, unless something is done
by the Legislature to preserve them. He avers that whereas it
used to be a common thing to draw 1600 shad at a haul, the fisherman now gets sometimes one or two fish in his net. These are
facts coming directly home to our breakfast and dinner tables, and
certainly are legitimate subjects for legislative interference.-From
the Sunzday Times, March 19, 1854.
* PRESERVATION OF Fistu.-A bill has been introduced into the New
York Senate for the preservation of fish in the waters of this State.
The first section provides that " all persons in the State of New
York who obtain a livelihood by the capture of fish, shall, toward




PREFACE,                         V
All so far known that is really important in regard
to it, and has been brought to light by the commissioners appointed by the French Government to investigate it, as well as by the experiments of private
persons in France, is contained in this volume.  To
this is added a statement of English  pisciculture.
The entire history and practical details of artificial
fish-breeding are, therefore, to be found in these
pages.  The value of the discovery, and the expediency of turning it to account, will speak for themselves.  According to the authorities I have cited, it
is a subject equally interesting to the farmer, the
economist, and the statesman, and will prove a source
of immeasurably great wealth if properly pursued.
It seems that a discovery of the highest importance, of a mode of actually creating fish in illimitable numbers, was made in G ermany nearly a century
ago; but so much occupied were the people of Europe in the art and science of cutting one another's
the close of the fishing season, impregnate the spawn taken from
at least two, dozen female fish, with the milt taken from the same
number of male fish, and plant the same upon their fishing ground,
in presence of the justice of the peace of the district, or some person appointed by him."  A fine of $50 is provided for a violation
of the act. Suits may be brought by the superintendents of the
poor, and the penalty to go to the support of the poor. If brought
by other persons, one half the sum to go to the support of the
poor, the other to the person bringing the suit.-From the Sunday
Atlas, Marchl 26, 1854.




Vi                  PREFACE.
throats, that it was lost sight of, and was recently
re-discovered in a more valuable form, by two poor
illiterate French fishermen, and practically demonstrated by them more thanl ten years since, in their
quiet and secluded neighborhood.  Discoveries, however, to be known in France at all, must, owing to
the system of centralization existing in that country,
nave Parisian and governmental sanctions. So it is
not surprising that this one of artificial fish-culture,
remained unnoticed and unknown till 1849, when,
having chanced to come to the knowledge of Dr. Haxo,
a scientific man residing in the same department as
the two fishermen, it was by him communicated to the
Academy of Sciences at Paris, in a paper which
caused a great sensation in that learned body.  Immediately a commission, consisting of three of its
distinguished members, Messrs. 3Milne-Edwards, Dumi6ril, and Valenciennes, was appointed to investigate
the discovery, and make a report.  Their investigations, as well as those of the celebrated naturalist,
Mons. Coste, brought out the fact that the discovery
was only an improvement upon' an old one which
was made and forgotten nearly a century ago. The
merit of the two fishermen, G;ehin and Remy of
Vosges, was, however, undeniable, and admitted by
the commission; and there appears to be no doubt




PREFACE.                 V11
that theirs was a veritable discovery, or re-discovery,
and that but for them the method of artificial fishculture would have remained to this day as unknown
as it was twenty years ago.
The proceedings of this learned body, the highest
scientific authority of France, and perhaps of the
world, brought the matter to the attention of the
French government, and resulted in the appointment,
by the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, of M.
3Milne-Ecdwards, a member of the Institute, to make
an investigation, and report to the Government.
This report is the subject of a volume of criticism
by Dr. Haxo, who censures IMilne-Edwards ancd the
other academicians for their unfairness to the two
fishermen.  Be that as it may, the Government rewarded the fishermen with places and pensions: and
upon the recommendation of the Report that theirs
was the best method, but from want of means they
had not been able to carry it out on any large scale,
the Government determined to take the matter in
band. With this view it made a first appropriation
of 30,000 francs, and appointed Miessrs. Berthot and
Detzem, the engineers of the Rhine and Rhone canal,
to erect at Huningen a government-establishment for
artificial fish-culture, and to superintend its workings.
This establishment went into operation in 1852, and




Viii                PREFACE.
according to the report of M. Heurtrier, DirectorGeneral of Agriculture and Commerce, macle to the
Minister of the Interior, its superintendents, Mlessrs.
Berthot and Detzem, hadcl, in the first six months,
artificially fecundatecl 3,302,000 eggs, and produced
1,683,200 living fish.  Of these, according to M.
Coste, 600,000 were of the valuable species trout
and salmon.
These results achieved, under Government sanotion, brought public attention to the subject in
France and in Great Britain.  Seven works, by as
many different authors, wvere published upon the
subject: three in France by Coste, Godenier and
Haxo; and four in England by Shaw, Boccius, and
two anonymous writers.  Agriculturists and general
readers on this side of the ocean began to wish for
light, and among  others the editor of this volume.
But none was to be had, for strange as it may appear, yet true, and proving how slowly the knowledge
of great truths sometimes travels, not a copy of any
one of these publications was to be found at any
bookseller's in New York, even a year after their publication in France and England.  The editor consequently caused them to be imported; and, translated
by him, in this single volume will be foundcl a selection embracing all that is valuable in their contents.




PREFACE.                   ix
This book contains a translation entire of the
work of 31. Coste, the fullest which has appeared,
giving a history of the discovery and of all that has
been effected by it; likewise a complete translation
of the pamphlet of M. Godenier, describing particularly the practical methocls of the two fishermen,
GCehin and Remy, for whom  he claims the merit of
the discovery; a translation is also given from Dr.
Haxo's work, of M. Milne-Edwards' Report to the
French government upon the whole subject; and to
these is added a series of papers on artificial salmon
breeding published in Bell's Life in London, during
January and February of this year, and containing
some valuable information on that particular branch
of the subject.
The discovery of artificial fish-culture, in a word,
claims to show how, at little care and little cost, barren or impoverished streams may be stocked to an
unlimited extent with the rarest and most valuable
breeds of fish, from  eggs artificially procured, impregnated and hatched.
VW. H. F.
NEw YoRic, July, 1854.








Plate I.,    ~ 0  e'0 i "
0.~
i0                  rr~~~~~~~~~~~r
Mi  +-0' X  2!.a 4       9 Q'  QBv
O a~~
bl'  O  9\    ~r't    D   4     >,,~..t.4~      b   o        
C ~ ~ ~~1              Cg'Q's o'~o ~ o'o
H&TCHING-BOX OF GEHIN AND REMY.
(See page 14.)








Plate II.
Ioig. 2a. 
Fig. $.,    ___,,                                   _
Fig. 2.
Ad.                I~l~llu       W1mg




EXPLANATION OF' PLATE II.
FIG. 1.-Figure intended to give an idea of the manner of extracting the eggs from the living fish.
FIG. 2.-Working-apparatus for hatching: a, parallel canals
composing it; b, stop-cock by means of which the stream of water
can be regulated; c, long earthen tubs adapted to this apparatus
for receiving the fish just hatched.
FIG. 2a.-Front view of hurdles upon which the eggs are
placed in the hatching apparatus.
FIG. 3.-Another kind of hatching apparatus, consisting of a
canal (a) of wood or earthenware, of an ordinary fountain (b) and
a tub to receive the running water, (c.)




Plate II., continued.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 6.            Fig. 7.
MET
Fig. 5.
Fig. 8.         Fig. 9.                       Fig. 10.
Fig. 11.
Fig. >12.'t,'~




EXPLANATION OF PLATE II., CONTINUED.
FIG. 4.-Floating apparatus for hatching in running streams,
consisting of a wicker-box or basket, in which are fitted hurdles,
as in the other apparatus.
FIG. 4a.-Hurdles for the floating apparatus.
FIG. 5.-Box for transporting the eggs.
FIG. 6.-Small perforated leaden shovel for lifting from the
hurdles the fish just hatched, to transfer to the tubs or running
streams.
FIG. 7.-Brush of badger-hair for the purpose of cleaning the
eggs of the sediment which settles upon them.
FIG. 8.-A salmon's egg developing.
FIG. 9.-A salmon just hatched; a, its umbilical bladder.
FIG. 10.-A young salmon having been fed from its umbilical
bladder.
FIG. 11.-Young salmon, aged three months, reared at the
College of France.
FIG. 12.-A young salmon, aged six months, reared at the same
place.




TREATISE
oN
THE ARTIFICIAL FECUNDATION AND INCUBATION
OF
THE EGGS OF FISH,
AND
THE REARING OF THE YOUNG FISH, ACCORDING TO THE PROCESSES OF
MESSRS. GEHIN AND REMY, FISHERMEN.OF VOSGES,
AND MIEMBERS OF THIE ACADEMY OF
SCIENCES OF PARIS.
PREPARED FROM THE FACTS FURNISHED
BY
M. GEHIN
TO
THE EDITOR, C. E. P. GODENIER, FISHERMAN.
)3. GEHIN IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ISERE.
MR. GEHIN, one of the authors of the great discovery of the artificial production, fecundation, incubation and hatching of the eggs of fish, was commissioned by the government, at the instance of 3Ir.
Adolph Perier, to make a tour through the Department of Isere, in the month of November, 1851, for
the purpose of instructing others in the processes by




8      THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
which he accomplished such extraordinary results.
He travelled through many of the communes, stopping at Allevard, Pontcharra, Sassenage, Veurey,
Vizille, D'Oisans, Rives, Pont-en-Royans, Paladra,
Lemps, St. Geoire, Arandon, Buisse and Grenoble,
and every where experimenting publicly. He enlisted the services in some places of Messrs. Janon and
Rafin, fishermen of Veurey, who were engaged in
collecting the spawn from which supplies could be
furnished as required.
He also made arrangements with Mr. Millon,
fish dealer at Charavines, by which he would be able
to furnish the eggs of l'ombre chevalier; a very
rare species of trout, which, in France, is only
found in Lake Paladru, and indeed only in a certain
part of that lake. This is the most beautiful of
French fishes, anzd by epicures is considered more
delicate than any other taken in fresh water. It
spawns in December.  Mr. Perel, fisherman, No. 3,
Neuve-des-Penitents street, Grenoble, can supply
the spawn of this trout.
In the course of his journey, Mr. Gehin prepared
more than two hundred boxes of eggs and deposited
them in well selected places to effect the artificial
hatching.
NATURAL PRODUCTION AND HATCHING.
We have witnessed the operations of Mr. Gehin,
at Sassenage.  But before describing them, let us
say a word on the causes which led Messrs; Gehin




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.            9
and Remy to discover their method.  Mr. Gehin has
detailed them to us, as follows:Messrs. Gehin and Remy, of the commune of
Bresse, in the department of Vosges, were fishermen,
living by their calling. Every year at spawning
time, they felt regret at the vast destruction of eggs
contained in the female fish they took, and naturally
their thoughts turned towards the discovery, if possible, of' some mode of preventing the evil.
As long ago as 1841, they commenced to observe
carefully the habits of the trout, and in the month
of November of that year, during a full moon, they
passed night and day on the bank of a river, never
for an instant losing sight of these fish, and watching most;intently all their preparations for laying
and preserving their eggs.
The results of their observations were these:The trout come together in a shoal, and choose
a current with a gravelly bottom as the best place to
lay their eggs.  They dig in it a round hole, sometimes of the depth of seven inches by three feet in
diameter; they place in the middle of this space,
parallel with the current, a line of stones, the size
of which varies with the size of the fish.
The female then passes over this line of stones,
gliding over, rubbing against or resting upon them.
This she does again and again, some twenty or thirty
times, till her eggs are all laid in the crevices of the
gravel.
When the female has done this, the male, in
1*




10     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
the same manner, by passing over and pressing upon
the gravel, emits the milt, or soft roe, which covers
and fecundates the eggs; then with tail, fins, head,
and belly he works away till he manages to cover
the eggs with gravel.
Now a second female commences, and in the
same manner lays her eggs in a parallel line with
and against the first row. When the fecundation is
complete, which generally happens in about fifteen
daysj-according to the number of fish, all unite in
heaping up stones and gravel in mounds upon the
eggs, in a manner resembling the great ant hills that
may be found near by.
Mr. Gehin believes that their mason-work is, in
a manner, cemented by a slimy secretion, with which
they cover the stones, while incessantly rubbing over
and pressing against them in heaping them up; for
he found it difficult to destroy the mounds so formed
by scratching apart the material with his fingers.
The eggs remain in this way for a month or two,
while the process of incubation goes on; at the end
of a time which Mr. Gehin could not precisely determine, the little fish appear about the size of pins,
come out of their cell between the interstices of the
gravel, and seek in the tranquil waters, near the
shores, a place of safety.
Having thus discovered nature's secrets, it remained to discover a mode of rendering them practically useful, and not until after many failures did
Gehin and Remy hit upon a sure process, incontes



THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.         11
tably superior even to that of nature herself. This
may be deemed too bold an assertion, but a moment's reflection will prove its truth.
Does not man sow his entire field with the single
sort of grain he wishes to cultivate? Where in its
natural state will we find a field producing one only
kind of grain? Do we ever find in a state of nature, and within equally circumscribed limits, the
same number of any single species of animal, as in
our stables, sheepfolds, or barnyards?  What, then,
is there to hinder us from stocking bountifully our
streams with fish, by aiding the process of hatching,
and protecting the young from destruction by their
innumerable enemies?
How these objects are attained by Mr. Gehin we
shall now proceed to show, regretting to add that
his partner, Mr. Remy, is no longer able to co-operate
with him, owing to a disease-the result of exposure
during the experiments-which bids defiance to doctors' skill and incapacitates him from labor.
ARTIFICIAL FECUNDATION.
WVe will now proceed to explain the processes of
Mfr. Gehin, as exhibited at Sassenage. His experiments there were made with trout of the weight of
250 to 300 grammes, preserved alive in a reservoir.
Mr. Gehin takes a female trout when she is ready
to- spawn, holding her by the back with his left




12     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
hand, he prevents her violent struggles by pressing
her head and body against him, and with his other
hand strokes her belly, till, in a few moments, she
becomes quieted. All animals are sensible to these
caresses,,or similar ones made on their backs, and
take them willingly; witness the cat and dog, which
by purring, whining, rubbing against us, or licking
our hands seek to obtain them.
When the trout is thus magnetized, or put to
sleep, as 3Mr. Gehin calls it, he inclines it over a vase,
which he has prepared to receive its eggs by putting
in it about a quart of water; in order to make sure
of the fish remaining quiet, another person, if necessary, holds its tail, then Mr. Gehin with the thumb
and forefinger of his right hand presses lightly the
belly from top to bottom.  This must be carefully
and gently done, as one would press from  root to
extremity a finger cut at the end, to extract the
blood and prevent its further flow; or as one would
nilk a cow, but by no means with so much force as
that operation requires, for if the proper time has
been chosen the eggs will be pressed out by a very
gentle effort, andl if more is required, it will prove
that the fish has not gone her full time for spawning, and the eggs thus obtained cannot in that case
be fecundated.
Passing the finger and thumb in this manner
over the fish's belly, the eggs at each pass will spirt
out, like a little liquid stream, falling into the vase.
When by a number of these passes the eggs are




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.         13
all pressed out, a male fish is taken and operated
upon in the same manner; the milt thus expressed
from the male falling into the vase and upon the
eggs gives the water a white hue.  The male fish,
like the female, must be subjected to a number of
gentle passes to obtain the result.  When this is
done, the contents of the vase must be stirred about
with the hand, or what is still better, with the tail
of; the male fish still wet with the milt that has
flowed over it, —an operation resembling that made
by the fish in its natural state.
After a very short period the water must be
carefully poured off and a like quantity of fresh water poured on the eggs.
Before the mixture of the milt and the water
covering the trout's eggs, their color is a pale orange
and transparent.  After the mixture the eggs that
have been fecundated assume a brownish hue, and a
black speck, of the diameter of two millimetres, appears in the centre of each.
After this the water must be changed once or
twice more.
When the fecundation is complete some of the
eggs will appear white.  These are the unfecundated
ones being sterile and dead, and if allowed to remain
will, like all other lifeless things, become putrid and
corrupt the rest; they must therefore be carefully removed.




14     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION.
We have seen that in artificial fecundation nature has been imitated, where the fish voids its eggs
by passing over and pressing its belly against smooth
stones. This natural method being imitated by the
hand of the operator all the eggs are evacuated without the loss of a single one.
In artificial incubation 3Mr. Gehin has in like
manner exactly imitated nature in the processes he
employs. He takes a round box in the form of a
warming-pan, except that the bottom rises a little in
the inside in order to make it remain more firm in
the position in which it may be placed. It is made
of zinc to prevent rust; its size —twenty centimetres
in diameter and seven centimetres in depth; the lid
four centimetres in height, on hinges, with a catch.
The box is pierced on every side, with two thousand
holes, so that the water can freely flow through it
over the gravel. These holes are a millimetre in diameter and should be very carefully and smoothly
made, with a punch, in such a manner as not to wound
the little fish attempting to escape through them.
The bottom of the box is covered with a bed of
fine gravel, and on this are placed the fecundated
eggs. Each box should contain one brood of eggs.
The box is then closed, a hole is dug for it in the
gravelly bottom of a running stream of fresh water
in which it is placed and gravel is strewed over it.




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.        15
It is necessary to take all these precautions in order that the water flowing through the gravel maybe
purged of its impurities before it enters the box, and
not deposit mud and slime upon the eggs and retard
or prevent altogether the hatching; as Gehin and
itemy observed was the case when such precautionary
measures were omitted.
The box so placed is left for a month or two. Mr.
Gehen could not determine the exact time of the
process of incubation, as it varied with the quality of
the water.  This question is now occupying the attention of scientific men, and from their researches
we shall have the exact results.
In place of using a box, a hole may be dug in the
gravel, and the eggs may be deposited in it and covered over with pebbles in the manner practised by the
fish. But the progress of the incubation cannot
then be as accurately watched as with a box, which
can be opened and closed at pleasure.
J1r. Gehin observed these phenomena of the
hatching: the tail comes first from the egg, and the
pieces of the fine skin or shell torn by it, form the two
hinder fins. The head next appears at the other end,
and the torn shell there forms the forward fins. The
lower part of the egg forms the belly, and the upper
part next is broken, and the back appears. The
shell or skin which enveloped the embryo is not detached from the newly-born fish, but becomes a part
of and is absorbed by it.




16    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
PRESERVATION OF THE YOUNG FISH,
As incubation goes on and hatching time approaches, in order to determine when it will take
place and not to their injury retain the little fish too
long prisoners, the boxes should be frequently inspected.  When incubation is finished and the little
fish begin to move, they must still be kept inclosed
from eight to fifteen days, according as their numbers
are small or great; then they may be set at liberty
in the quietest part of the stream, care being taken
that the quality of the water is the same as that
which has flowed through the boxes, for a change to
water of more or less freshness or clearness will have
a sensible influence on their frail existence.
A wide field for experiment is here open to any
who choose to enter upon it: for example, it would
be very interesting to ascertain the results of different
modes of treatment by placing similarly, either confined in large boxes or at liberty in running brooks,
equal numbers of young fish, andl supplying one set
with thickened blood and other food, and leaving the
other set to find such food as nature affords, to note
the relative increase. Experiments, too, might be
made with boxes having larger holes than those before described-large enough for the escape of the
young fish as soon after hatching as they might seek
their liberty; which mode might do away with the




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    17
necessity of watching the process of hatching, with
the view to opening the boxes soon after.
ON THE PRESERVATION AND TRANSPORTATION OF
THE EGGS.
In some sections of country, when many crops
have been gathered from the same plot of ground, it
becomes in a degree exhausted, and, whether to improve it for the same or prepare it for another kind
of crop,it is usual to overflow it, converting it into a
fish pond and stocking it with carps and tench.
After three or four years the water is drawn off, the
fish taken and sold, and the land cultivated.  A few
years having elapsed it is again overflowed, but need
not again be stocked with fish, as they now appear,
as it were, spontaneously. We have the evidence of
numerous observers as to this fact, and among others
the inhabitants of a commune near Grenoble. They
state.that there is a little lake on the side of a hillin the
commune of Jarrie, not far distant from their town,
which is well stocked with carps and tench. Sometimes the lake dries up and the ground is then cultivated with hemp and yields abundantly; and again
it is filled with water, and carps and tench appear in
great quantities.
The river Drac has a wide bed, and the current
at times makes new channels or retakes old ones
which have dried up; in the pools of these old channels soon appear quantities of trout whose size shows




18     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
their age to date from the period of the water's return. This fact is vouched for by the fishermen of
that river. The inference is clear, that the fecundated eggs have been left in the bed of the channel at
the time it dried up, and so remained until the returning waters have united all the necessary elements
of incubation, which has then taken place, and soon
after the eggs have been hatched.
Founded on these facts, Mr. Gehin adopts the
following mode for preserving and transporting fecundated eggs.
IHe takes one of th6 boxes we have already described, and covers the bottom with a bed of fine sand;
he covers this with a layer of gravel or pebbles, varying in size from a pea to a hazelnut, and upon the
gravel he spreads a layer of fecundated eggs.  These
again are covered with sand, then another layer of
gravel and then one of eggs, and so on till the box
is filled.  EIe takes great care beforehand to wash the
sand and gravel so as to free it entirely from every
particle of mud or slime.
When the box is full he dips it in water so that
its contents shall be thereby more closely packed together; and being thereafter exposed to the air it
can be sent anywhere without altering the condition
of the eggs.
On the receipt of the box its contents are taken
out and placed in five or six other boxes-each containing the spawn of one female —and these are
placed in the gravelly bed of a stream according to




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.       19
the directions before given as to artificial incubation.
If any of the eggs have a different appearance
from that before described as fitting them for incubation they must be thrown away, and the cleaner the
eggs are the better will be the success of the experiment. The sterile and spoiled eggs become white
and opaque like the white of a hen's egg boiled, and
if broken yield a milky fluid.
Mr. Gehin tried the experiment of drying in the
sun eggs spread on paper, and then placing them in
a hatching box. With some he succeeded. Now
that Gehin and Remy have opened the way, we may
look for the results of various experiments that will
doubtless be made by others, in the modes of preserving eggs, crossing the breeds of different species
of fish, and kindred matters.
UTILIZATION OF FISHING AT TIMES PROHIBITED BY
LAW.
Trout-fishing is prohibited during spawning time,
that is during November and December, because the
fish coming then together in shoals can so easily be
taken and the work of reproduction prevented. But
fishermen, stimulated by large profits and lessened
toil, brave the law and destroy in the germ millions
on millions of fish.
To these fishermen M3r. Gehin gives this advice:
they should take with them a little pot made of zinc;




20     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
say five inches in diameter and six inches deep. It
should be filled one third full of water, and a piece of
wood the size of the pot may cover the water to prevent its splashing out as the pot is carried from one
place to another by the fishermen while at their work.
When they take a female fish they should put her
eggs in the pot and in like manner put into it the
milt from the male fish. Mr. Gehin thinks it unimportant whether the eggs or the milt be first placed
in the pot; that will depend on whether the female or
male is first caught. When they have done fishing
they should dig a hole in the bed of the current near
where they have been fishing, and cover the bottom
with fine gravel. Into it they should pour the eggs,
which, when fecundated, will drop to the bottom
among the gravel like little shot.  The hole should
then be filled up with little stones and covered with
gravel, and incubation will go on and in due time the
eggs will be hatched.
By these means the fishermen, while reaping all
the advantage of their illegal trade, will not be in
fact doing any injury to the process of reproduction.
GENERAL REMARKS.
Mr. Gehin has observed that fish are with difficulty acclimated on being taken from one stream to
another; often they die; almost always they become
sterile. But eggs so transported are easily incubated
and hatched, and produce fine fish.




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    21
He has also remarked that except in a running
stream, other fish than carp and tench become barren.
lWhen fish are caught for the purpose of taking
from them the eggs and are found to be in an unfit
state to be operated upon,from not having gone their
full time, they should be kept in a reservoir till the
proper time, and then relieved of their eggs and set
at liberty again. Otherwise they will die in the reservoir; as they will not while in that manner kept
prisoners spawn naturally, but will retain their eggs
and perish.
When eggs are preserved in water, it must be
frequently renewed or aquatic plants be placed in it.
These plants preserve the eggs in unchanged condition.
We have weighed one hundred unfecundated eggs
of small trout, after having preserved them in water
for two days, and dried them on linen for five minutes,
and found their weight to be four gram.  Twentysix eggs placed in a straight line made one hundred
millimetres, which gives a diameter of a little less than
four millimetres for each egg.
RESULTS WHICH MAY BE HOPED FROM THE DISCOVERIES OF GEHIN AND REMY.
Man reigns on the earth supreme: he bends the
sun to his use for the plants he requires; domestic




22     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
animals submit to his will and produce at his pleasure; he commands the waters to transport him
with fearful speed, and soon perhaps the air will be
conquered. All nature seems to obey his laws. The
fish alone have escaped his dominion, but not his
nets.
Now Mr. Gehin has discovered the secret of their
reproduction, and placed in our grasp the means to
enliven our rivers and watercourses, as we cover our
fields with corn, hemp or flax, as we multiply our
flocks, our domestic fowls, our silk worms.
The discovery of Gehin and IRemy is a great fact
for humanity, parallel with the introduction into
France of the potato.
Like all other great discoveries, now that we have
it, this seems the simplest in the world.  How, we
ask ourselves, was it possible for any one to eat
fish-roe without thinking of the innumerable fish
thus destroyed in the germ, and what would that
thought lead to but the search for a mode of preventing such wholesale slaughter and the easy discovery
of such a mode'? Yet it took six thousand years to
find the right means to solve readily and practically
the difficulty; and we now have the solution in so
simple a form that even the children of fishermen
practise it as easily as they would tend a flock of
sheep.
But the most elementary ideas, which ought to
open at once the eyes of the world, are often those
which are last taken hold of. They seem, indeed, like




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    23
the mystical and undecipherable finger-post inscription  "Ccesticilechenindesanes';" to the bewildered
gaze of the peasant.
Thus, whenever and wherever on this earth three
men have been brought together, in what is called
the social state-that is, one to command, the second,
the office-holder to oversee the execution of commands, and the third, the hewer of wood and drawer
of water, to do and to suffer, —poor humanity has revolted, and hence the ever-enduring, universal social
war, for a just distribution of nature's gifts.  Yet
the solution of this problem, which has caused the
flow of oceans of blood and tears, is perhaps as simple
as that of'artificial fecundation; and possibly should
society and government devote to it ever so small a
part of its vast machinery of subjugation and repression, the mighty social problem would soon be resolved.
For ever will the discovery of Gehin and Remy be
a fruitful fact for humanity; one of the grandest discoveries of ancient or modern times; a discovery
which we place even above that of Leverrier: for, to be
like him, the philosopher, man must live, and they
find new and abundant means for existence. And
this we aver while signalling Leverrier's discovery as
the most brilliant evidence of the grasp and power of
the human mind.  And even with this acknowledgment, we would still put above his marvellous work
* " This is the road for Asses."-Tr.




24     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
the discovery of a sure mode to prevent all diseases
incident to the potato or the grape; for potato-roots
saved from destruction would assuage much human
misery, while the knowledge of the existence of Leverrier's planet lessens not a single pang of a single
human creature.
Leverrier has been loaded with honors and crosses,
he and his, and he earned these rewards. But what
has society done for Gehin and Remy?  It has given
them both together the one sixth part of the sum
offered to Mr. Gehin by the Spanish ambassador if he
would take his invention to Spain. To Mr. Gehin
the government has given an appointment to travel,
as it may direct him, and spread abroad through
France a knowledge of his discovery, and this office
has a salary about equal to that of a petty commercial traveller.  But, modest as is the salary, it
suffices Mr. Gehin, who is distinguished for modesty
and sobriety-qualities which add tenfold to any income. All the gold in the world cannot bring to such
a man the riches which he finds in the moderation
of his desires.
But when we see so many men filling honorable
and well-paid functions, loaded with pensions and decorations after a few years' service, as if it were difficult to find men capable of doing. such duties, we
naturally inquire how it is that the great work of
Gehin and Remy has not obtained for them a cross
of honor. What social fact of our time can be put
in comparison with their discovery?




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    25
If the smallest pattern of an academician-one
called to his chair for a successful piece of poetry —
had made such a discovery, he would by this time
have had crosses from every sovereign in Europe; but
these are only two fishermen!
The bestowal of the cross, when it is richly
merited, honors the giver; and, in any case, tends
to elevate the receiver. Not only crosses, but statues
are due to Gehin and Remy, and posterity, more just
than their contemporaries, will do them right.
INJUSTICE TOWARDS THE INVENTORS.
On the announcement of Gehin and Remy's beautiful discovery, the scientific world was of course in
commotion. Envoys from the academies of Paris,
Holland and Strasburg, came to the inventors to be
assured of the reality of their claims. Reports
attesting the truth were made to the Academy of
Sciences and the government. Mr. Gehin was called
to Paris.  There he met the most honorable and
friendly attentions from his countryman lMr. Buffet,
the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, from
whom he received many dinner invitations. He had
also the honor of being invited to dine with the President of the Republic.  Besides all this, the Academy
of Sciences inscribed the names of Messrs. Gehin and
Remy among its members.
All these circumstances denoted very clearfl]y that
2




26     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH
the process discovered by them is an economical fact
of the highest importance.  Simple fishermen are
not thus treated, who have nothing but their industry
to depend on for their livelihoodl, and no circle of
acquaintance beyond their humble position in the
social scale. But in the breasts of these two men
existed instinctively the love of humanity, that fruitful sentiment which gives birth to great ideas and
facts, the product of the heart and not of education.
In the presence of such results the envy of savants soon developed itself, and ere long some were
found contesting with the inventors the claim to
their discovery.  Five or six learned writers were
cited, who, in as many memoirs in different languages, produced in the course of a hundred years,
had shown that there existed some vague notion as
to the practicability of artificial fecundation.  And
on this basis our two fishermen were accused of plagiarising the original idea-they who in their process
had never studied any other than the book of nature.
We are greatly astonished at the injustice of
these learned men, whose position should have
prevented them from such acts.  It is well known
that learning does not invent: that is the province
of genius. The most beautiful ideas are not due to
science; they are hatched from privileged brains,
where they spontaneously appear, without regard to
the knowledle of their possessor.  Study does not
conduct to ideas, it only leads to consequences.
In the present case it seems to us, that, so far




THE NEW ART O0' BREEDING FISH.    27
from blazoning to the world what those meritorious
writers may have said about artificial fecundation,
our savants should rather have been careful to keep
their facts out of view; for if we admit them, they
only go to prove that these authors having communicated to the academies their knowledge of artificial
fecundation, those learned bodies could not put together three simple ideas: fecundatio, artnicicfq
/actchincg, and propgation, and draw from them, for
the interests of humanity, the natural results which
must strike the sense of any intelligent person; and
that it needed two simple fishermen to vivify their
ideas and spread them before the world.
How, then, can this embryo thrown a hundred
years ago into the domain of science, and which up
to this clay has never been able to pierce the dust
that envelopes it, be compared with the living idea
of Gehin and Remy? an idea which from the beginning Spain and Holland have sought to carry off
from France; an idea, the consequences of which
will soon fill, according to their needs, all the streams
of the world? What, indeed, is this sterile, useless
egg, in presence of the millions of fish we can already
enumerate, after these few years of almost unaided
experiment!
We bring this sketch to a close by a single reflection, but one sad enough: If humanity were in
the moon (if we may be pardoned the illustration),
and it were possible to establish intercourse with
that orb, all our intellectual and material treasures




28     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
would be lavished upon it. But what should be
done for that which surrounds us? Nothing.  Pride
would not be satisfied, pride born of egotism, which
never produced any thing good. But we may console ourselves by the maxim of immortal wisdom:
C" Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."




PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS
IN
F IS H-il A  IS  IN  G.
BY
M. COSTE,
MUEMBER OF THIE FRENCII INSTITUTE AND PROFESSOR OF THE COLLEGE OF FRANCGE
INTRODUCTION.
HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF ARTIFICIAL FECUNDATION.
When and by whom was artificial fecundation
discovered?
When and by whom was the discovery practically
and usefully applied?
These are the questions which I here propose to
examine.
About the middle of the last century, in 1758,
Count de Goldstein, Grand Chancellor of His Palatine Highness for the Duchies of Bergues and Juliers, sent to one of his ancestors of the celebrated
Fourcroy, an essay on the artificial fecundation of




30      THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.
fishes' eggs, and on the employment of the process
for stocking rivers and ponds.  This remarkable
work, of which Jacobi was the author, being in the
German language, M. de Fourcroy found difficulty
in translating; Count de Goldstein consequently furnished him with it in Latin.  The French version
from this was published entire in 1773, in the Treatise on Fish (Trait6 Gene'ral des Pches), by Duhamel clu Monceau, by order of the Academy of Sciences.'
I call Jacobi the author, because, many years before Duhamel's work appeared, or the French version
of the memoir sent to AI. de Fourcroy by Count de
Goldstein was known, M. Gleditsch communicated to
the Poyal Academy at Berlin, which inserted it in
the collection of its transactions for 1764, a detailed
analysis of the paper by Jacobi, for which it was indebted to Baron Weltheim de Barbke, ancd which had
for its title, "Abridged account of the mode of artificially producing Trout and Salmon, founded upon
the practical experience of a skilful naturalist."
("E Exposition abrge'e d' une f6condctcioc artificielle des
Truites et des Saumons, qui est assurde sur des exp26riences certaines, faites _par un habile naturaliste." t
But as the work in question is an abridgment of a
memoir in German furnished by Jacobi himself, and
as this naturalist proposes in it, in the samne terms,' Duhamel du Monceatu, Traite des Peches, p. 334. Paris, 1iM73.
1 [ist. del Acad roy. des sc. et des belles-lettres, annee 1764.
Berlin, 1776, vol. XX. p. 47.




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    31
the modes recommended in the copy of the Count
de Goldstein, it is clear that to him belongs the honor
of the discovery.  The original paper in which, cfter
thizrty years of research, he developes all the consequences of the discovery, was published in 1763 in
the Journal de Hanowlre.  The author arrived at
these important results in the following manner:
It was known in his time that at spawning season
trout and salmon ascend brooks in which clear water
runs over a gravelly bottom, choose a resting-place,
then working with head and tail manage to move the
gravel, and heap it up in a manner to form a sort of
dike to break the fbrce of the current, in the interstices of which their progeny may find shelter.  In
this dike or gravel-bed the female deposits her eggs,
pressing her belly against it to facilitate spawning.
As the eggs are pressed from her their weight carries
them to the bottom, and, as the bottom is pebbly,
they fall into the interstices till they fill the bed thus
prepared for their reception. Thus placed they are
protected from being washed away by the force of the
current, and preserved in a state of cleanliness which
is necessary to their ulterior development.
It was known too, at the time the memoir was
written, of which Count de Goldstein gave a copy to
MA. de Fourcroy, that the moment the female finishes
spawning, the male in like manner pressing with his
belly the gravelly bed emits his milt, and that this
milt mixing with the current passes like a cloud over
the eggs, impregnating them with lifegiving parti



32      THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
cles, and disappears after having for a moment
troubled the transparent water.
Scientific observation had it seems then established, that the contact of the egg and the milt was an
external phenonenon realized between two products of
parental organism, expelledfrom that organism and
combining exteriorly to it.
From this observation of what happens normally
in nature to the idea of its artificial imitation, was
only a step, and this was plain to the admirable sagacity of the author of the memoir published by the
Count de Goldstein.  He thus explains it': " If this
description of natural propagation by trout and salmon be compared with the artificial processes we
have deduced therefrom, we flatter ourselves that in
our method will be recognized all the principles indicated as essential to nature.";':
According to his description, after having emptled into a vessel a pint of clear water, he seized a
female whose eggs were at maturity, and by a slight
pressure expressed them into the vessel.
Then he took a male and in like manner expressed
into the vessel enough of his milt to give a milky
hue to the water in imitation of nature's process, and
thus he practised artificial fecundation.
" A pint of very clear water," he says,'" is poured
into a nice clean vessel, such as a wooden bucket or
shallow tub; a female salmon is then taken by the
* Duhamel, op. cit., 2d part, p. 342.




TIHE NEW  ART OF BLEEDING FISH.    33
head and held over it, if the eggs have come to maturity they will fall into it; if not, by pressing the
belly lightly with the palm of the hand they can be
made to do so. The nmale fish is then treated in the
same manner.  When from the lmale enough milt has
been pressed out to whiten the surface of the water,
the operation of fecundating the eggs is complete."' 
But in order to complete his experiments and turn
them to account in industrial application, he had
prepared beforehand, to receive the fecundated eggs,
long hatching-boxes, in the arrangements of which
were combined all the conditions with which he had
observed the females surrounded their spawn when
deposited at the bottom of streams.  He thus describes this hatching apparatus:
" The box may be constructed of any suitable
size: for example, eleven feet long, a foot and a half
wide, and six inches high.
" At one extremity should be left an opening six
inches square, covered by a grating of iron or brass
wire, the wires not being more than four lines apart.
At the other extremity on the side of the box should
be made a similar opening, six inches wide by four
inches high, similarly grated; this one will serve for
the escape of the water, the other for its entrance,
and the grating will prevent water-rats or any destructive insects from reaching the eggs. The top of
the box should be closely shut for the same reason,
- Duhamel, op. cit., 2d part, p. 334
2*




34      THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.
but a grated opening, similar to the rest, six inches
square, may be left to give light to the young fish;
this however is not absolutely necessary.
" A suitable place should then be chosen for the
box, near a rivulet, or, what is still better, near a pond
supplied with running water, from  which may be
drawn by a little canal a stream, say an inch thick,
which should be made to pass continually through the
gratings and through the box.
" Lastly, the bottom of the box to the thickness
of an inch should be covered with sand or gravel, and
over this should be spread a bed of stones of the size
of' nuts or acorns.
c Thus will be made a little artificial brook running over a gravelly bottom." 
It is then in this artificial brook, where, I repeat,
are found so cleverly united all the conditions sought
by the female in a state of nature, that the author
of the memoir published by the Count de Goldstein,
deposits the eggs fecundated by the artificial process,
the discovery of which belongs to him.
"' The eggs thus fecundated are spread," he says,
" in one of the boxes so placed, and the water of
the little rivulet passes over them, care being taken
that it does not run with such rapidity as to displace
and carry away with it the eggs, for it is necessary they
should remain undisturbed between the pebbles."t
When he had thus scattered the fecundated eggs
* Duhamel, op. cit., 2d part, p. 834.
f Duhamel, op. cit., 2d part, 1p. 335.




THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.         35
on the gravelly bottom of this artificial rivulet, he
watched with care during the six or seven weeks of
incubation, all the varied phases of their development, with a view of discovering any hidden obstacle
to the success of the experiment. He found that
the time necessary for incubation varied with the
temperature: that it took a much longer time when
the water was cold than when it was moderate.  He
found, too, that a sediment is deposited on the eggs,
which is hurtful or destructive if allowed to remain,
and to remedy this difficulty he cleaned them with
the feather of a quill.
" Care must be taken to remove from  time to
time the dirt which is carried by the water and deposited on these eggs; this can be clone by stirring
about the water with a quill feather."
Placed in these favorable conditions, and subject to his assiduous care, the eggs passed safely
through every stage of their development.  The
young fish, thus hatched, seemed quite equal to those
hatched in the natural way.  After their birth he
still preserved them for five weeks, and did not turn
them  into his brooks till the umbilical bladder appeared absorbed, that is to say, until they commenced
to feel hunger.
After an experiment so successfully made, and
often repeated, the ingenious author of this discovery
had the right to say as he did, that fhis method ccpDuhamel, op. cit., 2d part, p. 335.




36      THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
plied to all species offish might become a source of
great profit.  This claim to his discovery, his work
so well establishes, that it seems singular that any
one should attempt to deprive him of it.  He places
it beyond doubt, by the care he takes to show all the
cases where his invention will give results theretofore
impossible. Thus he demonstrates the possibility of
creating at will, mixed breeds, by mixing the spawn
and milt of two different species, which could not be
done before his discovery; he shows, too, the possibility of hatching artificially alongside of pondls
containing unproductive species, the eggs of these
very species, and of stocking these ponds with young
fish from these eggs.
Every part of his research is characterized by
such exactitude and practical good sense, that all
fundamental questions are resolved; and this new
discovery had hardly appeared in the domain of
science when it was transferred to that of industry.
It was in the kingdom of Hanover, near to Nortelem, that the first trials were made.  They gave
such important results that the fish so obtained became an object of considerable commerce, and England wishing to reward such service, granted a pension to the party who successfully commenced it::
Thus then, not only does the discovery of artificial fecundation belong to the author of the memoir
published by the Count de Goldstein, but to him too
* Soir'es helvetiennes, etc. Amsterdam, 1771, p. 169.




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.         37
belongs the honor of its application; for the commer-cial success, if I maybe allowed the phrase, of the
Norte.lem enterprise, was obtained under his influence
and by putting in practice his ingenious method.
In giving to industry this new method, science
too was put in possession from that time of a means
of production which she described in all treaties on
the history of fishes, and which may be found even
in the Fishing lcizzauas.  Science.has unceasingly
reproduced this discovery in her annals, and practised it in her laboratories, in order that, wherever
the depopulating of streams was producing want,
people might know of a remedy for the growing evil.
Science, in now bringing forward the fruits of her
past experiences, and regulating their present application to the necessities of the times, only continues
to fulfil her mission.
We need not then be astonished, after having
read what had previously been done, to find, when
in 1837 and 1841, the number of salmon in the
waters of Great Britain commenced diminishing,
that lMr. Shaw first, and afterwards Mr. Boccius, profiting by the knowledge of the process, formerly so
successful in Hanover that their government had
rewarded its author, had recourse to the same process for the multiplication of this valuable species.
The memoir published by  Count de Goldstein,
that of Jacobi, and the industrial enterprise at Nortelem, were the antecedents that guaranteed their
success.




38      THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.
Consequently, in 1837, Mr. John Shaw*' took
in the river Nith, in Scotland, a male and female
salmon, at the moment the two fish were preparing
the bed of stones in which to deposit their spawn,
and dug along the shore a ditch into which lie turned
a current from the stream, and put in it an earthen
pot; then having expressed from the female the
eggs into this pot, he expressed from the male the
milt into  the current flowing over the pot, into
which the fecundating particles were carried, and
the eggs impregnated.
The eggs thus fecundated were carried to one of
the basins he had had prepared for hatching them
and preserving the young.  There they were deposited on a bed of stones, under a fall of water from
a little canal; and after an incubation, which, owing
to the low temperature of the water, lasted a hundred and ten clays, the young salmon broke their
shells.  They were still preserved where they were
born, and thrived so well that eighteen months afterwards the males of this brood were capable of
reproduction, as was proved by a number of experiments, fecundating with their milt t[he spawn of
full-grown female fish taken from the river.
In 1841, nMr. Boccius, a civil engineer of H1ammersmIith, carried to still greater lengths practical
results of such experiments.  He, like those who
preceded him, made use of artificial fecundation for
* Exp. Ob. on/ the develop. and growth of Sadnon flr. Ediaburgh, 1840.




THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.         39
stockling the streams of Mr. Drummond, in the vicinity
of Uxbriclge, and he estimated the number of trout
he produced and brought up there at 120,000. In
succeeding years he practised the same process on
the estate of the Duke of Devonshire, at Chatsworth,
of Mr. Gurnie at Carsalton, and of Mr. Hibberts at
Chatfort.::
Just about this time, ir. Remy, a fisherman of
Bresse, an illiterate man, and consequently ignorant
that science was already possessed of the discovery
of artificial fecundation, the application of which had
already produced considerable results; this fisherman, I repeat, seeking a remedy for the decay of his
branch of industry, passed many years of his life in
one of the most secluded valleys of the mountains of
Vosges, in reproducing the experiments already made
by so many celebrated physiologists that the long list
of their names need not here be recapitulated, and
discovering what naturalists had already known for
more than a century. Endowed by nature with a remarkable faculty of observation, and with that perseverance that no obstacle discourages, he succeeded
in his enterprise. His process of artificial fecundation does not differ from  the one described in the
memoir published by the Count de Goldstein, discovered by Jacobi, employed by all physiologists, by
Boccius-for there could not be two modes of operating, though his hatching boxes are not so rationally
* Boccius, Fish in Rivers and Streams, London, 1848.




40       THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING  FISH.
combined as the artificial rivulets of the Count de
Goldstein;  rivulets which, notwithstanding  their
superiority to  the boxes of M3essrs. Gehin and Remy,
have still inconveniences which I have overcome by
substituting wicker hurdles or baskets.
But, as Mir. MIilne Edwards has already stated in
his remarkable report, if scientific men have preceded
Mr. Reny in his researches, and if he has not enriched
natural history with new facts, he is not the less
worthy of our interest, and we owe to him  our thanks,
for he was the first in our country  to couple the
process of artificial fecundation with the preservation
of the brood; a combination which, considering the
isolated  scene of his labors, had, for  idUn,  all the
merit of a real invention.  His first essays, M]r. Gehin
having subsequently been associated with him, were
made in 1842.:
Notwithstanding the invention having been laid
* The government wishing to make to these two fishermen
a proper acknowledgment, granted to Mr. Remy a tobacco factory,
and at the instance of the commission (of which I was a member
with Messrs. de Suzanne, de Bon, de Franqueville, Mauny, de
3Mornay, Doy6re, and my two  brother academicians, Milne
Edwards and Valenciennes) an annual pension of 1,500 francs from
the budget of the Minister of the Interior: and to Mr. Gehia a
tobacco factory at Strasburg, an annual pension of 500 francs,
a gift of 1,200 fiancs, 10 fiancs a day for travelling expenses
while in his department, and 2-} francs per myriameter out of his
department.  M. Huertier, Councillor of State, Director General
of Agriculture and Commerce, who gives his powerful and intelligent co-operation to the organization of fish culture in France, has
graciously and warmly responded to these views of the commission.




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    41
before the Society of Emulation of Vosges, and the
granting by that society of a medal to these two
fishermen, it remained buried in their archives; for it
was only in 1848 that the Academy of Sciences was
apprised of the claim of the fisherman of Bresse.
This claim appeared in consequence of a lecture in
which Mr. de Quatrefages, without knowing of the
researches of Mr. Remy, called the attention of agriculturists to the fact, that science furnished them
a means, discovered a century since, of re-populating
their streams, as an organized trade in Germany and
experiments in England had proved.
At this period, I had already instituted experiments on the domestication of fish, of which my works
on raising eels, and on the nest-building of the Epinoche, are fragentsment-eperiments which I have continued at the College of France, where, as professor
of comparative Embryogeny for ten years past, I have
been obliged, in elucidating to my class the phenomena of conception, to make them observe the actual processes of nature by the aid of the microscope,
and to exhibit to them the experiment of artificial
fecundation. The question of the application of this
process entered naturally into the habitual course of
my studies, and it seemed to me I was giving effectual aid to the organization of a new branch of
industry by devoting my laboratory to it.  I had
in this no idea of setting up a discoverer's claim,
or doing aught else than extending to the discovery
a benevolent patronage. My life belongs to the new




4'2    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
science, the teaching of which has been confided to
me, and with which are connectedl the highest and
grandest questions of natural philosophy; a science
of which, thanks to the friendship of M. Guizot, I
have had the rarle honor of being called to fill the first
established professorship.
It is not to be doubted, that in this discovery
Germany and England have preceded France, but it
is also true, that to our country belongs the honor of
establishing its wide-spread popularity and European
credit.
Since the day when the results of iMr. Rerny's experiments were vouched for by the official report of
M[r. Milne Edwards, and that, upon my proposition,
it was decided that a model establishment should be
founded near Huningen, under the auspices of the
government and the direction of 3M]essrs. Berthot and
Detzemn, Engineers of the Rhone and Rhine Canal;
since, too, people have seen in course of construction
in lly laboratory, the hatching apparatus which I
designed for it; the public mind has been justly
alive to a project touching in so high a degree the
interests of society, and constant appeals have been
made to the teachers of science to agree upon and
make known the best and surest modes of success
in this new industrial pursuit.
It is in answer to these calls that I have instituted at the College of France a series of experiments, in which I study, with the greatest care, all
the conditions which favor or hinder their success.




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.          43
Every one will admit, that if the process of artificial fecundation is in the main the same for all the
worldl, its practical details as to bringing up the
young fish, their proper food, the mode of transporting them, etc., must, in view of the present diversity
of opinions, be established by decisive experiments,
which will settle these guestions and guarantee success.
To make known this valuable discovery; perfect
its processes; extend the application of them; to
reduce to certain rules different and uncertain practices; to introduce all the results which experience
constantly gives; to distribute to all countries, which
shall need them for experiments, the fecundatel eggs
of the establishment at Huningen, in order to excite
emulation; this is the part which, in conjunction
with aMessrs. Berthot and Detzeml, I have taken
upon myself in organizing fish-culture.
If I may judge from the evidences of good will
which I am receiving fromn every part of France, and
from foreign countries, by the mneasures taken by the
government on the publication of my reports, I may
believe that my intervention has not been useless.
But artificial fecundation constitutes only one branch
of the subject; with regard to rearing aquatic animals there are others no less important, which I
hope soon to succeed in making equally celebrated.
This publication, then, is but the first chapter
of the labors I am engaged in, but a response to
many demands for information which my occupa



44     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
tions have not permitted me to satisfy. I beg of all
those who have done me the honor to address me,
not to consider my silence as a want of courtesy, but
as a necessity of which I now wish to relieve myself
on presenting them this work.




PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS
IN
F I S H-R  A  I S I N G.
CHAPTER FIRST
PROCESSES OF ARTIFICIAL FECUNDATION.
Ir artificial fecundation with the eggs of any species
of fish whatever is tried, care must be taken,
at spawning time, to bring together in a pond
all the fish of that kind intended to be operated
upon. Then, having a proper receptacle for the
eggs, whether of glass, earthenware, wood, or even
of iron tinned, it matters not,-p-rovided it has a flat
bottom, as wide at least as its mouth, so that the
eggs may spread over it and not lie heaped up,and having carefully cleaned the vessel, one or two
pints of clear water should be emptied into it.
When these preparations are made, a female fish
should be taken, and held by the head and thorax
with the left, hand, while the right hand, its thumb




46      THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.
upon the belly, and its fingers on the back and sides,
is passed like a ring, lightly, backwards and forwards,
and brings the eggs near the opening through which
they are passed.  (PI. 2, f7g. 1.)
If the eggs are hard, and already free from the
membrane of the ovaries, the slightest pressure suffices to expel them, and under this pressure the abdomen is emptied without injury to the female operated upon; for the following year she will become as
fruitful as if she had spawned naturally, as we have
often had occasion to observe at the establishment
at Iuningen.
If, on the contrary, it appears that a greater degree of pressure is necessary to bring out the eggs,
we may be sure they are still inclosed in the tissue
of the organ which produces them, and that the operation is premature. In this case it should not be
persisted in, but the female should be put back into
the pond, and allowed to remain there till her full
time is accomplished, care being taken that this will
soon occur; for if a female fish in this condition is
kept captive for any length of time in a circumscribed place, her eggs will spoil.
If the females are too large to be held and emptied of their eggs by a single operator, another can
aid him in holding them over the receptacle, either
by passing his fingers in their gills, or by securing
them with a cord, and if the convulsive struggles are
very violent, it may be necessary for a third person
to hold the tail. The operator, then, with his




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.         47
thumbs upon the thorax and his fingers upon the
animal's sides, presses from top to bottom the enormous mass of eggs which distend the coats of the
belly. The vertical position in which the fish is
held usually suffices to press out the eggs nearest the
opening, and the pressure of the hands, repeated
several times, will successively bring all the rest.
The easy expulsion of the eggs proves their maturity, for it shows they are detached from the ovaries; but it does not prove absolutely their capability of being fecundated. For there are some cases,
the causes of which we have not ascertained, where
the female being in a stream and at liberty, and
having gone her full time, and her eggs being ready
for delivery, yet she does not or cannot free herself
from them, and being thus retained past their time
they lose their reproductive faculty.
Experienced persons easily recognize eggs of this
sort by two evident characteristics: one is the flowing out with them of a foreign matter, of which there
is no trace in their normal state, which gives a muddy hue to the water when the eggs begin to fall into
it; another is, the white color of these eggs when
they come in contact with the water. When neither
of these appearances is observed, we may be almost
sure the operation will be successful; for the eggs will
then be in good condition. But in all cases we must
guard against allowing too great a quantity of eggs
to fall into one vessel, for if those on the bottom are
covered over by too many others, they will not per



48     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
haps come in contact with the milt, which should
reach every part of them. It will be well, if the females are found to be very productive, to empty the
spawn into a number of vessels. The results will
then be more satisfactory.
As soon as the process of delivering the female
of the spawn is complete, if it appears that the operation of expressing it has brought along with it any
part of the mucus which is secreted by her intestines,
the water should be immediately changed, so as to
free it from every impurity, care being always taken
that the eggs are not allowed to become dry. This
done, a male fish should be taken, and his milt expressed in the same manner as the female's eggs.
If the milt has arrived at a state of maturity it will
flow abundantly, white and thick like cream, and as
soon as enough has been taken from him to give to
the water in the vessel the appearance of whey, it is
saturated sufficiently.  But in order that the fecundating particles may be spread every where and uniformly, the precaution should be taken of agitating
the mixture, and of softly turning over the eggs
with the hand, or what is better, with the fine long
hairs of a brush, so that no part of their surface
shall escape contact with the fecundating element.
After two or three minutes' rest the fecundation
is accomplished, and then the eggs, with the water
surrounding them, should be emptied into the hatching basins; or if these basins are some distance
removed from where the operation has been per



THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISII.    49
formed, the water must be renewed before they arrive at their destination, provided the distance be
not too great, for then other means must be taken,
which I will explain when I come to describe means
of transport.
While the mixture is agitated to help the absorption of the semen, if the eggs are of that species
which are found to be naturally cemented together
by a gelatinous matter, as, for example, are those of
the perch, great care must be taken not to pull them
apart. This agglutination is a natural condition of
their development, of which it would be injurious to
deprive them.
There is still another mode of treating the mixture of fecundating particles with the water, which
serves as a vehicle, and of aiding their absorption by
the eggs to be fecundated: it is to place in the vessel
a cullender well riddled, or better still, a fine basket.
Into this, while in the water, the eggs are expressed,
and then the milt.  The cullender should then be
moved about, up and down, and from side to side,
care being taken to keep it always in the water.
This movement has a double result: it thoroughly
mixes the fecundating liquor and brings it in contact
with every part of the eggs, and the experiment will
be successful if, after the agitation of the cullender,
it is allowed to remain at the bottom of the vessel
quietly for two or three minutes.
A third process is to express into the vessel the
milt, and not cause the eggs to fall into the water
3




50      THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.
till it has been thus first charged with fecundating
particles. The medium being thus prepared beforeband, the eggs reach it in a condition of peculiar aptitude for absorption, which they possess in the highest
degree the first moment of their immersion.  This
mode then seems to offer the greater chance of success.  I do not mean to assert that eggs laid in the
water some time before the milt is brought in contact with them, lose the power of receiving its influence.  For, many times, on the Rhine, I have had
occasion to observe that those of the salmon and
trout that had been expressed into the water nearly
two hours before a male could be caught, still preserved their aptitude for fecundation.  But still it is
an unfavorable condition, in which, if possible, they
should not be placed; above all, when the eggs of
other species are treated, which have not, like the
salmon and trout, a protecting and resisting envelope, but which are more sensitive to the influence of
the exterior world.
Another mode of treating artificial fecuncdation,
and one more nearly resembling nature's processes, is
to spread the eggs on a sieve fitted in a channel or
trough of wood or stone, through which runs a current from a water pipe, under the spout of which the
end of the trough is placed, and then to pour at
this point the spermatized water, and leave to the
running current the care of carrying the vivifying
particles to the eggs; but to operate in this way requires an apparatus not always at hand, and perhaps




THE NEWNI ART OF BREEDING FISH.      51
only t o be found in an establishment designed for the
business.  For general use and ready application I
recommend therefore, the process described at the
commencement of this chapter.
The milt of a single male will suffice to fecundate the eggs of a large number of females, provided
he is fed while in the pond or tank, and that care is
taken not to take him from the brook and shut him
up there until his milt is fully matured. Of this
fact the author of the memoir published by the
Count de Goldstein was aware, and I have often had
occasion to verify it while on board the boat of the
fisherman Glasser, at Bale, where the male salmon
and trout emptied one day to fecundate the eggs
destined for the government establishment at Huningen, are found gorged the next, and so on every
day, for the five or six during which their organs
secrete semen.  It is not necessary, therefore, in
experimenting on a large scale, to have numerous
males, but only that they should be in the condition
I have indicated.
CROSSING BREEDS.
Artificial fecundation gives the means of obtaining, by crossing breeds, mongrels having the qualities of the parents of the two kinds crossed.  It
will be curious to note all the results from experiments of this nature.  At present we know that
trout and salmon can be crossed.   Trout's eggs




52     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
fecundated with Salmon's milt, by the operations of
Messrs. Berthot and Detzem, on the Rhine, have
been sent to me, and have been hatched in my laboratory in Paris.  Salmon's eggs fecundatecl by
trout's milt, have been hatched in like manner.
It now remains to be determined if the experiment
of crossing these two kinds will, in like manner, succeed with  all others of the same family; and,
also, whether other kinds belonging to a different
family, the pike, for example, mixed with the first,
can procreate together.
The difficulty which the author of the memoir
published by the Count de Goldstein encountered
was, that the pike spawns in April, while the salmon and trout spawn in November and December;
but now, as we can procure the eggs or the milt of
the salmon of the Danube towards the end of April,
that obstacle to experiment is removed.  We can
try the fecundlation of eggs of this salmon with the
milt of the common ombre, and of eggs of the ombre with milt of salmon, and of eggs of both with
milt of the pike, etc.
The Chinese produce these results with golden
carp, of which they procure infinite varieties; but
their trade consists in confining together the varieties
of the same species, and allowing them to produce
cross breeds by natural propagation.




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    5-3
CHAPTER SECOND.
HATCHING APPARATUS.
A CENTURY ago Jacobi, author of the memoir published by Count de Goldstein, recommended the
spreading of the fecundated eggs among the pebbles
of the gravelly bed of long wooden hatching boxes,
grated at the ends, in imitation of the natural method of spawning practised by the female fish. With
this method he had complete success, and its application is still continued in Hanover, where it has so
lowered the price of trout as to make that fish a very
common article of food.  This method is the one
which has now been put in practice in France by the
two fishermen of Bresse, who, instead of long boxes
grated at the ends, have used circular ones riddled
with small holes.  But modes which seem suitable
for experiments on a small scale, or in the beginning,
are found inapplicable or inconvenient for a large and
well organized trade.  Some of these inconveniences
are so striking, that I need only name them to show
the necessity of recourse to other modes.
In the first place, the dispersion of' the eggs
among the gravel and shutting them  up tightly in
boxes, prevents that care which could be given to
them if they were always accessible.
Next, the sediment deposited by the water,




54     THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.
whether around or upon the box, or within it upon
the eggs, forms soon a thick bed, which oftentimes
destroys the eggs. I have seen boxes deposited in
the streams at Versailles, of which all the holes were
so stopped up with a calcareous deposit, that the
water could not penetrate them, and when opened,
the contents were found to be decomposed.
Lastly, the difficulty experienced after the young
fish are hatched to extricate them  from  their inaccessible bed without wounding them, is an obstacle
to their transport to the ponds where they need to
be placed to mature.
These inconveniencies have led us to seek modes
the employment of which would enable us, when
needfill, to handle these products with as much facility as we would inert matter.  They are'so simple,
and of such evident utility, that they must be adopted
when explained and understood.  They can as well
be applied to a regular trade as to the experiment
of a laboratory,-to an enterprise on the largest scale
as well as to the stocking of a pond or rivulet.
On willow hurdles (plate 2,fig. 2 c) or fiat baskets,
in our hatching streams, we place the fecundated eggs.
Their fine, meshes form a sieve through which passes
the sediment of the running water underneath, but
near the surface of which they are placed. In this
superficial position, they can be so easily observed
that nothing will escape a careful guardian.  If he
finds the current so strong as to displace and heap
them up, he will moderate it. If any hurtful sedi



THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.        55
ment begins to accumulate on them, he removes it
with a fine brush. If after being left some time, a
sort of coating of vegetable matter should be formed
about them, upon the hurdle or basket, he empties
them  from this dirty one into a clean one, and by
means of this easy transfer, which he effects without
injury even to the eggs just hatching or the fish just
hatchedl, he maintains the cleanliness necessary to
their development.
But these are not the only reasons for preferring
the hurdles just described to the pebbly bottoms recommended by Jacobi and by the two fishermen of
Bresse.  There is another no less worthy of consideration: it is that after the birth of the salmon or trout,
and we speak from having already made the experiment, the hurdles will serve as light rafts on which
to float, through a channel of communication, the
young fry to the pond in which they are to be kept.
To do this, it is only necessary to inclose them in a
floating frame which the current will carry to their
destination. The crowds of people attracted by curiosity to the College of France have had the opportunity to see more than 10,000 newly hatched salmon
or on the point of being hatched, lying at the same
time on the hurdles of a simple apparatus of not
more than a square metre of surface.  This result,
obtained in such restricted space, gives some idea of
what may be clone on a large scale, and for a regularly
organized trade.
I give here a figure (placte 2, fig. 2) representing




56      THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
this hatching apparatus, in order that landholders who
desire to stock their streams, may have similar ones
made.  It is formed of several small parallel canals,
disposed in steps on each side of the principal one
at the top, which supplies them all.
After having furnished each one of these canals
with a willow hurdle, secured about an inch below
the surface of the water, the machine is placed under a cock, so that the water, when turned on, will
run into one end of the highest canal.  The current
will run to the other end, and there find two lateral
openings, through which it will flow, right and left,
in two little falls, into the next two canals. Through
the length of these it will flow in an opposite direction, and find at the other end openings through
which it will again fall into other two canals, on a
lower plane, and thus from fall to fall, it may pass
through any number of compartments, or artificial
streams, we may require.
When the machine is in operation, we deposit on
each of the hurdles placed in these artificial streams,
the eggs to be hatched, the different kinds of which
may be separately placed in the different compartments. The current must continually flow over them
of the depth of an inch, which is sufficient to hinder
the formation of byssus, a kind of vegetation which
often destroys them, and from which in this way it
is easy to free them as step by step all their changes
are noticed.
By these artificial means eggs are developed and




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.          57
hatched more speedily and surely than in places
where the females deposit them, because they are
preserved from all variations of temperature and accidents that can retard, alter, or destroy them. Results already obtained, after several years experience
in hatching trout and salmon, leave no doubt of
the efficacy of this process, or of its capability of
adaptation on the grandest scale; for with some
slight modification, the machine I have described has
served as the model upon which was constructed the
vast apparatus of the establishment of Huningen.
To operate with it is neither difficult nor expensive;
it can be used in a laboratory or on a farm, almost
without supervision. All that is needed. is a little jet
of water flowing continuously.
If the machine I have just described seems too
complicated, one can be made like a single one of its
compartnments.  I have several times used a simple
wooden box, long and narrow, lined with zinc or lead,
or even an earthen fish kettle (2plate 2, ~fy. 3.)  The
eggs I have placed on the hurdles with which this
wooden canal or fish kettle was furnished, have
hatched in my laboratory as well as at the Chateau
d'Osman, in the department of Orne, the waters of
which seemed to me well adapted for bringing up
salmon.  A very fine jet will suffice to feed the current, and when the fountain is emptied, it may be
filled again, and the operation be thus carried on
with little difficulty.  It is not even necessary to
have always fresh water, for that once used and re3*




58      TITHE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
ceivecl in a tub or tank, may be employed again and
again, provided it is freed from impurities each time
by passing through a filter in the fountain.
If one has neither a, greenhouse, orangery, nor
coach-house, in which to put up such an apparatus
as I have described, and it is desired to hatch eggs
in a natural streamlet, it may be done by procuring
willow hurdles or large flat baskets resembling the
one in the engraving (plate 1,/ig. 4).  This basket
should be so fastened to the bank that its top should
be a little below the surface of the water. The fecundated eggs should then be spread over the bottom,
either upon the willow or upon living aquatic herbs
covering the bottom.
A willow lid (plate 2, fiy. 4 a), or any other suitable cover, should then be fitted to this basket, which
will protect the eggs and young fry from their natural enemies and destroyers, and this done, the
hatching will take place without any further supervision.
If in the locality where the experiment is to be
tried, there are not at hand either willow hurdles or
baskets, or the means of making them, recourse may
be had to shallow wooden tubs, pierced with a number of holes, covered with wire grating, through
which the water may freely flow over their contents.
The eggs being placed in them, the tubs should be
secured near the surface of the stream.
One of the chief difficulties in the way of natural reproduction is the absence from most streams of




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    59
shallow shelving banks, with aquatic plants, offering
the security which fish seek for depositing their
spawn.  So too in ponds, the sides of which are
evenly dug out by the pickaxe, the water in which is
every where of an equal depth, many of the commonest species either are barren or reproduce with great
difficulty. The employment of baskets or tubs in a
measure supplies such deficiencies, giving the means
artificially of placing the eggs near the surface of
the water, exposed to the rays of the sun, and, in
fact, in a similar position to that which the instinct
of the animal would choose as best suited to their
development.
The absence of running water sometimes prevents
reproduction by certain species, though the animals
live and prosper, and even spawn.  Trout kept in
ponds will spawn, the males will fecundate the eggs,
but the eggs fall to the bottom and soon perish. The
female labors in vain to keep them clean; with all
her care she can only do so for a very few days.
They become covered with dirt, and the germ is destroyed unless laid in gravel and washed constantly
by running water.
Hatching apparatus overcomes these difficulties.
It is only necessary to procure, by artificial means,
the eggs and the milt of even such as are unproductive ones in ponds, and by the aid of such apparatus
young fish can be obtained to restock them.




60     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
CHAPTER THIRD.
DEVELOPMIENT AND HATCHING OF THE EGGS, AND
CARES THEY REQUIRE DURING INCUBATION.
A  FEW  momlents suffice for a very appreciable
change which takes place in eggs artificially procured
and fecundated. The contents seem troubledl, become
more opaque than at the moment of expulsion from
the female, and then insensibly retake their transparent bue; but in the mean time a little spot, not preexisting, begins to show itself on a point of the
globe in the interior of the egg. This is caused by
a coalition of granules, forming what is termed the
gerim, and the coalescence of oleaginous molecules
which form  about the germ.  This modification,
which has been erroneously supposed to be the certain proof of fecndclction, takes place as well with
those eggs submitted to the action of the milt, which
become impregnated, as with those that do not: at
first both kinds appear exactly alike; except that in
the unimpregnatecl the phenomena is accomplished
a little more slowly and irregularly.
But if to the naked eye there is no difference in
appearance for the first few moments, or even for
the first few days, all doubt will be removed by a recourse to magnifying instruments.
The barren eggs deteriorate rapidly, become more




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    61
and more opaque, turn white, or else preserve
their transparency, but show no interior change. I
have seen numbers of eggs of salmon, trout, ombre,
and pike appear thus up to the moment when other
eggs preserved with them, of the same spawn, and
submitted to the action of the same milt, had come
to maturity and hatched.
On the other hand, in eggs vivified with the fecundating molecules, one may see after a time, which
varies according to the species and to the temperature.of the water, on the interior globe a line, which
covers about a quarter of its circumference. This
line, which seems whitish when the eggs are on a
Clark ground, or opaque when they are held up to the
light (in the manner in which our farmers examine
hens' eggs), is the origin of the foetus, and represents
the spinal column. As this line increases in size,
one end of it grows out to a point to form a tail, and
the other extends in the form of a spatula. This
last corresponds to the embryo's head, and of this
there is soon no doubt, for the eyes now appear, two
points of a blackish brown, easily distinguished, and
forming nearly two thirds of the whole mass of the
head. As each day developes its form, the young
fish may be seen under the shell or membrane,
stretching itself, and drawing itself up, and wagging
its tail. When hatching time comes, these movements, the probable object of which is to weaken or
tear the shell, become more active.  With salmon
and trout there is another sign of the approach of




62     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
hatching besides the quick movements of the young.
The outer envelope of the egg becomes a little
opaque, and as it were furfuraceous.  WVith other
species with which I have made observations, this
sign does not appear so plainly. At last a little
opening is made in the shell, and that part of the
embryo next the opening comes through it.  Ordinarily the tail or the head first appears, but sometimes it is the umbilical bladder.
Whatever part may be first disengaged, more
than half the body still remains imprisoned, and the
efforts of the young fish are unceasing, till after several hours it frees itself from the shell.  This membrane, which has protected its development, lbut has
not served to form any part qf its organs, being now
cast off, either is decomposed where it lies, or is carried off' by the current.
Certain kinds, like the pike and the ferrat, begin
immediately to range about in the waters where they
have just been hatched; others on the contrary, such
as the salmon and the trout, weighed down by their
enormous umbilical bladder (pL. 2, fig. 9), can only
move with great difficulty, and remain lying on one
side, or even on the bladder itself.  Some few attempt to move from one place to another, but soon
give up the effort.
The time for hatching is not the same with all
species, Some, like the pike, hatch at the end of
eight, ten, or fifteen days; others, like the salmon,
take from a month and a half to two months.




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.         63
Besides, development is more or less hastened,
according as the temperature of the water in which
they are laid is more or less elevated. Pike's eggs
placed in a vas3e the water of which without being renewed waa exposed to the sun's rays, hatched
in nine days; wlhile others of the same spawning,
placed in the shade in water constantly renewed took
eighteen to twenty days to hatch. It required also
twenty days to hatch eggs of the oimbre, which, more
favorably placed, hatched in twelve to fifteen clays.
Still greater variations of time appear in the incubation of other species of the salmon family.  In running water of a warm temperature, the eggs of salmon and trout will hatch in about thirty days, while
the same eggs in a cold stream will take seven or
eight weeks. The term of incubation may even extend to a hundred and ten days, as was proved by
the experiments made in Scotlandcl, by Mr. Shaw, to
which I have referred in the introduction.
During their change the eggs should not be left
to themselves; they require, on the contrary, a certain watchfulness and frequent visits, in fact, such
care as can be easily bestowed by the aid of the
hatching apparatus which I use.
Whether the artificial streamlets, which I propose,
be used, or in preference to them any other mode,
one precaution should always be taken; the eggs
should never be heaped upon one another. Their
accumulation prevents a proper surveillance of all of
them, and besides may retard or even prevent their




64      THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
development.  Another and more serious inconvenience often results: if one of the eggs becomes spoiled and covered with byssus, this byssus spreads to
the adjoining eggs, and in a few days reaches all that
are contiguous and destroys them.  The only mode
to diminish the extent or arrest the progress of this
evil, when the eggs have not been heaped up, is to
remove, at once, from the hatching place all that
show the least trace of alteration. If in place of
sacrificing, an attempt is made to save them by freeing them, with the aid of a brush, from the vegetable parasites covering them, not only will it be a useless trouble, since the tainted eggs are already struck
with death, but the evil will be aggravated by
spreading over the healthy eggs the particles of destructive byssus, by the very operation of cleansing.
There are cases where the employment of the
brush becomes indispensable and efficacious: as when
sediment forms in a thick layer on the eggs, whose
presence hinders the development of the embryo.  It
is necessary, then, to remove such matter by passing
lightly over them  a fine brush of badger hair, such
as painters use. (P1. 1,fig. 7.)
Lastly, the intervention of man becomes necessary when the larva, of insects, abundant in certain
waters, attack the eggs: from these enemies he must
deliver them.




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.          65
CHAPTER FOUR.
NURTURE OF THE YOUNG FISH.
AFTER being hatched, the young fish observe a rigorous diet, the term of which; varying with different
species, ceases with all when the umbilical bladder
disappears (p1. 2, fy. 10).  They feel no hunger
until after the nutritive elements contained in this
bladder have been absorbed, and while it remains
they refuse absolutely all other nourishment.  My
observations, on this subject, repeatedly made with
different species, but principally with trout and salmon, agree in every point with those made by Jacobi.
Like him, I have noted that trout do not begin to
eat till towards the end of the fourth week, and that
salmon do not require food till six weeks after birth.
The knowledge of this fact is not without importance for practical purposes, since it fixes exactly the
time when the feeding of the young fish should commence.  To furnish them with food before the absorption of the umbilical bladder, for example, on
the fifth or sixth day, as Mr. Haxo,~ after the method
of the two fishermen of Bresse, recommends for trout,
would be censurable were it not utterly useless, for
two reasons: first, young trout for the first month
* Fecondation artifciellc et eclosion des oeufs cel poisson. Epinal,
1852, p. 56.




66     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
of their existence possess all the nutriment they need
in the umbilical bladder; and next, they could not
take and assimilate other food, if furnished them,
their intestines not being sufficiently developed to
receive and digest it.
Independently of its uselessness, the practice of
furnishing food too soon may be really hurtful, especially if the young fish, artificially obtained, are confined in large numbers within restricted limits.  Animal matter furnished them, no matter in how small
quantity at first, not being consumed, accumulates
day by day at the bottom of the vessel, and in the
end becomes corrupt, and thus, as I have seen several examples, becomes a cause of mortality.
No matter, therefore, what kind of fish may be
obtained by artificial means, there is no necessity to
provide them with food until after the disappearance
of the umbilical bladder.  That most voracious species, the pike, even, is subject to this law, and I have
now under observation some of that species hatched
twenty days ago, which, having yet traces of the
umbilical bladder, do not seek for food.
With regard to salmon and trout it is not enough
to know when the young should be provided with
food, but also what kind of food should first be given
them. This problem, on the solution of which depends the success of fish culture on a great scale,
seems to me to have been resolved by the numerous
and varied experiments made at the establishment




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    67
at Huningen, and at my laboratory in the College of
France.
As early as 1849, as appears by a memoir on the
domestication of fish and the formation of ponds, I
had proved by actual experiments, that very young
fish could be fed upon the raw flesh of domestic animals, hashed, and that they would thrive and grow
rapidly on this diet.  This result, which I had obtained with young eels, confined by thousands in a
very small space, I tried with salmon and trout.
The muscular, raw flesh of full-grown animals, hashed up and pounded in a mortar till it was the consistency of pap, being given to them, I have observed
them seize the isolated fragments and devour them
with avidity.  I had thus the certainty that this
species of food suited them, and that I could bring
up in a small space, as I had done with eels, a very
large number of newly-hatched salmon and trout.
The operation of reducing muscular raw flesh to
minute fibrous particles, small enough to be readily
swallowed by exceedingly little fish, is one that deinands considerable time; and the further difficulty
of'separating and properly dispersing in the water
the compact mass of flesh resulting from this operation, led me to seek some more expeditious mode of
feeding.
To 3Ir. Chantrant, under whose charge is the
hatching apparatus of the College of France, is due
the idea of replacing raw by cooked meat.  This
substitute has had all the success I hoped for, and




68      THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
has enabled me to feed easily, and at small expense,
and to bring up in a space 55 centimetres long, 15
wide, and 8 deep, as many as 2,000 young salmon
at once.  The muscular flesh of boiled beef, which,
by being pounded, grated and cut, is reduced to particles proportioned to the size of the little animals it
is to nourish, flesh reduced to that state that it will
stick together in a mass but can be with greatest
ease separated into the smallest particles, I have
found, up to this time, the most suitable food for
very young fish just beginning to feel hunger.
Experience shows that this food is better for
them than calves' liver cooked, or beef's blood boiled.
These substances are not sought by young salmon
and trout with the same avidity as muscular fleshy
fibre, prepared as I have just described.  They prefer even the raw flesh of white fish pounded in a mortar, with which, for two years, Messrs. Berthot and
Detzem  fed. and brought up those confined in the
reservoirs of the establishment at Huningen. This
flesh of fish, well pounded, breaks up, as does that
of boiled beef, into vermiform particles, for which
young salmon show great liking.
As for the rest, whichever among these aliments
may be the one adopted, if the little fish intended
to be reared to the size at which they may be transported, are kept in narrow, artificial streams, or in
large vessels, wherein the water though changing has
not a rapid current, care must be taken, in order to
avoid accidents easy to foresee, to cleanse from time




THE' NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.       69
to time, by means of a glass pipe, the bottom of the
stream or vessel of the deposit formed of particles of
animal matter which the fish have not eaten.
I have thought that this inconvenience, which
without great care is followed by serious results,
mlight be easily avoided, if, in place of dead food,
the young salmon and trout could be furnished with
living prey. Although the results I have thus far
arrived at in experimenting with this view are not
yet confirmed by long practice, they nevertheless appear conclusive enough to be reported.
The spawn of the frog, so extolled by the fishermen of Bresse, was the subject of my first experiment. The eggs of this animal were placed in ponds
in which were hatching boxes containing young salmon and trout, and were there developed and hatched; but neither the tadpoles nor the albumen that
enveloped them were sought by the young salmon
and trout. I do not mean to say that such prey was
not to their taste, but only that its size was too
great for such little fish. If tadpoles are suitable
food for fish a year or two old, I am convinced they
cannot be fit for little ones which have just lost the
umbilical bladder.  I found it necessary, therefore,
to abandon the attempt of feeding fish of that age
with such food.
I had recourse to another expedient and with
happier results.  Pike's eggs, artificially fecundated,
being put to hatch in reservoirs in which were very




70     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
young salmon, the young that came from them were
small enough to be easily swallowed by the salmon,
and manvy persons have beheld with me the young
salmon darting at them  the moment they appeared
from the egg. Often they would even eat the membrane or shell of the egg from which the young had
been hatched.
I do not hesitate, then, to recommend this kind
of food as the one most suitable, most resembling
that obtained in a state of nature, and best adapted
to the appetite of young salmon. Andl, besides, it is
simple and easy, for it only requires the artificial fecundation of eggs, not alone of pike but of other
kinds of white fish of little value, and the hatching
of them either in separate boxes, or even in those
containing the young they are to find.
Another living prey which young salmon and
trout appear to relish greatly, consists of almost imicroscopic crustacea, of the species cythdre, cyprus,
and cyclops, etc., which can be found in great abundance, particularly in spring, in all stagnant waters.
They can then be taken in such quantities as to
serve as the chief food for very young salmon. These
microscopic crustacean always in movement in the
water, are for young salmon and trout an attractive
food, they seek with avidity and thrive upon.
Lastly, very small, newly-hatched earth-worms,
are also a prey for which young salmon and trout
have a predilection; but it is not always easy to pro



THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    71
cure them in abundance, and they must therefore be
considered as an occasional luxury.
Whatever be the regime to which the young fish
are submitted, whether living prey be obtained for
them, or in default of it they are fed upon cooked
meat, in all cases it is possible to bring them up, to
the number of many thousands, within very narrow
limits, and to cause them to grow rapidly until they
attain sufficient size to be let loose in larger streams.
But there the same care and the same provision
of food should be extended to them. A perfect system of economy even requires their being furnished
with food at all stages of their existence.  Not only
will this prevent those of a carnivorous species from
preying on one another, but they will acquire soon a
more beautiful shape and better qualities than they
could do if abandoned to the resources which streams
naturally offer.  Means of feeding become more easy
as the fish grow older. Thus, to salmon a year old,
can be furnished with little trouble, in great abundance, tadpoles, the fry of white fish, and principally of
minnows, aquatic mollusca, little fresh water shrimps.
Those of a more advanced age will thrive upon the
leavings of the kitchen, and upon the flesh of all
kinds of domestic animals.




72     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
CHAPTER -FIFTH.
MEANS OF TRANSPORT OF EGGS OF FISH JUST HATCHED, AND OF FISH TO STOCK PONDS OR STREAMS.
TRANSPORT OF EGGS,
IN China may be seen, towards the month of
May, a great number of vessels collected in the great
river Yang the Krang, to buy there the seed of fish,
a custom which has continued for ages. The country people bar the river in many places for the space
of eight or ten leagues with nets and hurdles, leaving only space for the passage of a single vessel.
The seed of the fish is arrested by these hurdles,
when these people perceive it, though a strangers eye
would not discover it. They dip up the water containing the seed of the fish and empty it into large
vessels, which they sell to traders, who take it to the
provinces, and resell it in smaller quantities to proprietors who own rivers, brooks or ponds, which they
wish to stock with fish.
The Romans did as the Chinese, and had recourse to the same means to stock their streams,
applying them on a vast scale, sowing eggs as they
would grain, and carrying this trade even to the extent of hatching, in fresh waters, the spawn of sea
fish, which they thought thus to acclimate.  Thus




THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.         73
the lakes Velinus, Sabatinus, Vulsinensis and Cimnius, in Etruria, were stocked'with barble, goldfish,
muges, and all species that could be adapted to this
caprice.:' The rural descendants of Romulus and
Numa practised this mode of breeding as a measure
of public utility, which gave them, in their rustic
life, an abundance which they carefully guarded.
But towards the commencement of the seventh
century, when luxury and vanity took the place of
the simple manners of this ancient race, fresh water
fisheries for the people began to be despised, and in
their stead were sea fisheries for the rich.
The transportation of eggs to great distances is,
then, a fact, of which experience amply proves the
possibility.  The only question then is, how to transport them without waste, and in the most economical
manner.
The tNo fishermen of Bresse, Gehin and Remy,
put the eggs in a tin box, pierced with holes, like
those they use for hatching. They cover the bottom
with a bed of wet sand, half an inch or more deep,
upon which they spread a layer of pebbles of the size
of playing marbles. In the interstices of the pebbles they place a certain quantity of fecundated eggs,
and cover the first with a second layer of pebbles; the
interstices of the second layer are then filled with
eggs, and then of another and another layer, till the
box is filled.
* Columelle, De re zrstica, b. vii. c. 16.
4




74     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
This process presents defects which prevent me
from  recommending its application.  Besides the
exposure of the eggs to breakage between the stones,
jumbled together by any shock received by
the vehicle transporting the box, the holes with
which the sides of the box are pierced, favor the
evaporation of the water which keeps the sand wet,
and exposes them to become dry.
Very fine wet sand employed alone is far preferable. It should be thus used: Take a circular or
oblong box, made of very thin white wood, such, for
example, as are used for packing dried fruits (pl. 2,
fig. 5).  Then, on the bottom of this box, spread a
bed of wet sand; on this sand spread as many eggs
as can lie together without touching one another.
In fact, leave spaces between them  that the second
layer of sand will fill, to prevent the possibility of
their pressing against one another.  Then spread a
second bed of wet sand, and on this, in like manner,
a second bed of eggs, and so on, till the box is filled
entirely, so that the lid will press upon the sand and
prevent the movement of the contents of the box.
A suitable box to carry eggs in this manner,
should not be more than four inches deep, by eight
or ten inches long, for if the dimensions exceed this,
the weight of the sand will be too great for the eggs
to bear. Partitioned off into compartments, a larger
box would answer, but it is more simple and commodilous, if the quantity of eggs to be sent cannot
be packed in one such small box, to use several such,




THIE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    75
and to tie the whole together or enclose them in a
large basket.
Placed in layers alternately with this wet sand,
eggs of most kinds of the salmon family, that is to
say of the sorts with shells of a certain toughness,
can be perfectly preserved for many days, and even
during a month, if the box is kept at a somewhat
low temperature.  This is proved by the following
facts. Salmon and trout eggs, fecundated artificially,
were put by Messrs. Berthot and Detzem, at the end
of December, 1851, in a fir box filled with wet sand.
The box was then for nearly two months kept in a
cold room, but in which the temperature was never
so low as freezing point. After the lapse of that
time, the eggs were sent to me from Mulhouse.  Before taking them out I clipped the box in water, so
that the sand it contained might be gradually moistened thlroug7hout; for had I neglected this precaution
they would have perished, as did others not thus
treated.  The box being then opened, I found them
a little withered or wrinkled; but, placed in the
hatching apparatus they soon retook their spherical
form, and a large number of them  gave birth to
young fish. Doubtless there were many eggs that
did not hatch; but, under like circumstances, when
eggs are sent to a distant place to propagate a foreign
species, the number that can be hatched, however
limited, will still, as in this instance, suffice for the
purpose.
This long sequestration in a box will not answer




76      THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
with like s-iccess in application to species that require only a very short period for incubation; for
notwithstanding that in such circumstances, development of the embryo may be repressed, it still is going on to a certain extent, and the eggs may be
hatched in the sand before arrival at their destination.  WVith the eggs of salmon and trout this difficulty need not exist, for the time of incubation extends to forty-five or fifty days at least, and is prolonged even to a hundred or a hundred and ten days
if the temperature of the water is very low; but
with such as hatch eight or ten days after being
spawned the same results cannot be hoped for, nor
can such kinds of eggs be conveyed to great distances.
Ordinarily, we use advantageously aquatic plants
instead of sandcl: we choose among the plants found
in the waters where the fish are taken whose eggs are
to be transported, such as are softest and least liable
to become matted together.  WTe place in the boxes
alternately as with the sand, layers of leaves and of
eggs.  When the box is filled the lid is closed, and
the humidity retained by the leaves suffices to preserve the eggs. For several years past, Miessrs. Berthot and Detzem have sent me from the banks of the
Rhine, and from the establishment at Huningen, a
great number of these boxes, ancd I have had by
these means often as many as 10,000 eggs at a time
on the hurdles of my hatching apparatus at the College of France, almost all of which have been hatched.
Recourse may be had to either of the processes I




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.         77
have described for packing eggs for transportation,
since both modes have resulted satisfactorily.
To be certain of transporting eggs to arrive in
good condition for hatching, it is by no means immaterial to select the proper period of their development
for packing them.  Of this I feel assured from numerous experiments, at least with, regard to the eggs
of trouzt and salmnon.  Those which are packed in
boxes to be sent a long distance, immediately after
they have been fecundated, are much more sensible
to destructive influences than those which are packed
at the period when the embryo is so developed that
through the shell or membrane its eyes may be perceived like two black specks.  In fact, this is the
best time to transport them; first, because *they
support the journey more readily, and next, because
it is only then that we can know certainly that they
really are fecundated.  When the establishment at
Huningen comes to be able to furnish eggs to every
point in France, where secondary hatching apparatus
may need them, we shall conform always to this rule
for transportation, with the certainty it will be successful. Already we have practised it in several departments.
TRANSPORT OF NEWLY-HATCHED FISIH.
The younger the fish are the easier it is to transport them a great distance. Even those destined to
live in running water, which require it for hatching,




78     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
as all varieties of the salmon family, can be preserved
a long time in vessels, the water of which is not even
frequently renewed; but for this result they must
be placed in them immediately after birth, and in
the vessels must likewise be placed living aquatic
plants. I have made on this point numerous experiments, which leave no doubt of the efficiency of this
method. I have frequently put two hundred young
salmon, or two hundred young trout, in a glass jar
containing no more than three quarts of water, which,
being renewed every three or four hours, I have thus
been able to send them great distances, to places
where it was believed these animals could not be
acclimatedcl, and where they are now thriving.
If, instead of taking the trouble to renew the
water from time to time, a continuous stream could
be introduced into it, there is no distance, no matter
how great, they might not be sent at this first stage
of their existence. I have kept in the College of
France as many as six thousand at a time, in wooden
boxes or earthen vessels not larger than eighty centimetres long, fifteen wide, and ten deep, with a
stream of water no larger than a straw. The current made by this little stream was found sufficient
to preserve them for more than a month in as sound
a state as if they had been swimming in large
streams; and I have them still in such vessels and
continue therein to rear them. Now, if the experiments which I have just cited, prove that we can preserve thus long in such restricted space, such a pro



THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.        79
digious quantity of newly-hatched fish, without the
necessity of furnishing them any thing else than an
imperceptibly small stream of water, it is evident
that through our rivers and canals, boats suitably
arranged could carry them in masses to every part of
France, so that there is not a single point at which
they may not be distributed.
TRANSPORTATION OF OLDER FISH.
When they have attained a sufficient size to be
suitable to stock streams, the young fish are much
more difficult of transportation to a distance.  Nevertheless, by recourse to boats converted into tanks,
they can be thus carried great distances and distributed at all points on the voyage. Messrs. Berthot
and Detzem last year dispatched one of these convoys
from the government fish-establishment at Huningen, which arrived at Dijon in twelve days, having
gone over by land and water a distance of 120 kilometres. Fifteen hundred salmon thus carried arrived in good condition and were deposited living in
the basin of the Garden of Plants in Dijon.
If the duration of the voyage requires it, food
should be supplied to them; but care should be taken, in case this food consists of dead animal matter,
that the vessel should be kept clean, because the remains of such decomposed matter left in it might
prove destructive to them. It would be fitter and




80       THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING  FISH.
more prudent to supply them only with young living
prey of such a kind as formerly described.
PERIODS
OF SPAWNING OF CERTAIN KINDS OF FISH WVHICH REPRODUCE IN FRESH
WATER.
NAME OF TIIHE SPECIES.           TIME OF SPAWNING.
SALMON (SaZlmo Salar),         From November to February.
SALMON HUCHI (S. Hluclo),      April and May
TROUT (S. Fario),             From October to February.
COMMON OMnBE (S. ahymaollZus),  April and May.
OMBRE CIIEVALIER (S. UbSbla),   February, March and April.
LAVARET (S. Iacrtmanni),       August, September and October.
FERA (Coregolus Fera),        January and February.
SHAD ((Clupea Alosa),          March, April and nMay.
PInE ( ESOX LuceCs),           February, March and April.
CARP (Cyprinuzs Caripio),      From May to September.
BREAM (C. Bre'arn),            End of April and May.
GIBELE (C. Gibelio),           May, June and July.
TENCH (C. Tinca),              June and July.
PERCH (Perca Fluviatilis),     March, April and May.
Note-The periods indicated in this table, varying, according
to places and climates, must not be considered as fixed, but as
terms, considering which it is possible to guess pretty nearly the
times at which the eggs of the different species will be likely to
hatch by artificial means.
In the year 1850, the attention  of the French
Government being  called  to  the  discovery bythe
two fishermen, Gehin and Remy, of a mode of artificial fish culture, the Minister of Agriculture and
Commerce appointed a member of the French Academy, a distinguished 8avant, M[. 3Milne-Edwards, to
examine into the whole subject, and make a report.




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.          81
The following is a translation of the document submittec by him:
Report on artificial Fish-culture, and on stockiny
barren or izmpoverished rivers with fish, arti4icially hatched; made to the M1inister of Comnmerce by M. Milne-Edwards, mzember of the Institute.
SIR:
Owing to the interest which you feel in all discoveries calculated to increase the alimentary resources of the country, you desired to form a correct
opinion of the attempts which, for some time, have
been made, whether in France or in England, to ensure the multiplication of fish, in ponds and rivers,
and to augment the value of products of fisheries.
You have done me the honor to submit this question to my examination, and have charged me most
particularly to render a complete account of the results obtained by two fishermen, who followed their
trade near the sources of the M[oselle, and who, by a
process of artificial fecundation, have established in
the department of the Vosges, a veritable fishfactory.
WVith pleasure I conformed to your wishes, and I will
be well pleased, Mr. 3Minister, if the investigations I
have made, can aid you in endowing our rural industry with a new source of wealth, the importance of
which will not be undervalued by physiologists or
agriculturists. Fish is an article of food, rich in nutritive qualities, and to augment its abundance,
4*




82      THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.
either on our coasts or in our streams, will be a real
benefit for all classes of population. River fishing is
generally little productive in France; but it is only
necessary to cast one's eyes upon the doings of our
neighbors of other countries, to comprehend what
might be its value, if means be found to stock with
good fish our rivers and ponds, as amply as nature
has stocked those of Scotland and Ireland, and as
agriculturists stock their fields with herbivorous animuals, equally destined to serve our subsistence.
River-fishing has long been the object of enactments favoring the reproduction of fish, and protecting the development of the fry.  The royal ordinance of 1669, forms the basis of our legislation on
the subject, and contains many clauses of incontestable utility.
Proprietors of ponds bestow ordinarily some care
upon stocking them, but all that relates to reproduction
of fish in our rivers is left to mere chance, and while
bitterly lamenting the constant and rapid decrease of
their products, we have not, till now, given sufficient
consideration to the remedies for the evil.
Public attention was at last awakened to this
question, by a lecture delivered two years since, at
the Academy of Sciences, by one of our most distinguished zoologists, M. de Quatrefages, formerly one
of the Faculty of Science of Toulouse. This learned
and elegant writer, gave our agriculturists useful
counsel on the art of bringing-up fish, and strongly
urged upon them the putting in practice a process of




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.          83
multiplying their numbers, long well known to physiologists, and often experimentally employed in their
cabinets, namely, that of artificially fecundating the
eggs.  We know by the labors of Spallanzani, and
by the experimental researches with which you, yourself, Mr. Minister, and your ancient colleague, Prevost
(of Geneva), twenty five years since enriched science,
that all fecundation is the result of the action exer,
cised upon the egg at its state of maturity by the
living spermatozoa with which the semen or milt is.hargecl; that this action takes place through the
direct contact of these two reproductive elements,
and that the physiological puissance of these same
agents may be preserved during a longer or shorter
period after they have been taken from  the living
bodies which have given them existence.
With a great number of inferior animals the parent's part in the work of reproduction, consists only
in the formation and emission of these two generic
elements; the egg is not impregnated till, after being spawned, it meets the spermatozoa, the contact
with which, necessary to endow it with life, only
takes place by the concurrence of exterior causes, independent of the action of the parents, for example,
by the course of the current in which the milt is deposited. The experimentalist can, therefore, determine at will this physiological phenomenon, by
mechanically mixing the eggs and milt of these animals, and the same results will be obtained by this
process -as by the natural one.




84     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
The observations of zoologists show, too, that in
the general harmony of nature, the fecundity of
animals is regulated, not only with regard to the
causes of destruction to which the young are exposed
before they become capable of reproducing their
species, but also in view of the chances of nonfecundation to which the eggs are submitted, as the contact of the eggs with the seminal fluid takes place
after they have been spawned and depends more or
less upon chance. Fish belong, for the most part, to
the category of animals among which there is no
act of copulation for reproduction, that being effected
simply by the ejection by the male of the milt or semen upon the eggs which have been spawned by the
female.
To procure the development of the embryo, theref'ore, in the otherwise sterile eggs, the naturalist, in
the experiments of his laboratory, has only to imitate
that which happens normally in nature; that is to
say, to bring them in contact with water charged
with milt; impregnation, then, is soon effected, and to
procure this milt, as well as the eggs to be impregnated,
all that is required is a light pressure of the abdomen
of the males and females, whose products are maturecl and whose lives will not be endangered by the
operation: or these products may even be procured
by opening the bodies of newly dead subjects, for the
eggs and the milt preserve their vitality for some
time after the death of the bodies containing them,




THE  NEW  ART  OF BREEDING  FISH.                85
and thus from  two corpses may be brought forth a
numerous and strong generation.:
* This report of Mons. Edwards I have translated from a work
entitled "_Fecondation artifcielle et iclosion des oazfs de poissons,
suivi de riflexions sur l'ichtyogenie, par le docteur Ha.xo, d'Epoinal,
Secretaire peTpetuel de la Societi d'Emsulation des Vosges, Mfembre
de la Societe des Sciences, Lettres, et Arts de Nancy, etc."  The object
of Dr. Haxo's work appears to be to prove the claim of the two
fishermen of Vosges, Gehin and Remy, to the title of discoverers
of the method of artificially impregnating and hatching fishes'
eggs, by showing that they were the first to bring it into use and
practically prove it could be done, and that all others had only
theoretically treated the subject till these two poor fishermen took
it in hand and showed to the world its value. Dr. Haxo claims
it for them as their original discovery, on the ground that they
were so unlettered as to have been utterly ignorant of any researches or experiments of naturalists. -He insists that they have
been badly treated, their discovery stolen from them by naturalists who have no right to it, yet claim it as their own, or as belonging to discoverers of a past century. Dr. Haxo brings several documents to fortify his position, and comments with great warmth
upon the injustice towards these fishermen displayed by AI. Coste,
in the work of which a translation forms part of this volume, as
well as by M. Edwards in tais report. As the details of the method
pursued by Gehin and Remy, given in Dr. Haxo's work, are not
fuller than those here given from the pamphlet of Godenier, and
as his work seems for the most part a defence of the claims of Gebin and Remy as discoverers, I have not thought that a translation of it would add to the value of this volume, as a manual of
fish culture. Dr. Haxo accompanies the publication of MA. Edwards's report with many notes to show its injustice to the two
fishermen; as a specimen of them I quote this one referring to the
passage above.-Translator.
"After reading this passage who is there who would not be led
to believe that the processes of artificial fecundation were not perfectly known, at least by savants?  But notwithstanding this, MI.
de Quatrefages says not a word of them in the memoir he presented




86        THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING  FISH.
This fact was fully established by Count de Goldstein, about the middle of the last century, long before Spallanzani published his beautiful researches
upon generation.  In  1758 this judicious observer
addressed to an ancestor of the celebrated Fourcroy,
a most interesting memoir upon artificial fecundation
of trout's eggs, and upon the application to stocking
rivers of which the discovery was susceptible.
An  extract from  Goldstein's work was inserted
in a work called Soirees Helvetiennes, and some years
later, in 1770, Duhamel du Monceau gave a translation of it in the third volume of his Traite general
des Peches, published under the sanction of the Academy of Sciences.
to the Institute in 1848; while on the other hand, when the letter
which I addressed to that learned body on the 2d March, 1849,
was read by MI. Flourens it was received, according to the testimony of the Abbe 3Moigno, who was present at the meeting, with
the most unequivocal demonstrations of surprise and satisfaction
on the part of all the members of the Academy of Sciences. M.
Milne-Edwards was then immediately appointed as one of the
commission to examine my report in conjunction with Messrs. Dumeril and Valenciennes. How does it happen that he did not
then inform his colleagues that the matter had been long before
known?  How was it that he did not then and there announce
that not only the processes of artificial fecundation had been very
many years before described by Goldstein, by Duhamel du Monceau,
and by Jacobi, but that they had been successfully practised in
Scotland?  Why did he wait, before making any such statements,
until after he was officially charged by the Minister of Agriculture
and Commerce, to go to the place and examine the results of the labors
of the two Vosgian fishermnen?  We leave all such reflections as
these to the sense of the reader."




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    87
About the same period, a German naturalist,
Jacobi, published at Hamburg an equally interesting
letter upon the art of bringing up salmon and trout,
and on the production of these fish by means of artifcial fecundation.  At a later date analogous experiments were made in Scotland by Dr. Knox, Mr.
Shaw, and Mr. Andrew Young.  In 1835, Signor
Rusconi, so well known among naturalists by his
work on the embryology of salamanders, published
in the seventy-ninth volume of the Bibliothecca Italiamac, new observations on the development of fish,
and gives equally instructive details in artificial fecundation of the eggs of the tench and the ablette.
At my suggestion, the translation of this memoir was
inserted in the Annales des Sciences Naturetles, pour
1836.
I would add, too, that it was by recourse to this
method of multiplication that Messrs. Agassiz and
Voght procured all the embryos necessary for their
studies on the development of the palee, a species
of salmon of the Swiss lakes, the anatomical history
of which these two naturalists published in 1842.
The philosophical fact, then, upon which M. de
Quatrefages relied to stimulate agriculturists to the'manufacturing of fish, in the same way they produce
grain or meats, offered nothing new to zoologists,
and to their remembrance M. de Quatrefages was
the first to recall the claim of Goldstein as the discoverer of artificial fecunclation. But under our system of eclucation, truths well known by naturalists




88      THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.
are unknown by most other men even the best informed, and it was not unnecessary to call public
attention forcibly to this application of science to
rural industry, which not only had not profited by
the results of the discovery, but I think I can safely
affirm that there were then not ten agricultural authors or teachers in all France who had the least
idea of the service which physiologists had so long
before rendered them.
Under such circumstances we should not be astonished to find in one of the most secluded valleys
of the chain of Vosges, two illiterate fishermen, but
endowed by nature with a rare spirit of observation
and a rarer perseverance, being ignorant of prior discoveries, and wishing to finda some remedy for the
decrease and threatened extinction of their trade,
employing several years of their time in laboriously
making over again the same experiments already
made by the physiologist I have cited, and in re-discovering what naturalists had been acquainted with
for a century.
But if these poor peasants of Bresse were preceded in their researches by scientific men, and if
they have not enriched natural history with fresh
discoveries, their labors are no less worthy of interest,
and they have a claim upon our consideration, for
they seem to have been the first among us to make
practical application of the discovery of artificial
fecundation to the rearing of the fish, and have thus




THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.            89
the merit of creating in France a new branch of industry.:Y
The first essays of Messrs. Gehin and Remy were
made in 1842. Having by a long course of observation
become acquainted with the mode of reproduction
practised  by trout, and being assured of the possibility of artificially fecundating its eggs, they applied
themselves to the production of quantities of these
fish to stock the streams of the canton.  Success
crowned their efforts, and notwithstanding their feeble resources, and the difficulties of all sorts they
had to encounter, they still obtained considerable
results.
They were enabled to stock, with young trout
artificially hatched, two ponds near their village of
Bresse, one of which furnished last year 1200 trout
of two years old.
Gehin and Remy estimate at about 50,000 the
number of young fish they have put in the Moselotte,
a little river of Bresse, which empties into the nMoselle near Remiremont; they have put in practice
their mode of stocking in several other localities of
the same canton, as appears by documents furnished
by the authorities of Saulxures, of Cornimont, and
of Ge6rardmer.  Besides these, M. Kienzi, MTayor of
X M. Edwards, in this paragraph of his report, seems to concede
to the two fishermen all that can be claimed for them as discoverers of a mode of rendering a discovery useful and valuable; not
withstanding Dr. Haxo's pamphlet to prove the injustice of AI.
Edwards and others towards them.-Traeanslator.




90     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.'Waldenstein, in the department of Haut-Rhin, deputecl them to re-stock the water-courses of his commune, and this intelligent official gives assurance
that they perfectly succeeded.
I would add also, that, wishing to render the
discovery of the widest public utility, our fishermen
never made any secret of their processes, but, on the
contrary, readily initiated any one who desired to
undertake similar work. All who have ever had
occasion to witness the labors of G6hin and Remy
bestow on them the highest praise.
I visited their establishment and witnessed some
of their experiments. The Society of Emulation
took up and fully investigated the subject, and bestowed on each of these worthy men an honorary
medal.  The work they proposed it seems to me
they fully succeeded in, and to render their country
great service they only need the means to extend
their operations. I do not judge solely by the results obtained by Gehin and Remy, but also by similar ones on a large scale, which I found to have been
obtained for several years past in Great Britain, and
which had excited there considerable interest.
In fact, M. Boccius, a civil engineer of Hlammersmith, has practised artificial fecundation in stocking
several rivers of Great Britain, and seems to have
had complete success.
In 1841 he worked in the streams belonging to
3Mr. Drummond, in the neighborhood of Uxbridge,
and he estimates at 120,000 the number of trout he




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.         91
there brought up.  The following years he put in
practice the same processes on the magnificent domain of the Duke of Devonshire, at Chatsworth;
then for Mr. Gurnie, at Carsalton; and Mr. Hilbert,
at Chatford; finally, the Angler's Club put under
his charge the important fishing-ground of AnsvalMagna, in the county of Hertford, and M. Boccius
assured me that he had already artificially hatched
there  at least 2,000,000 trout.  He has published a book upon his method of stocking streams,
and it seems that a society is about to be formed,
under the patronage of Sir H. Labouchere, with a
view of attempting to stock the Thames with salmon.
The process employed by G-6hin and Remy is
very simple and easily practised; it hardly differs
from that adopted by Boccius, and equally resembles the method described by Jacobi, nearly a
century ago.
Trout-breeding takes place in December, and in
order to have eggs for artificial hatching, it suffices
to press lightly, before and behind, the abdomen of
a female fish ready to hatch; and her eggs in falling
should be caught in a vessel with water, and afterwards sprinkled with milt obtained in the same
manner and diluted.
If the eggs have not arrived at their term when
operations are commenced, they will only be run out
with a strong pressure, and in such case the fish
should be left in a preserve during some days, before
this forced birth is adopted, for neither the eggs nor




92      THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.
the milt can be usefully employed in a state of immaturity, and the life of the parent fishes would be
endangered by rough handling.
On coming in contact with the spermatised water, the eggs change color: before fecundation they
are transparent and yellow: so fecundated they become whitish or rather opaline.  A trout aged some
two years" and weighing about 125 grammes, can
furnish about 600 eggs; a trout of three years, 700
to 800; and it is also to be noted that the milt of
one male is enough to fecundate the eggs of a half-adozen females or even more.  3Messrs. Gehin and
Remy placed the eggs so fecundated in a tin box
pierced with holes on a gravel-bed: these boxes are
about fifteen centimetres in diameter, and eight
deep, and can contain each a thousand eggs.  They
are then to be placed in some streamlet of which the
waters are pure and lively, but not deep: in this
they are partially buried, and so disposed that the
water in the boxes is rapidly renewed, for the agitation of it is necessary to assure the respiration of
the embryos, and also to hinder the development of
confervas, which will not be slow to catch and destroy the eggs if the water be stagnant. The development of these embryos lasts four months, and
it is generally towards the end of March or in April
that the hatching takes place; during six weeks
more, the new-born trout carry under the abdomen' Experience shows that the trout does not become nubile or
fit for propagation before the age of three years.




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.        93
the umbilical vesicle which holds the remains of the
nutritive matter, analogous to the yolk of a bird's
egg, and at first by means of this substance the
minnows are nourished: but when absorption takes
place the young fish have need of other nutriment,
and should then be driven out of the box in which
they are cradled, and permitted to swim freely in the
streamlet which they are to stock.
In fine, to procure for these little fish suitable
and abundant nourishment, it is only necessary to
leave or put in the water some frogs, whose spawn
they will greedily eat, while the tadpoles afford excellent food for the older trout. When the young
trout so brought up, are destined to stock a river,
they should be placed in streams tributary to it, and
water selected which rushes over pebbles or rocks.
In proportion as these fish grow, they descend
spontaneously to the deep water, whither they arrive only when they are sufficiently agile to protect
themselves against the enemies which they may encounter; while if they are at once placed in the
midst of other voracious fish, they will have but a
small chance of escaping death.  WVhen they are so
raised in streamlets or ponds, precaution must be
taken to separate the product of each year from the
former one, as the big trout will otherwise eat up the
little ones; and to avoid this the young fish in the
same circle should be of one age.
To establish after a regular fashion this branch
of production, there should be at least three stream



94     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
lets or brooks, for the fish to be changed during
three years, new ones being placed in them as fast
as exhausted.
Unhappily Messrs. Gehin and Remy have not at
their disposal the necessary funds to complete this
work.  They have obtained the grant of a fish-pond
for this purpose, and bought another for 800 francs;
but now their pecuniary means are gone, and if,
sir, under your kind protection, they do not get
some help from Government, I fear it will be impossible for them to pursue the trials so satisfactorily
commenced.
The labors of Messrs. Gehin and Remy appear
to me the more worthy of encouragement, as success
can afford but little profit to such devoted and active men, but will contribute to increase the alimentary resources commlanded by the people on the
banks of streams.  Only in considering fisheries as
works of public utility and causing them to be executed by the state, can we hope to give real importance to our river fisheries; but in applying a
small sum  to this end, we will arrive, I have no
doubt, at important results for the country.
If the fish-breeding practised by Messrs. Gehin
and Remy were only applicable to trout, and to
other fish of limited supply, I would not attach as
much interest to it as I do; but it may be applied
to salmon, and I am  convinced that it would be
easy thus to restore to the rivers of Brittany icthyological riches which are now disappearing, and even to




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH,           95
acclimate salmon in rivers, which, up to this time,
have not been frequented by that fish.
Nothing is easier than to transport eggs just
laid,': or living salmon, of which the abdomen is
filled either with eggs or milt; and even when these
die on the road, the hatching of their eggs can be
attained. In placing the eggs so acquired in streamlets properly chosen, the young salmon will grow as
though spawned there by their parents; they will
emigrate as usual to the ocean, and in its depths
they in turn will spawn, and will not fail to return
in great numbers to the stream whence they proceeded, and in following its course seek a proper
place for the growth of their progeny.
We know, in fact, by experiments already old,
made ill Brittany by Delandes, and by observations
of the same kind, repeated in our day, in Scotland
by the Duke of Athol, Sir W. Jardine, Mr. Baigrie,
Mr. Hayshan and Mr. Young, the Director of the
fisheries of the Duke of Sutherland, that guided by
a singular instinct comparable to migratory swallows,
the salmon after having emigrated far into the sea,
returns ordinarily to the water where it was spawned,
and the individuals of the same species are so perpetuated in certain rivers without mixing with those
of strange waters. It seems to me consequently
indubitable, that in the space of a few years, it
* With due respect to M. Milne Edwards, the transport of such
eggs is very difficult, and if this difficulty has finally been obviated
by G6hin it is only after much groping and research.




96     THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
would not only be possible greatly to multiply salmon in all the waters natural to them, but to introduce and acclimate this large and valuable fish, in
many of our streams hitherto without them.  For
the salmon and the trout also, as well as for many
other kinds, the method of G6hin and Remy appears
to be the surest mode of stocking rivers; but we
cannot have recourse to the artificial fecundation of
eggs to stock fresh waters of certain kinds, of which
the introduction, however, would be of great utility
in certain localities.  Thus, eels are never caught at
maturity with milt or eggs, and these fish seem to be
only produced in the depths of the sea, whence just
spawned they go in legions innumerable every year,
to occupy rivers, where they are known by our fishermen under the name of mnontee.
To supply brooks and streams needing them, such
spawn must be transported, and the operation renewed periodically; and M. Coster has shown that
this transportation can be easily effected, even to
considerable distances.
For this purpose it is sufficient to place the
young eels in grass kept wet.  The experiments
which 2I. Coster is now pursuing at Paris in the
laboratory of the College of France, proves that
young eels can be fed at small expense, so that they
will grow rapidly, and it seems to me that in many
marshy places, raising eels would be profitable.
If I had to treat here of marine fishing I would
ask of you, sir, permission to call your attention to




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.          97
several matters touching  thle treatment of our
oyster-beds, and the means of favoring the multiplication of these molecules.  A  manufacturer
of Charente, BI. Carbonnel, has conversed with the
Academy of Sciences several times lately, and thinks
it would be easy to establish on our coast at different points such artificial oyster-beds.  MI. de Quatrefages has also requested the naturalists on our
coasts to try the artificial fecundation of oysters,
and I am persuaded that in studying experimentally
all that relates to the generation of these molecules,
we shall arrive at results extremely interesting for
industry as well as science.  But in the actual state
of our knowledge relative to the physiology of these
animals, we cannot pronounce on the value of the
mode of multiplication which the authors I have
just cited propose to employ.
Whatever it be, after the entire results of which
I render you an account, and after experiments
analogous to those of MIessrs. Gehin and Remy,
made by M. Lefebvre, of Vaugorarcl, it seems clear
that with perseverance, we can with little expense
ameliorate the icthyological breed of France, and
obtain also for our territory covered -with water, a
revenue much more considerable than that now dlerived.
This would be for the whole country, an increase
of riches, and trials of this kind appear to me all
the more important as several circumstances tend to
diminish the alimentary resource of our rivers.  The
5




98      THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.
increasing rarity of fish, in a great number of our
rivers, does not arise solely from the manner in
which fishing has been pursued, but from other
causes, among which is the extension of manufacturing industry.   Thus the toll-gates established
in such numbers for the service of hydraulic motors,
are so many obstacles to the production of various
fish, which require to ascend the rivers to their headwaters to find fit spawning spots, and single propagators arriving in smaller numbers in the streamlets,
the fish interests of the river suffer, for the eggs are
not in a condition favorable to the development of
the young, and the means of recruiting the entire
species is rapidly lessenecl.t: If, as in Scotland, and
even in Englancl, there existed in France, many rich
proprietors who possessed water-courses of considerable extent, we could leave to the care of private individuals all matters relating to improved  riverfishing, for to whomever one of these streams belonged, he would be interested in increasing its
products.
But with us it is altogether otherwise, and the
individual who would occupy himself with stocking
a stream with fish, could hardly hope to reap personal profit therefrom: he would augment the alimentary resources of his fellow-citizens, and thus
* It is rworthy of remark that waters of paper manufactories,
which contain so large a quantity of chlorine for whitening the
rags, are injurious to fish. It is one cause of destruction worthy of
note.,




THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.         99
render his country solid service, but he alone would
enjoy but a small interest in the benefit so diffused,
and ordinarily would want the stimulus to undertake
the labor.
The stocking of rivers, then, should be considered
a work of public utility, and it seems to me that it
is the business of the state to look after it.
Trials of this kind made on a great scale, and
prudently conducted, and confided to  intelligent
men, would not involve heavy expenses to lead to
important results.  If you judge proper to have
them executed, you will find in the two fishermen in
question, capable agents, and I would add that the
charge of such work would be the least recompense
the government could make them.
For the rest, such an enterprise would necessitate
serious preliminary studies, and give rise to several
questions, for whose solution the opinion of the administration of waters and forests would be necessary, as
well as the light of naturalists, and it would perhaps
be necessary to have a mixed commission. To suml up
-Nwe perceive that the stocking of fresh waters with
artificial methods was long since thought of, but it
has only been tried in France lately; that M[essrs.
Gehin and Remy appear to have been the first to
put the method in practice among us, and that for
their part they have arrived at results analogous to
those obtained at the same period, in England, by
Mr. Boccius; that the labors of these two fishermen
are worthy of attention, and that in applying to the




100     THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.
reproduction of salnon, the means they have successfully used to rear trout, we shall be enabled
largely to increase the interests of our river-fisheries.
I have the honor, &c.,
Ml/ILNE-EDWARDS.
Report on the means of stocking all the s-teams of
France with filsh, addressed to the llinister of the
TInterior, of A griculture and of Commerce.
PARIs, July 12, 1852.
SIR:-In your letter of the 30th June, you ask
me to visit the fish-breeding establishment at Miulhouse, of Messrs. Berthol & Detzenl, engineers of the
Rlhone and Rhine Canal, and to suggest to you measures so that their works can be made to stock all the
streams of France.  Accordingly, I now put you in
possession of the result of this mission.
The discovery of artificial fish-breeding, was long
hidden in the laboratories of science, where it remained confined to physiological experiment; but
lately it has been practically set forth by the Count
de Goldstein, by Boccius, and above all, by the two
fishermen of Bresse, and sober inquiry and trial have
been adopted to attain to the precision of pure method
in regard to it.
I have shown, for my part, with the assistance
of Messrs. Berthol & Detzem, that not only the eggs
of fish, brought from  very distant waters, preserve




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    101
all their native powers of conception, but that by
means of machinery, extremely simple, they can be
hatched much more qcuickly and certainly than as
the female ordinarily lays them; so that two sets
are obtained in the ordinary time of one.
This double result, that of carrying without injury, eggs to a great distance, and their rapid fecundation, leads to the possibility of restocking all the
streams of France, in a single season; so that it will
cost nothing to the state but the necessary advances
to organize an establishment, wherein the spawn accumulated from all points where they are easily secured, should be confided to the care of the canal
keepers.  I say it will cost the state nothing, because the advances can be readily more than repaid by
a contribution, voluntarily self-imposed by the proprietors in exchange for the precious gifts made them,
whether in the form of eggs or young fish.
The more I reflect on the means of realizing this
useful enterprise, the more I consider it our duty to
insist that France shall take the lead in giving a
practical example of this great scientific discovery,
which can so increase public wealth by creating an
inexhaustible means of production. It is a wish I
express with all confidence, because I have visited the
spots where the project has already received an impetus under the auspices of two engineers, who, notwithstanding their limited resources, have raised, this
year, a million trout, salmon, anld mongrels; the
greater portion of which they showed me scattered




102    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH,
through the ponds which they have dug along the
lRhone and Rhine canal.
It only remains to profit by the experience and
devotion of which they have, during two years,
given so many proofs, and to place in their hands
sufficient means to transform the precarious arrangements due to their perseverance into a veritable
establishment, where, as in the best regulated
manufactories, the working details are ample and
ready.
The locality which they have chosen, is admirably well adapted to their purpose: a stream of fresh
water, clear as crystal, runs from  the foot of a sheltering hillock on a common of several acres, and then
branlches off into smaller streams.  This so well fitted
to fish-hatching, especially of trout and salmon, could
be easily turned into a vast breeding establishment.
It would be only necessary to substitute for the sieveboxes hitherto used (which offer obstructions and become less and less permeable), simple plates placed
longitudinally in parallel partitions, which will divide
the stream into narrow drains more or less numerous,
through which the water will flow with some degree
of rapidity.  These drains intended to receive the
eggs, will be cut at intervals so as to form a succession of falls, in order to hasten the course and give
an airing to the water, andc produce conditions most
favorable to the end in view.  Each one of these
drains should be extended in a meadow, without
being confounded with the others, and finish by en



THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    103
largement in a spacious basin, where the water in
question alone has access, and whither will come the
young fish when hatchecl,-another place of destination being in store for them.
When this stream will have been so transformed
into a vast establishment, made after the plan I have
indicated, it should be covered with a glass roof like
a greenhouse, admitting the light, and formed of movable panes turning round, so that the air may be
readily admitted when deemed necessary.  To this
should be added a little house, to protect the workmen, where a workshop of all the necessary implements would be, and also a register of the results of
each day's observations. The natural history of fish
so obtained, would offer invaluable details.  When
this establishment would be ready, the problem would
be reduced, simply procuring eggs sufficient to fill it,
and thence to stock all the streams of France. This
would not be difficult to realize.
Being on the frontiers of Germany, Messrs. Berthol & Detzem are in communication with the fishermen of the river and the great lakes where are fish
the most esteemed.  These fishermen' have undertaken to give them all kinds of eggs. Messrs. Berthol
& Detzem have already taken from Lake Federsee,
thirty-six gigantic fish, which so transferred, I have
seen in their basins.  They are waiting now for a supply of young fish of this kind, which Lear the. journey
so easily, that I obtained three for the College of
France, by simply putting them under the care of




104    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
the conductor of the diligence, who kept them  two
days and a night in a vase.  These fish hatch even
in turf-pits; so that they can be easily propagated
in those of Picardy, and in the least favorable waters.
Their importation, then, will be a service rendered
to fish-breeding.
In hatching fish in new waters, trials of their acclimation can be successfully made.  I may give here
striking examples in citing my experiments at the
College of France, under circumstances where I did
not promise myself any success.  Young salmon,
hatched in my laboratory, and placed afterwards in an
artificial pond fed by a single stream of the water of
the Arcueil, grew as well as if they had lived in the
Rhine, as I was able to satisfy myself by a comparison.  They are hardly four months old, and already
their length is 60 milemetres, of which they have
gainecl 12 during the last twenty-four days; a remarkable growth, which may be attributed, without
doubt, to the particular nourishment they receive,
of which they show themselves greedy.
But to return to our hatching apparatus, and the
eggs which are in progress of development:-Here a
second problem is presented-what becomes after
birth of the young fish hatched by millions in the
narrow drains where the eggs were deposited? This
second problem will not be more difficult to answer
than the first.  The arrangement of the locality will
answer for all exigencies.  As soon as the newlyhatched fish are strong enough to swim, they will fol



THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.   105
low the course of the stream, which will draw them
to the meadow by the extremity of the glass-house
through which the current passes, and leave them in
the basin.  There they will grow; but their number
increasing every day, they cannot be long kept in
this narrow reservoir.  Larger basins then must be
provided, where they can grow with proper nourishment.  The dependencies of the Rhine and Rthone
Canal will fulfil this office, and on a scale so vast,
that there will be a crop greater than one would suppose room could there be found for. Thus:-The
government has on the borders of the canal, on the
right and left,-land in length 117,730 metres, and
breadth 15 metres.  Already there they have dug a
certain number of ponds, well supplied with water.
These ponds may be multiplied indefinitely and connected by gratings, so as to prevent the admlixture
of the different kinds of fish, and stopped off occasionally in order to admit of being severally emptied,
so that the young fish can be taken from them. But
the ponds already dug on one side of the canal are in
the same part of the meadow with the receiving basins, into each of which the hatching trenches will
carry a particular species; and it results from this,
that to transfer the young of this species from the
establishment where they were hatched to the ponds
where they are to be converted into larger growths,
there is almost nothing to do. The operation will be
self-accomplished, so to speak; and from the single
5*




106    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
circumstance of a happy distribution of the different
waters which run from one side to the other.
When the spawn have arrived at the growth of
young fish suitable for stocking streams, the Rhone
and Rhine canal, which runs between the two long
lines of ponds where these fish are kept in reserve,
will itself be the natural means to conduct them into
all the waters of France by means of their intercommunications.  To attain to this object, a jointed raft
should be made of pieces of wood transversely placed,
and connected by iron rings, and in the interstices of
this raft would be fastened casks sufficient to hold
the entire supply of fish. These casks should be provided with gratings so as to be permeable, and contain water-plants, so that the young fish are not injuriously crowded.
The convoy so disposed should stop successively
before each pond, and right and left, the workmen
attached to the ordinary service of the canal, will
empty into it the fish drawn from these drains; then
the cargo completed, the raft will be set in motion,
and the casks with their bottoms knocked out from
time to time, will sow the fish, as a plow would sow
seed if capable of doing thus as fast as it made firrows.
When the convoy will pass the point of junction
of another water-course, one of its sections, as they
are fastened by rings, could be detached as a wagon
is from a train, and given to the engineers of the
country traversed by this stream of water; these en



THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.    107
gineers will take the portion of the convoy in
question, in order to empty it in the localities which
appear to them the fittest to the purpose, and so ascertained beforehand, and then will return it to the
point of departure, so that on its arrival thither, the
great convoy may unite all the detached fragments,
and render them to the establishment in order to take
a fresh load if the first has been insufficient, or to
wait until a second crop requires a new journey.
The restocking of all the waters of France, will
be accomplished then easily, since, on the one hand,
the officers of the roads and bricges will answer for
the requirements of the service, and on the other,
the organization of the entire establishment will reqluire but a first expenditure of 22,000 francs, necessary for the construction of the shed, the guard-house,
the digging of the ponds, the purchase of tools, and
of twenty acres of ground to be inclosed in the common already given by the municipal council of the
locality.
The first expenditure, or an annual credit of
8,000 francs, will suffice to commence the work, to
procure the species most valued, meet the cost of the
daily labor, and give the production an infinite extension.
It will be perceived, therefore, that this sum is
the smallest trifle compared with the riches it will
produce, for here nothing less is aimed at than to keep
the supply of food up to the increased consumption,
according to the duty imposed on governments: hesi



108    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
tation in such case is allowable only when an adecjuate
trial renders success doubtful; but here experience
has already furnished such positive results, that there
cannot be the least doubt of the success of the operation.
Time presses, sir; and there are only three
months before we come to the breeding season of
salmon and trouts If at that time the apparatus is
wanting, we lose the most interesting part of the required work.  I trust, then, you will give me the
order for a credit of 30,000 francs, immediately open
to the engineers of the Rhone and Rhine Canal, and
I shall be happy to offer you my assistance for the
organization of an establishment so founded, and to
take my part in the responsibility of an enterprise
*which will be a signal honor to the administration.
I cannot terminate this Report, sir, without
speaking to you of the propagation of fresh-water
shell-fish; experiments which I have made under
the hope of applying them  to salt-water shell-fish,
whose multiplication would not be difficult to secure.
Here, then, is an account of these experiments:I placed, at the College of France, in a basin,
like that wherein imy young salmon live, fed by a
rivulet, a certain number of female craw-fish, all carrying under the tail their eggs. At the end of twenty-five days, all these eggs were hatched, and the
basin was usurpedl by a myriad of young craw-fish,
which grew  perceptibly.  This result proves how
easy it is to restock all running streams which an




THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.    109
abuse of fishing has devastated, as though they had
never been supplied.  The question is reduced simply to setting apart at the breeding season, in the
reservoirs in the form of little brooks communicating
with creeks or rivers, all the females who have their
eggs attached to the appendices of the tail, and not
to allow their consumption until their offspring is
hatched. This offspring, retained afterwards for a
period in propagating streams, woulcl not be allowed
to swim through the gratings until capable of taking
care of themselves.
As to salt-water shell-fish, France possesses on the
Mediterranean shore, immense salt lnarshes, where
the females of these animals could also be retained
till the mloment of hatching their eggs, as they carry
them under the tail like the craw-fish.  If the experiment succeed, and these spawn increase on the
spot sufficiently fast, they may be fattened in these
vast receptacles.  If, on the contrary, the conditions
are unfavorable, they should be at liberty to go at
large to seek another spot and stock our coasts.
But this is not the only use to which these marshes
can be put.  The sea-fish are too much liked not to
sucgest the means of multiplying them, either by
artificial fecundation, or by transporting the young
fish of certain kinds.  In favoring the realization of
such an enterprise, the state will have created in a
few years, ponds much richer than the artificial piscines which were dug at so great an expense by the
Romans, by the Gulf of Naples; piscines among




110    THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.
which, however, those of Lucullus produced no less
than four million sesterces, at a sale where presided
Cato of Utica, in quality of tutor to the son of this
famous epicurean. The care of these immense reservoirs would be confided to the customs officers of the
coast, and would not involve, consequently, expense
beyond that of fishing in the waters.
While these measures were taken to secure the
multiplication of salt-water fish, it would naturally
lead to the means of selling them for consumption at
a price so moderate, that districts farthest off from
their production could compete for having a supply
of such alimentation for the laboring classes.  You
will find, sir, on this question materials for documents
of great importance in practical details, from time
immemorial, on the marshes of Commachio, whose
waters are constantly changed by the flux and reflux
of the Adriatic.  There a population of about four
hundred men, disciplined as if aboard ship, is occupied the year round, in fishing and preparing fish for
all parts of Italy, with which they have a large commerce.  It would be useful, then, to know the procedures by which they arrive at this last point.
Accept, Sir, the assurance of my most
distinguished consideration.   COSTE.




LESSONS ON THE NATURAL HISTORY AND HABITS
OF THE SALMON.
THE following series of articles upon artificial
and natural salmon breeding, appeared in Bell's Life
in London, weekly newspaper, in January, February
and March of the present year.  They embody an
account of what has been done in Great Britain, in
relation to artifical breeding, and present some facts
not found in the translations of the French works
contained in this volume:
LESSON  I.
HOW TO PRESERVE AND BREED IT ARTIFICIALLY.
AT last the salmon is attracting, practically, public
attention.  Its present scarcity, compared with its
past abundance, is the cause.  If prevention had
been practised —obsta in princi2piis-stop the evil in
the beginning —it would not now be necessary to apply somewhat costly remedies.  Happily real and
effective measures are found, and all that is required




112     THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.
is their general application according to proper formulae.
The breeding of salmon, by artificial means, is
now considered the last resource to replenish salmon
rivers, formerly abounding in sacnmo salcdr, or true
salmon-the genus salmo, the head of all the species
and varieties of the salmon, known as SCadmonid e, offshoots of the fons et oriyo of the race, and embracing every kind of trout from the salmo ferox to the
smallest of rivulet trout, viz., the diminutive par.
The artificial breeding of salmon has been taken up
by the French Government, and placed under the
s8l'veillcace of "le 2iijistre de l'iYt'erieur, de'cagricultuZe et cdl co2mmerce," and under the practical application of M. Coste, " Iembre  le le'Institut, Profess8eur aC  C(olllge de Frtace,"  and of M31M. Berthot and
Detzen, "inygenicr8s (el canal du RAhlne ca R1hinA."
The labours, and their results, of all these naturalists, together with those of our own, 3Messrs. Shaw
Andrew Young, Boccius, Milne-Edwards, are detailed
in a work, entitled, Instructionzs P"atiqzues sur la
Piscicultu're, szivies cle JzM oires su8 le mnenze s8zjet,
by the Monsieur Coste already nmentioned.  As yet
no encouragement has been given to the breeding of
salmon artificially by the English Government within
the British isles.  Earl Grey did, nand the Duke of
Newcastle does, favor ancl support  an attempt to
transfer salmon to the rivers of Van Dieman's Land,
by artificial means, under the direction of iIMr. Gottlieb Boccius.  One attempt has failedcl 3r. BIoccius




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    113
says, through the retention, beyond the day fixed for
sailing, by more than a month at Plymouth, I believe, of the ship, on board of which impregnated
salmon ova were placed in tanks prepared with due
care.  This is not to occur in a second attempt,
about to be made shortly. I have not any thing like
implicit faith in the success of transplanting salmon
from the rivers of this country to those of the antipodes, either by means of impregnated ova or living
fish, young or adult.  I repeat what I said once before, that if the rivers of Van Diemen's Land are to
be stocked with salmon, it will be from impregnated
ova or living fish, procured from  the river Sacramento, in California.  The transit from that country
is by one-half shorter than it is from  any of the
British ports.
What the English Government has neglected to
do, its subjects are now doing.  An influential association for breeding salmon artificially has been formed in Scotland, at the head of which are the Duke
of Athol and the Earl of MXansfield.  They have
begun, we believe, for now is the time, their operations in the Tay and its tributaries.  The Messrs.
Edmund and Thomas Ashworth, of Egerton Hall,
Bolton, have purchased, in the Court for the sale of
Encumbered Estates in Ireland, "A salmon fishery,
extending from Lough Corrib to the sea," and have
made experiments at Outerard, Co. Galway, in a report on which, signed W. H. Halliday, and dated
Galway, 4th July, 1853, it is considered that there




114    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
were " 40,000 ova (impregnated) deposited; and,
assuming that one third may not have come to matury, we may conclude that we have upwards of
20,000 young salmon (salmon fry) now living in
these ponds, beyond the reach of their natural enemies."  WVe shall see next summer and autumn how
many of these young salmon will return from the
sea into the river or rivers into which they shall have
been put, in the fry or smelt, state-how many shall
return grilse of the average weight of 5 lb. Then
the success of the artificial breeding of salmon on
Messrs. Ashworth's plan will be tested.  In addition
to the above experimentalists we have Mr. Isaac
Fisher, banker, of Richmond, Yorkshire, associated
with other gentlemen of that town and county, breeding salmon artificially in the river Swale. In a letter recently written to me by Mr. Fisher, I find the
following paragraph:-" To-morrow I am off to the
WMear, where there is an obstruction to the ascent of
salmon up our river, the Swale, and I hope we shall
be able to carry our work so as to overcome this obstacle. WVe intend to prosecute our experiments on
artificial breeding this winter with greater care, and
more extensively than we have yet attempted. I am
going over the acts of Parliament touching salmon
fisheries now in force, and my friend, lMr. Thirwall, is
also at work. I have named the object (the submitting to the sanction of the Legislature a salmon extension act) we have in view to many gentlemen in
this quarter.  I have promises of support to a great




THE'NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    115
extent.  Both our members will assist in carrying
any bill that we may bring forward, that is, of course,
if it be one that shall be carefully drawn up, &c.;
and I really think if. all set to with a will, we shall
be successful. In France, England, Scotland, and
Ireland, efforts are now being made almost simultaneously to propagate salmon by artificial breeding.
The success, or otherwise, of these efforts in the
British isles, will be known next season by the results
of the Messrs. Ashworth's experiments in Ireland,
and the season following by those of the Scottish association, supported by the Duke of Athol and the
Earl of Mansfield, and also by that in Yorkshire,
promoted by Mir. Isaac Fisher and coadjutors.
The question of breeding salmon artificially is
not new to this country.  The first British artificial
breeders of salmon are Mr. John Shaw, of Drumlanrig, and Mr. Andrew Young, of Invershin, Sutherlandshire. The French and other artificial breeders
have followed in their wake, I cannot say whether
advantageously or not. I have my doubts. The
lapse of a year and a half will (si vixerim) set them
at rest. Mr. Shaw began his experiments in artificial breeding in January, 1836, and in 1840 published his Exjperimental Observations on the Develo)pmnent and Growth of Salmon Fry, fromn the Exclusion of the Ova to the Age of Two Years.  Mr.
Young began artificial breeding in 1841, chiefly to
prove that young salmon became smolts in the
twelfth month of their existence, then migrated, and




116    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
returned to their native rivers the same year as grilse
or young salmon, coming back to breedl for the first
time.  Mr. Shaw, in his Experimental Observations,
maintained that salmon fiy did not attain the smolt
state before a period of two years passed in fresh
water, and did not migrate to sea earlier.  He also
maintained that parr and salmon fry were identical.
Mr. Young maintained the contrary, and I believe
that Mr. Shaw now acknowledges that he was in error, and that Mr. Young was right.  I have never
met with a salmon fisher, learned in the natural history of salmon, who did not agree with Mr. Young.
The tardiness in the development of Mr. Shaw's artificially-bred salmon fry arose, in. my opinion, from
his having taken the impregnated salmon ova from
the river Nith, and placed them  for incubation in
ponds fed by mountain rills. The artificial spawningbeds of Mr. Young were made in the river Shin, and
the impregnated ova taken out of it. In 1848, Mr.
Young wrote in the John, O'Groat's Journal, published at Wick, a series of essays on the salmon,
which I transferrel the same year to the columns of
Bell's Life.  Mr. Young soon after collected them,
and they appeared in book shape, under the title of
The Naturcd History and IHabits of the Salmon, Arc.
In that pamphlet he sketched the mode of breeding
salmon artificially.  In 1850 I wrote the Boo/k of the
Salmon. It is divided into two parts,-the first, by
myself, is divided into four chapters, and treats of
"theory, principles, and practice of fly-fishing for




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    117
salmon, with lists of salmon flies for every good
river in the empire."  The second part contains two
long chapters on " the natural history of the salmon,
all its known habits describedl, and on the best way of
artificially breeding it."  The information embodied
in these two chapters was obtained by me from
3Mr. Young orally, and from his published and private
writings. I believe in the correctness of that information, and I believe it-illustrated as it is with colored plates after nature of the salmon-ab ovo to
the smolt state inclusive-the most valuable as yet
published on the history and habits of the salmon,
and on the means of breeding it artificially.  In a
letter from 3Mr. Young to me, dated December 17,
1849, and part published in the Book of' Salmon, pp.
158, 159, and 160, he writes, " I have been experimenting on salmon for upwards of 30 years. Fiew,
I believe, if any, have paid the attention to the habits of salmon I have done.  To enumerate all the
experiments I have made would fill volumes.  On
this point I must abridge.  In 1834, and for a number of years following, we [I suppose MBr. Young and
his assistants] marked spawned fish for the purpose of
settling the cluestion, denied by many, of the return
of salmon to their native rivers. This we did satisfactorily.  We, in 1835, marked smolts to ascertain
and set at rest the following point, denied by many,
viz., that the smolts returned grilse the same year
they first went from the rivers to the sea in the smolt
state.  The experiments proved this also; and spe



118    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
cimens of the grilse that we marked when smolts,
and which returned grilse from the sea to fresh water
the year they were marked, may be now seen in the
Museum of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.  We
continued these markings many years, invariably
with similar results, and at the same period, continuously during three years, we carefully watched the
spawning operations, and spawning beds in all their
stages, and were fully convinced at last the fry remained in the rivers one whole year, and no longer,
after having been hatched.  However, though I was
fully convinced in the case, the public were not, and
still hung to the old theory that they were fry and
smolts the same year [the fry produced in 1854 from
ova deposited this year, say now, will not become
smolts until the spring of 1855], and that their migration to the sea took place shortly after they were
hatched.  To make assurance doubly sure, we, in
1841, erected a chain of four artificial bleeding ponds
by the river Shin [I have seen the remains of them.
They were in the Shin, close by its left-hand bank,
and about a quarter of a mile or more from its
mouth], about fifty yards above Shin bridge, when
we hatched the firy to the state you have seen them
preserved here.  [In iMr. Young's museum at Invershin.] We continued this process for some years, and
always found the same result.  The ponds were
visited and examined by Dr. Travers Twiss, of the
University of Oxford, through whom I presented, in
June, 1834, a set of ova and fry up to the smolt




THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.    119
state."  Who can doubt after this that the silverycoated smelt, in length and weight about the admeasurement of a very large sprat, is a young salmon
about a year old, and that at that age it migrates for
the first time to sea, and does not wait until it is two
years old to assume the silvery and migratory coat,
as Mr. Shaw mntatained it did.  By MIr. Young's
discovery we have a very important fact proved, viz.,
that grilse, weighing from  four to eight pounds, are
young salmon of 15 or 18 months old, a little more or
less; that they breed towards the end of their second
year, and that they are adult salmon in the middle,
and not unfrequently in the early part of the third,
year of their existence.
Before I proceed to analyze M. Coste's Instructions Pratiq~ues stur cla Pisciculture, &c., and A Treatise on the Propagation of fSalmon ctnd other Fish,
by Edmund and Thomas Ashworth, the latter being
little more than a translation of the best parts of the
former work, I shall lay down briefly a few salient
items of the salmon's natural history.  In order to
preserve that valuable fish, and to multiply it by
artificial breeding, its history and habits, as far as
they have been discoveredl, should be known.
The salmon is a fresh-water fish.  In fresh water
it breeds, and remains in it during the whole of the
first year of its life. As long as it lives it passes, on
an average, two thirds of every year in fresh water.
It never breeds in lochs, lakles, pools, or deep
still water, but invariably in fords and shallows, and




120    THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.
always returns after its annual, sometimes bi-annual
migrations to sea, to the rivers in which it was bredl,
provided it escape during its immigrating voyage
through salt water, destruction by fish of prey, amphibious animals, or by the devices of man.
It does not return from the sea to fresh water for
the proximate or immediate purpose of spawning.
If it did, we should not have fresh-run fish in January, February, and March.  Few salmon breed before October.  The general breeding tinme is the latter end of November andc the beginning of December.
Salmon emigrating from the sea in the first months
of the year will occasionally make a second sea voyage in the summer, and return in the autumn to
their native rivers.  When salmon are surfeited with
sea-found food, and have become full-fed and fat,
they grow tired of salt water and its feeding groundcls
and make for the estuaries and rivers.  If the salt
or brackish waters of the former are not well tinged
wvith fresh water, the salmon remains in them  until
there be a flood in the rivers.  They know when this
takes place by the increased quantity of fresh water
rushing into the narrow firths.  Fresh water being
lighter than salt water, it flows above the latter, and
up into it the salmon swim, gambolling and swimming rapidly for the swollen river, its state enabling
them to surmount weirs, cruives, andl other obstacles,
which would obstruct their passage if the river was
low.  In dry summer weather very few salmon are
found in the rivers.  A flood comes, subsides in two,




TIHE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.    121
three, or four days, and then the rivers-I mean
good ones-abound with fresh-run fish.
A fresh-run fish is known by the brightness of
its scales, by its corpulency, the whiteness and softness of its fins, by the shallow forking of the tail,
and by parasitical insects adhering to it.  These insects, or vermin, disappear, it is stated, from  the
sides and belly of the salmon after it has been in
fiesh water forty-eight hours.  Some persons argue
that salmon return to fresh water to get rid of these
sea parasites.  Not so; if they did, they would, as
soon as the insects disappeared, emigrate again to
sea.  This they never do until they have been many
weeks in fresh water.
Salmon, after its first year, never grows in length
or bulk in fresh water.  After its first immigration
from  the sea as a grilse, it diminishes in muscle,
fibre, and fat, every day it remains in fresh water.
Its fins become black and strongly elastic, and its gillcovers and back assume the same color.  It is then
called a " black" fish, in contradistinction to the
bright, clean, fresh-run (just arrived from  sea) fish.
It does not, until within a very few weeks of spawning, lose strength in fresh water.  It is more active
than the fresh-run fish, has greater propelling power
by means of fins hardened by fresh water.  Salt
water so softens the fins of salmon as to render them
feeble propellers.  WVe do not know  how far seawards salmon travel to feed.  I should say not far
beyond the mouths of estuaries or the shores of
6




122    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
Ocean. I do not think the salmon a deep-sea fish.
If a river runs into a sea or frith, having a northern
and southern direction, salmon, when they emigrate
to either, take towards the north in search of feeding
grounds, and return southwards to their native rivers.  W/hen the salmon resort to a sea lying east
and west-the English Channel, for instance-I do
not know which direction they take-whether they
go eastward or westward,  Would any naturalist of
Hampshire or Devonshire tell whether the salmon
of the rivers of those counties, when repairing to
their salt-water feeding-grounds, proceed in the
direction of the Atlantic or of the Germnan Ocean?
This lesson is now long enough.  I have not
mentioned some of the minor habits of the salmon.
I shall do so hereafter, not forgetting some of its
wonderful instincts, great and rapid powers of digestion, and consequent incredible voracity, and rapidity
of increase. I hope that those who are engaged in
~ breeding the salmon artificially, who have studied or
are studying its history and habits, will assist me
during the winter months in the objects I have in
view-preserving and multiplying salmon so as to
render it as abundant and cheap in our markets as
the cod-fish. They can assist me by correcting any
errors into which I may have fallen, or by giving
additional information on points upon which I have
not' been sufficiently minute, or by dilating on points
that haVe:escaped nly notice, or of which I am
ignorant,




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.   123
LESSON II.
SAIMON anglers, salmon lovers, salmon eaters, sing,
"Oh, be joyful," and be so. More than "looming
in the future" is a good time for you. I know not
looming;-that won't do for me. I want the positive and palpable, and must and shall have it. I
want salmon abundant and cheap, and in two years
-no looming here —I, and you, and every body will
have it. I mean us, poor people, for when the salmon is cheap, and is found as good and as plentiful
near the Brill, Somers Town, as in Bond-street,
Charing-cross, or Cheapside, your courtier will have
none of it. Once become the food of the people,'twill stink in his nostrils, and, pah, he'll look upon
it as " a slovenly corpse."  Ainsi soit-il-Amen;
per omnnia secGla seculorum.  We have begun the
new year well.  Read again and again " Salmo's,"
and " Y.'s," "Piscator's," and "Outis's" letters, in
our impression of the 1st of January, 1854. In them
behold the seed that will bring forth-in theml see
the forerunner of other sowers-in them contemplate
the nucleus of a great and triumphant salmon-league
-in them imagine the vendors and the makers of
vendors of salmon selling it at 3d. per lb. It is
pleasant to see three writers, one living in the Scottish Highlands, far, far away, another in Buckinghamshire, and the third, the erudite, acute, and cor



124    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
rectly-calculating    Salmo," in Lancashire, totally
unknown to each other, uttering identical opinions —
at least upon one great point-touching the salmon
question, It is pleasant to me to see snch men esponding to my call for aid, and agreeing with me
on most points.  If we differ-if I dispute a point
with them, it is in the most friendly manner, for the
good of the cause so dear to us all, and for nothing
in the whole world b'esides.  Last Sunday " Salmo"
wrote, " My experiments on salmon were discontinued last year, as I had not an opportunity of
visiting the Hodder at the proper time; they have,
however, been resumed this winter under very favorable auspices.  In the mean time, I have continued
my experiments with trout successfully, and I shall
give you the result in some future paper.  Before
entering upon that question, however, I purpose saying a little more about the breeding and preservation
of salmon."  I beg of so able a writer not to forget
his promise, and I also beg him to bear in mind the
vast circulation of this paper amongst sportsmen
and naturalists.  It is read, I am certain, by half a
million of persons, so that " Salmo " will have a very
large auditory.  The larger it is, the more good he
will effect.  Both " Salmo " and " Y." are of opinion
that artificial breeding is necessary only in salmonless rivers. In fact, they think it injurious in rivers
in which there is a fair amount of salmon.  The following calculation by " Salmo" is curious.  He says,
" Assume that a full-grown salmon contains 10,000




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    125
ova, which is considerably under the mark.  The
salmon choose for their spawning places, technically
called' Rlcdds,' the rough beds of gravel which connect the foot of one pool with the head of the next.
In the Hoclcdder these gravel beds occur. at intervals,
varying from 100 to 300 yards.  Assume that there
are five such spawning  places in one mile of water,
then ten miles of river would contain fifty of them.
Assume that 10 fish spawn annually on each of
these gravel beds, the result would be, that, in these
ten miles of water, 500 salmon would produce
5,000,000 of ova, which, if they arrived at the maturity of their parents, would extend in a continuous
line, head to tail, upwards of 2,000 miles.  Now
these results are so startling, as to prove at once
that it is not from  the deficiency of young fry that
we have to lament the decrease in the number of
salmon.  The mischief must be sought for elsewhere.
If only one fish in a hundred of those which are bred
in the river returned to it mature salmon, we should
have to boast of 50,000 annually in the Hocldder;
yet, for the purposes of this illustration, I have assumed only 500 pair of breeding fish."  No doubt
salmon fry are not sufficiently protected, and no
doubt that if " one in a hundred" returned to its
native river, we should have abundance of salmon.
But I conceive this is no argument against artificial
breeding.  Will artificial breeding increase or not
the number of salmon, fry?  If it do, though the
loss will be greater, the return of them as grilse will




126    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
also be greater.  In well-preserved rivers, such as
the Shin, in Sutherlandshire, or the Erne in Ireland, in which the fishings cease in the third week
of August, artificial breeding may not be requisite,
but in rivers.badly cared for, or over-fished, I think
it may be profitably brought into requisition. My
excellent friend and old correspondent, " Y." writes,
"Although we allow that artificial breeding mnay be
a good supplementary fund to natural breeding, the
amount of that benefit is yet wholly to be seen.  It
is all on paper, and not yet in reality. Artificial
breeding is valuable for the stocking of barren rivers,
and the discovery for that purpose is of the utmost
importance.  But the attempts now in progress to
increase the numbers in almost fishless rivers that
negligence and bad laws have produced, are only yet
in embryo, and not too much dependence is to be
placed on. them —at all events, not that dependence
that should induce us to underrate that beautiful
production of fishes which nature has so distinctly
granted them.  We are aware that long previous to
the time that Mr. Jacobi wrote an account of his
artificial propagation of fishes in the Hcznover- alfaczzine, that salmon, in Britain and Ireland, flourished
and increased to an incalculable degree, under just
and natural laws, and by natural breeding, and I
have no hesitation in saying that they would do so
still.  The proprietors on Tay for the last two years
acted wisely towards that river, for they trampled
the present base act under foot, and closed the fish



THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    127
ings on that river on the 26th of August, in place
of the 14th of September, and by that means they
have got the river better supplied with breeders than
it has been during the existence of the present laws."
There is much caution in these remarks.  It is evident, however, that " Y." is not favorable to artificial breeding except in L"barren" rivers.  He does
not speak out so boldly as "' Salino," but I feel assurecl that on this point their opinions tally.   Y Y."
speaks well of the condition of the river Tay.  It is
surprising, then, that soime of its proprietors should
have recourse to artificial breeding, or, if not surprising, it must be taken as a proof that they hope
some good at least from breeding artificially.  And
here, ens 1assant, I will hint that I do not much like
the breeding-boxes of Mr. Ramlsbottom  used by him
upon Tay and in Galway.  Why not breed in the
bed of the river withinside a longitudinal dam?  Of
this I shall have to say a good deal hereafter.  If I
were convinced of the accuracy of the following calculation set forth by a" Salmo," I should be obstinately opposed to breeding salmon by artificial means.
He says, " It must be remarked, that only a limited
portion of the ova of a salmon is mature at a time;
that to obtain the gross produce of one fish, you
must handle, at least, 10 or 12, probably 40 or 50
fish; that, in procuring these fish, you must disturb
a considerable number of others, and interrupt their
spawning at a very critical period; that every fish
so handled, is more or less injured, and rendered for




128    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISM.
the time quite sickly and helpless; and that, do all
you may, your utmost exertions will not enable you
to collect so much as one per cent. of the ova cleposited in the river; and that, after all, you have
only robbed the river of so many ova which would
otherwise have been deposited there without your
aid."  Now, in my opinion, if the female salmon be
properly manipulated the ripe ova will be expelled
only, and if the fish be returned to the river, she will
recover, her remaining ova will become mature, and
she will deposit them, and get them impregnated as
if nothing blad happened.  I believe this to be MNr.
Andrew Young's opinion.* At the best, however, it
can only be opinion or surmise. It is very difficult
to tell what becomes of a salmon returnedl to the river after some of its ova have been expressed for the
purpose of producing salmon in boxes or ponds. A
late number of the Perth CGourier says, " On Skaturday last, from  five female and one male salmon,
caught below a ford near the mouth of the Almond,
about 50,000 eggs were got."  This statement does
not agree with " Salmo's" calculation.
I have as yet said little of " Piscator's" letter.
He clinches the matter at once by saying that the
only remedy to prevent the decay of salmon is a
change in the salmon-fishery laws-a change from
bad to good. It is the best remedy, and, if all of us
were like "'Piscator," we soon should get it; if all
were as ready as he is to form  " An Association for
the Protection of Salmon," the Legislature wouild ac



THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    129
cord the remedy required.' Salmo" mentions the
large amount of fry and simolts to be seen in even
tolerably good salmon rivers, and how few of them
return as grilse. HIow can they? It is not generally made penal to kill salmon fry.  I know of no
trial for the offence, except one that took place last
year before a meeting of magistrates at Worcester.
Yet not far from that town they are captured wholesale, and served up at the inns as a delicious plat,
under the name of "lastsprings."  In the Ixonmouthshire Wye they are caught by bushels, and so
they are in every Irish river with which I am acquainted.  I have seen urchins on the Suir, county
Waterford, and in the Lee, county Cork, catch them
by scores with the artificial fly, which they take with
extreme avidity.  H[unldreds of thousands of them
are destroyed by eel-traps and at mill-clams, and
there is at present no help for it. I believe that
many persons are not aware that salmon fry is young
salmnon.  They think them trout, and, whilst slaying them, are not aware of the mischief they are
doing.  The Reverend author of the "'Erne; its
Legends and its Fisheries," mentions in that interesting work that he used to see, near Ballyshannon,
hundreds of boys " whipping " for salmon fry, and
no one durst interfere with thenm for fear of parental
vengeance.  All this must be stopped.  The coming
season will be an abundant salmon one; and the following better. We are now beginning a real salmon
agitation; and
6*




130     THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.
"I think I hear a little bird that sings,
Thie saClnomn will be masters by and by";L egitimately masters, pronounced so at the bar of
the I-House of Lords by the binding words, "' La Reinze
Ie ve~ut."
In my first lesson of the date of Dec. 8, I gave a
few items of the natural history of salmon.  I then
promised that others should in clue time follow.  I
now redeem my pledge. I know of no creature whose
growth is so rapid as that of the salmon.  The smeolt
weighing between two and three ounces, becomes in
three months a grilse of six pounds, more or less.
[Mr. Young has seen a grilse that weighed fourteen
pounds, and one that weighed little more than one
pound.  The largest and smallest, I fancy, he ever
saw during his long experience of 40 years and more.
The large grilse must have remained at sea an unusual length of time, anc have been descended froml
Patagonialn parents; the lesser one must have only
remained on the salt-water feeding grounds three or
four weeks.  In The Boo/e of the Salcmon, pp. 199200) I have written, " This growth of salmon at sea,
and at sea only, after having obtained in fresh water
the smolt size, depends on three things: duration of
time they remain on their sea feeding-grounds, oquality and quantity of food they obtain thereon, and
hereditary capacity for growth with apportion-capacity for digestion.  The grilse of small salmon, that
is, of salmon which never grow beyond a small size,
are handsomer, in every way better shaped, and ge



TIHE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISI.    131
nerally of a brighter silvery hue, than the grilse, the
produce of larger growing  salmon.  The grilse of
the rivers Carron and Laxford, in Rossshire and
Sutherlandshire,  are handsolle, small-headed, thick
and deep, and short in the body; their scales are
small, smooth and bright, and all this because: they
are the offspring of small, well-shapen parent salmnon: whereas the grilse of the river Shin, in which
salmon grow to a very large size, are ill-shaped fish,
having large heads, long, thin bodies, large long fins,
and large, rough, and by no means brilliant scales.
It requires experience to distinguish a large and well
shaped grilse from a small salmon.; Very frequently
tihe, only distinguishing marks between grilse and
salmon are the smaller scales of the former, the
longer and larger fins, and the more forked tail."
The powers of digestion of the salmon are amazing.
I opine that a salmon would digest a herring in a
few lminutes, and I think that whilst at sea the quantity of fish-food it consumes is immense.  Hence the
chief cause of thile wonderful rapidity of its growth.
A salmon never grows so fast as in the second year
of -its existence.  An adult salmon, weighing 101b,
has been known to more than double its weight in
37 days!
This ratio of increase cannot continue long, and
I conclude that very large and aged salmon remain
stationary as to growth.  The male salmon at spawning tiue, and in its kelt state, has a soft tooth-like
excrescence in the lower jaw  fitting into the upper.




132    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
The use of this excrescence is not known.  Salmon
in surmounting weirs and waterfalls jump straight
upwards-not perpendicularly, but rising gradually
as a man taking a running leap over a hurdle, hedge,
or gate. On the moot point of salmon leaping, I say,
in a Handbook of Angling, " Natural historians used
to gravely tell us that salmon, in order to jump high,
were in the habit of placing their tails in their
mouths, and then bending themselves like a bow,
bound out of the water to a considerable distance,
from twelve to twenty feet."  The late Mr. Scrope
(Days cZand Nights of SalCmo  FishiZng), correctly
culates that six feet in height is more than the average spring of salmon, though he conceives that very
large fish, in deep water, could leap mzucfh (which I
doubt) higher.  He says,'Large fish can spring
much higher than small ones; but their powers are
limited or augmented according to the depth of water they spring from: in shallow water they have
little power of ascension; in deep they have the
most considerable.  They rise very rapidly from the
very bottom to the surface of the water by means of
rowing and sculling, as it were, with their fins and
tail; and this powerful impetus bears them upwards
in the air, on the same principle that a few tugs of
the oar make a boat shoot onwards after one has
ceased to row."  The ascending motion is caused by
the salmon striking the water downwards with its
pectoral, ventral, and dorsal fins, aided by bodily
muscular action.




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    133
Salmon invariably spawn on gravelly and sandy
shallows.  As soon as they have paired-the females
seeking the males, as it is said maids do of leap-yearsthey choose a fit spawning locality, from which, if they
can, they chase away all other fish. For some days
they are engaged in this operation. The coast being
clear, and the female ready to lay her mature ova or
eggs, they commence constructing what I call their
nests.  How these are situated and constructed I
explain, on the viva voce authority of Mr. Andrew
Young, in T2he boole of the Salmon, p. 174 et infra:
" The spawning-bed, which may be called a continuation of nests, is never fashioned transversely, or
across the water-current, but straight against it. The
way the bed is formed has never before been accurately described.  Some have affirmed that the male
fish is the sole architect; others, that the female
does all the work; others, again, that the tail is the
only delving implement employed; and others write
that the bed trenches are dug across the stream. A
salmon spawning-bed is constructed thus: —The fish
having paired, chosen their spot for bed-making, and
being ready to lie-in, they drop down stream a little,
and then rushing back with velocity towards the spot
selected, they dart their heads into the gravel, burrowing with their snouts into it.  This burrowing
action, assisted by the powers of the fins, is performed with great force, and the water's current aiding,
the upper part or roof of the excavation is removed.
The burrowing process is continued until a first nest




134     THE NEW ART OF BREEDIN(! FISH.
is dug sufficiently capacious for a first deposition of
ova.  Then the female enters this first hollowed link
of the bed, and deposits therein a portion of her ova.
That done, she retires down stream, and the male
instantly takes her place, and, pouring, by emission,
a certain quantity of milt over the deposited ova,
impregnates them. After this the fish commence a
second excavation, immediately above the first, and
in a straight line with it.  In making the excavatiois they relieve one another.  When one fish grows
tired of its work it drops down stream until it is refreshedl, and then, with renovated powers, resumes
its labors, relieving at the same time its partner.
The partner acts in the same spirit, and so their labor progresses by alternate exertion. The second
bed completed, the female enters it as she did the
first, again depositing a portion of ova, and drops a
little down stream.  The male forthwith enters the
excavation, and impregnates the ova in it.  The
different nests are not macle on the same day, but on
different days, progressively. It is never so all at
once.  The ova in the first nest are covered with
gravel and sand, dug from the second, being carried
into it chiefly by the action of the current.  The
excavating process just described is day by day continued, until the female has no more ova to deposit.
The last deposition of ova is covered in by the action
of the fish and water, breaking down some of the
gravel crust above and over the nest. Thus is formed a complete spawning bed —not at once, not by a




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    135
single effort, but piecemeal, fand at several intervals
of greater or less duration, according to the age and
size of the fish, and quantity of ova to be deposited.
A female salmon in its third year has a larger quantity of ova to deposit than a female grilse, or young
salmon in its second year; and it may be taken for
granted that the older and larger either fish, male or
fenmale, is, the greater the quantity of ova to be deposited and of milt to be emitted.  In consequence,
the time occupied in deposition chiefly depends upon
the size and fecundity of the female fish.  The average time is from five to ten clays.  It would be more
correct to say the mean time lies betwixt." As soon
as salmon have spawned they are kelts and foul fish,
totally out of condition and unfit for human food.
They drop down into the pool next below the spawning bed, and there remain until they have somewhat
recovered from the exhausting process of procreation.
Tlhey then proceed slowly seawards, and by the time
they approach the mouths of rivers they become
CCmended" kelts.  In this state they eagerly take
the artificial fly and other baits, but though the angler, fishing for fresh-run fish, cannot help capturing
them, none but the arrant poacher will keep them
in captivity.  The true sportsman will take them
tenderly off his hook, replace them in the river, that
they may go to sea, and there grow and fatten, and
come back a clean, beautiful fish, in high condition.
I have now touched on the salient and important
points of the salmon's history and habits.  There




136    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
remain still some curious and amusing ones to be
mentioned. We defer them to another day. My
third lesson shall be on the methods of breeding salmon artificially-on M. Coste's, member of the
French Institute and professor at the College of
France; on Mr. Young's, as given in the Booi/ of
the Scanon; and on that of the ingenious and indefatigable Mr. Gottleib Boccius, should I see him
within the next week or so.
Jan. 4, 1854.                  EPHEMERA.
LESSON III.
As I am not so much opposed to the artificial breeding of salmon as several celebrated corespondents of
this journal, I shall briefly sketch the different
methods formerly and recently adopted in Europe
for propagating salmon by what are called artificial
means. The Messrs. Edmund and Thomas Ashworth,
of Egerton Hall, Bolton, Lancashire, have purchased
in the Court for the Sale of Encumbered Estates a'" several fishery, extending from  Lough Corrib to
the sea," and have attempted in the spawning season of 1852 to propagate salmon near Outerard artificially.  Last year, they published "CA Treatise
on the Propagation of Salmon and Other Fish." It
is not original, being merely a translation of certain




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    137
portions of MI. Coste's French work on pisciculture,
extracts from Jacobi, and 3Messrs. Young and Shaw,
concluding with Mr. Halliday's report of the experiments made at Outerard.  Nevertheless, though not
original it is a useful pam-phlet.  There is a plate,
copied from  iM. Coste, containing diagrams of the
utensils used in artificial spawning, with figures of
salmon from a day to ten months old inclusive.
The first discoverer in Europe of artificial spawning was Jacobi, a German naturalist.  In 1773,
exactly ten years after Jacobi had developed his
theory in the Journal of cHanover, it was translated
into French by Duhamel du 3Monceau.  In this country {Mr. Shaw of Drumlanrig began to breed salmon
artificially in the year 1836, and Mr. Young of Invershin, a few years later, viz., in 1841. The Scotch
breeders succeeded in producing salmon artificially,
but they differed widely as to the ratio of growth of
salmon so produced.  Mr. Shaw  maintained that
salmon-fry did not attain the smnolt or migratory
state until it was two years old. Mr. Young contended that it did at the completion of its first year.
Subsequent observations and experiments have proved Mr. Young right and Mr. Shaw wrong.  Messrs.
Shaw and Young are, therefore, the first artificial
breeders of salmon in Great Britain.  In France, in
1851, the system was first publicly adopted by MMI.
Berthot and Detzem, at Huningen, near the'Rhine..They were preceded by private experiments made
by two fishermen of Bresse, MM. Gehin and Remy.




138    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISIH.
M. Coste, member of the Institute, and professor at
the College of France, next took the subject up,
and supported by the French Government, he has
been, and is carrying on in France the artificial
propagation of salmon, trout, and other fresh-water
fish on a very large scale. We do not know as yet
fully the results.  All we as yet know is, that the
French breeders have produced large numbers of
fry, but we do not know how many of them  have
arrived at maturity-how many have attained marketable value.
I shall pass over Jacobi's method of artificial
spawning, and come to that carried into effect at
the establishment of the Messrs. Ashworth, at Outerard.  It is founded on BI. Coste's plan.  Mr. Halliday reporting on the spawning establishment at
Outerard, writes from Galway, July 4, 1853 —  Robert Ramsbottom, from  Clitheroe, was sent over by
MIessrs. Ashworth.  The plan tried was by spawn
boxes, prepared, and by an artificial rill-bed, running parallel, and both were equally successful.  On
the 14th December, 1852, a small rill at Outerard
was selected for the experiment; by a rude check
thrown across, a foot of water head was raised over
a few square yards, to insure regularity in the supply.  From this head, half-foot under surface level,
three wooden pipes, two inches square, by a few feet
long, drew off respectively to the rill-bed and to the
boxes all the water required-the surplus of the
supplying rill passing away in its usual course. The




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.   139
boxes are six feet long, eighteen inches wide, nine
inches deep, open at top, set ill the ground in a
double row, on a slope of two or three inches on
each box, the end of the one set close to the end of
the other, in continuous line, and earthed up to
within an inch of the top.  They are partly filledfirst, with a layer of fine gravel, next coarser, and
lastly, with stones, coarser somewhat than road
metal, to a total depth of six inches. A piece of
twelve inches wide by two inches deep is cut from
the end of each box, and a water-way of tin nailed
over this, with a turn-up on either side, to prevent
the water from escaping. These connect the line
of boxes, and carry the water to the extreme end,
whence it is made to drop into the one which receives and preserves the young fish.  The artificial
rill is, in all respects, similarly prepared, excepting
that its channel course is in the rill itself.  The
pipe is now introduced into the upper box of each
line, and at the water head the spawn bed is prepared, two hours' running will clear away the earth
from the stones.  The water will be found about
two inches in depth, over the average level of the
stones in the boxes. By an iron wire grating, the
boxes can be isolated, and the pipe protected against
the passage of insects and trout. The salmon were
taken by nets on the spawn fords at night, from the
20th of December, 1852, till after the 1st of January. When taken, they were instantly, and without injury, put into a tub, one-fourth full of water.




140    THE iNEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
The female fish was turned over, one man holding
the tail, another running his hands down each side
from  the head, and, pressing  lightly with  his
thumbs, the ova were readily discharged into the
tub; a similar course readily discharged the. milt.
Both fish immediately, and apparently without the
smallest injury, were returned to the river.  The
contents of the tub were then mixed by a motion
of the hand.  In one minute the water was poured
off, and fresh put on, which was also poured off, and
the ova put into the vessel, to carry to the prepared
hatching ground.  In pouring off the water from
the ova, always retain sufficient to preserve it from
the air, both in the carrying vessels and spawning
tubs; unless the fish be in a fit state the ova will
not shed by gentle pressure, in which case no violence should be used, but the salmon returned to
the river, and fish in a more advanced stage taken.
In distribution, the ova intended for one box should
be put into one vessel, and this poured out gradually at the upper end of the box; the waterflow
downwards will carry it [them, the ova] among the
stones, under which it [they] will settle clown, and
wherever too thick, by raising some water in the
vessel, and pouring it down, this will disturb and
float the spawn into a more equal distribution, that
should, if possible, be done the same night as taken.
We consider the boxes used of sufficient size for
3,000 ova each; and, as a guide to the quantity
found, an English half-pint will contain about 1,200




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    141
in number.  We consider there were 40,000 deposited, andc assuming that one third may not come
to maturity, we may conclude that we have upwards of 20,000 young salmon living in those ponds,
beyond the reach of their natural enemies.  From
the lateness of the season, although the numbers of
spawn fish lifted were very considerable, the above
quantity of ova might be readily obtained out of
five pairs of full, good brood fish, and that a million
of ova [more correct to say 800,000] might, by a
similar process, be deposited from one hundred pairs
of salmon.  A very curious fact was also ascertained
in the course of this experiment.  In taking up the
spawning salmon we also caught a quantity of
trout; those we examined, and, in every instance
save one, thev containedl salmon ova, on which they
were preying.  From  the gullet of one large trout
we estimated. that 600 were by pressure ejected,
and I retained them  along with a further quantity
from other trout, and deposited all in boxes, isolated
from  the others, a considerable portion of which
camle to life, and are with the other fry in the
ponds at Outerard, where thousands of young salmon may now be seen.  And this experiment again
shows that the year of their deposit as ova is not
that of their migration to the ocean; until that
period, it is of great importance to retain the young
fry in these ponds, where they are protected from
their numerous natural enemies; hereafter they
must necessarily be left to protect themselves, and




142    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
are more capable of doing so; up to that time they
should be occasionally fed with suitable food, and
all the fish in one pond should be of similar age, the
larger fish proving very injurious to the smaller and
weaker ones."
The spawn deposited in the Outerard boxes in
the middle of December, 1852, would be hatched
about the middle of April, 1853, and, therefore,
will be twelve months old next April, and those deposited l1st January, 1853, will be about twelve
months of age in May next.  According to Mr.
Young's theory, and mine, they will then be silverycoated smnolts, and will about the time migrate to
sea. Will Mr. Halliday mark a few score of them
when they assume their migratory coat, and so
ascertain how mlany will return from the sea as
grilse, and what will then be their average size?
If I understand right, all the salmon fry will be
kept in the ponds until their period of migration.
I regret this, for if a portion of them were freed
from the ponds, and let into the river at two or
three months old, and marked, an important question would be decided, viz., whether it were better
to confine young salmon in ponds until the smolt
state, or turn them when very young fry into the
river from which the ova were taken. If a greater
number of pond-imprisoned smolts, than liberated
fry-the number imprisoned and liberated being
eq-ual —returned froum sea to the parental river as
grilse, then pond  confinement would be proved




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.   143
more beneficial than early liberation. At present I
do not think so. Non-migratory fish, the common
trout, for instance, may be beneficially kept and fed
in artificial ponds or streams for a year. I am not
at all sure of the good expected to be the result of
so confining migratory fish. I suspect they may
never return to the rivers into which they shall be
turned from the rearing ponds. If Mr. Hallidlay
will adopt my suggestion of marking his smolts, he
will dissipate my doubts and those of many others
interested in every thing that pertains to the natural history of the salmon, in its increased propagation and preservation.
This lesson would have contained other modes
of breeding salmon artificially had not a flood of
sporting sews set in, overflowing our wide margins,
and leaving little room for sporting essays. I shall,
as soon as the flood subsides, resume, and, I hope,
conclude, the questions of salmon breeding, rearing,
and preserving
EPHEMERA.
Jan. 20.
LESSON IV.
I HAVE received such powerful aid from those clever,
conscientious, and practical correspondents, " Salmo"
ancl " Y." that nearly all the task I proposed to do
myself has been executed by them.  I could not




144    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
have done so well as they have.  To their communications, which appear in company with this, I direct
the careful attention of naturalists, and of all who
own salmon rivers, and are desirous of having productive salmon fisheries. Printed proofs of them,
and of my lessons, shall in a few days be forwarded
for the consideration of H. R. H. Prince Albert, who
has always exhibited beneficent anxiety and readiness to add to the comforts of the English people,
to the Duke of Newcastle, Lord Palmerston, Mr.
Sydney Herbert, andc Sir W. Molesworth, all of
whom are desirous to promote the culture of salmon
waters, and to restore them  to their former state of
fertility.
This lesson shall be confined to two modles of
breeding salmon artificially.  The first is copied, not
in extensor from Experimental Observations on the
Development and Growth of Scldmon-Fry, &c.  By
John Shaw, of Drumlanrig.- (Eldinburgh: Adam
and C. Black.  1840.) — Ir. Shaw, as far as my
knowledge extends, the first British breeder of salmon artificially, writes thus:-' On the 10th of
January, 1836, I observed a female salmon of considerable size (about 161b.), and two males (of at
least 251b.), engaged in depositing their spawn.
The spot, which they had selected for that purpose,
was a little apart from some other salmon which
were engaged in the same process, and rather nearer
the side, although still in pretty deep water.  The
two males kept up an incessant conflict during the




THE NEW  ART OF B1tEEDING FISH.    145
whole of the day, for possession of the female, and
were repeatedly on the surface displaying their dorsal fins, and lashing the water with their tails.  Being satisfied that these were real salmon, there being
at least ten brace of that fish engaged in the same
process in the stream at the time, I took the opportunity of securing as much of the ova as I could
possibly obtain.  This I did three days afte r it was
deposited, the males and female still occasionally
frequenting the bed.  The method by which I obtained the eggs was by using a canvas bag, stitched
on a slight frame formed of small rod-iron, in fashion
of a large, square landing-net, one person holding
this bag a few inches farther down the stream than
where the ova was deposited, and another with a
spade digging up the gravel, the current carrying
the eggs into the bag, while the greater portion of
the gravel was left behind.  Having thus obtained
a sufficient quantity of the ova for my purpose, I
i)laced them in gravel under a stream of water where
I could have a convenient opportunity of watching
their progress.  The stream was pure spring water.
On the 26th February, that is, forty-eight days
after being deposited, I found, on close inspection,
that they had some appearance of animation, from a
very minute streak of blood which appeared to traverse, for a short distance, the interior of the egg,
originating near two small dark spots not larger, at
that time, than the point of a pin.  These two dark
spots, however, ultimately turned out to be the eyes




146    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
of the embryo fish, which was distinctly seen resting
against the interior surface of the egg a few days
previous to its exclusion. On the Sth of April,
which makes ninety cldays imbedded in the gravel, I
found, on examination, that they were excluded
from the egg, which was not the case a clay or two
previous.  The temperature of the water at the
time was 43 degrees, the temperature of the water
in the river 45, and the temperature of the atmosphere 39 degrees. On its first exclusion, the little
fish has a very singular appearance.  The head is
large in proportion to the body, which is exceedingly
small, and measures about five-eightls of an inch in
length, of a pale blue or peach-blossonm color. But
the most singular part of the fish is the conical baglike appendage which adheres by its base to the
abdomen.  This bag is about two-eighths of an inch
in length, of a beautiful transparent red, very much
resembling a light red currant, and, in consequence
of its color, may be seen at the bottom of the water
when the fish itself can with difficulty be perceived.
The body, also, presents another singular appearance, namely, a fin or fringe, resembling that of the
tail of the tadpole, which runs from the dorsal and
anal fins to the termination of the tail, and is
slightly indented.  This little fish does not leave
the gravel immediately after its exclusion from the
egg, but remains for several weeks beneath it with
the bag attached, and containing a supply of nourishment, on the same principle, no doubt, as the




THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.    147
umbilical vessel is known to nourish other embryo
animals.  By the end of fifty days, or the 30th of
MIay, the bag contracted and disappeared.  The fin
or tadpole-like fringe also disappeared by dividing
itself into the dorsal, adipose, and anal fins, all of
which then became perfectly developed.  The little
transverse bars, which for a period of two years (as I
have already shown) characterize it as the parr, also
made their appearance.  Thus, from the 10th of
January till the end of May, a period of upwards of
140 days, was required to perfect this little fish,
which even then measured little more than one inch
in length, and corresponded in all respects with
those on which I had formerly experimented, as well
as with such as existed at that same time in great
numbers in the natural streams."
MBr. Shaw afterwards made additional experiments in ponds artificially constructed, of which the
following is a description:
"The ponds, which are three in number, are
two feet deep, and thickly embedded with gravel,
while they are at the scame time supplied with a
small stream of spring water in which the la'rvw of
insects abound.  Pond No. 1 is 25 feet in length by
18 in breadth, and is fed by the stream  which debouches into it at the fall F.  Pond No. 2 is 22
feet in length by 18 in breadth, and is fed from
pond No. 1, at G, where the communication is carefully grated with wire.  Pond No. 3 is 50 feet in
length by 30 in breadth, and is fed by the stream




148    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
at F, having no communication with either of the
other ponds.  The waste water from pond No. I is
conducted into pond No. 2 through a sqcuare wooden
pipe, covered at the mouth with a wire grating, the
bars of which are about one-eighth of an inch apart.
The waste water fiom pond No. 2 is conveyed under
groundc to the distance of 20 feet, in a square wooden pipe, grated in the same manner as the former.
The waste water from  pond No. 3 passes down a
square wooden pipe, two feet deep, covered at the
top with wire-gauze, and is conveyed underground
in a small covered drain to the distance of 20 feet
fiolm the pond.  The water of the whole is then left
to find its way to the river.  To prevent any communication arising from  an accidental overflow of
the ponds themselves, I raised embankments upon
the intersecting walks of two feet in height, so that
the several families of fish which the ponds contain
can have no access, direct or indirect, to each other.
Where the rivulet is divided for the purpose of supplying the several ponds, I have formed an artificial
fall in each stream, of a construction to prevent the
fish from ascending one stream and descending another.  Finally, where the water discharges itself
from the ponds, the channels are so secured by wiregrating that it is as impossible for the young fish
to escape as for any other fish to have access to
them.  The whole occupies an area of nearly SO
feet square. 3My experimental basins being thus
prepared, my next object was to secure the fish, the




TIHE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.   149
progeny of which were to form the subject of experiment.  With the view, therefore, of securing two
salmon, male and female, while in the very act of
continuing their kindl, I provided myself with an
iron hoop five feet in diameter, on which I fixedc  a
net of a pretty large mesh, so constructed as to form
a bagt of nine feet in length by five feet in width.  I
then attachel the hoop and net to the end of a pole
nine feet long, thus forming a landing net on a
large scale.  The weight of the net with its iron
hoop being upwards of 7lbs. it instantly sunk to the
bottom on being thrown into the water.  Being thus
prepared with all the means of carrying my experiment into practice, I proceeded to the river Nith on
the 4th January, 1837, andcl readily discovered a
pair of adult salmon engaged in depositing their
spawn.  They were in a situation easily accessible,
the water being of such a depth as to admit of any
net being employed with certain success.  Before
proceeding to take the fish, I formed a small trench
in the shingle by the edge of the stream, through
which I directed a small stream of water from  the
river, two inches deep.  At the end of this trench I
placed an earthenware basin of considerable size, for
the purpose of ultimately receiving the ova. I then,
at one and the same instant, enclosed both the fish
in the hoop, allowing them to findcl their way into
the bag of the net by the aid of the stream.  In
capturing these fish, I considered myself fortunate
in securing them by one cast of the net, for, in con



150    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
ducting the experiment of artificial impregnation, it
appeared to me to be very desirable that the male
should be taken with the female of his own selection
at the very moment when they were mutually engaged in the continuance of their species.  To take
a female from one part of the stream and a male
from another might not have given the same chance
of a successful issue to the experiment. Having
drawn the fish ashore, I placed the female, while still
alive, in the trench, and pressed from her body a
quantity of ova. I then placed the male in the
same situation, pressing from his body a quantity of
milt, which, passing down the stream, thoroughly
impregnated the ova. I then transferred the spawn
to the basin, and deposited it in a stream connected
with a pond previously formed for its reception,
which, however, I have not considered it necessary
to represent in the accompanying plan.  The temperature of this stream was 39 degrees; of the river
from which the salmon were taken, 33 degrees; and
of the atmosphere 36 degrees.  The skins of the
parent salmon are now in my possession.  On ex-,amining the ova on the 23dl of February (50 days
after impregnation), I found the embryo fish distinctly visible to the naked eye, and even exhibiting
some symptoms of vitality by moving feebly in the
egg.  The temperature of the stream was at this
time 36 degrees, and of the atmosphere 38 degrees.
-On the 2Sth of April (114 days after impregnation),
I found the young salmon excluded from the egg,




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    151
which was not the case when I visited them on the
previous day.  The temperature of the stream was
then 44 degrees.  The ova, which for some time
previous to being hatched, had been almost daily in
my handcl for inspection, did not appear to suffer at
all from  being handled.  When I had occasion to
inspect the ovum, I placed it in the hollow of my
hand, covered with a few drops of water, where it
freqtuently remained a considerable tinme without
suffering any apparent injury.  The embryo, however, while in this situation, showed an increased
degree of activity by repeatedly turning itself in the
eg,, an action probably prodlced by the increase of
temperature arising from the warmth of the hand."
Mr. Shaw did not breed artificially for the immediate purpose of stocking the river Nith, but to
ascertain the growth of salmon-fry ab ovo.  Having
proved that salmon could be bred artificially, he was
satisfied with two alleged main results, viz., that
salmon-fry, with transverse bar marks, are identical
with the "parr," and that they do not attain the
smolt, or migratory state, until the age of two years.
These results have been disputed by subsequent experimentalists, more particularly by Mr. Young, of
Invershin, who maintains that "'parr " are adult
trout of the smallest variety, and that young salmon
(smolts) migrate at the first year, or nearly so, of
their age.  I am inclined to think that the telr,
perature of the water may hasten or retard the
period of migration, but not for so long a period as




152    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
one year.  Mr. Shaw says, " that one or two of each
of his three broods assumed the migratory or smolt
dress at the age of twelve months."  And that he
ascribes to the high temperature of water.  Mr.
Shaw gives an engraving of a two-year old sinolt,
bred in one of his ponds.  It measures 6- inches in
length.  I have never seen a naturally river bred
smolt longer than five inches, and never one, by any
means, so bulky as {Mr. Shaw's two-year old smiolt.
The last chapter in my Bookl of tle Salmon is on
" The Breeding of Salmon Artificially."  It describes the method carried out by MIr. Young in the
bed of the river Shin, successfully, during three consecutive years:-" The first thing to be taken care
of in this way of breeding salmon is that the spawning beds, which are to be artificially formed, be supplied: if possible, with water from which the ova are
taken.  In malking experiments on the growth of
salmon-fry this precaution is more absolutely necessary than -when one is breeding for the sole sake of
stocking a river.  In all cases it will be advisable,
that the spawning and rearing ponds be not fed
with water of a temperature widely differing from
that from  which the spawn has been procured.
With these few general remarks, I will transcribe
the notes I have received from Mr. A. Young on
this interesting and important subject.  To give the
seed, he says, the same advantages as that naturally
spawned  in rivers, the  artificial breeding-ponds
should be erected in the immediate vicinity of, or in




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    153
the river, and the ponds should be fed by a small
stream, or'lead' taken from the river, so that the
temperature and all the conditions of the one may,
in every respect, agree with those of the other.  At
the, spot you take the'lead' off the river, you colnmence the erection of a wall to shut out the main
current. The wall may be built ill the river by the
side of one of its banks, and its height then is to be
greater than the highest flood-marks of the river.
In the bottom of the wall, where it takes the'lead'
off the river, an opening or drain-mouth is.to be
constructed of the width of the current you wish to
flow through your ponds inside the defending wall.
This 6pening at the upper end of the wall is to be
so framed, that whether the state of the river is low
or high, the supply of water to the pond will be neither injuriously dimlinished nor increased.  The
drain-mouth, or opening in the wall, is to be secured
by a strong iron grating, the bars of which are to be
half an inch apart. This grating will prevent the
accumulation in the ponds of any thing hurtful to
them.  The bed of the ponds must be dug up to
the depth of about five feet, and they must be nine
feet in width, and eighteen in length.  Their bottom must be lower by five feet than that of their
feeder.  The bottom, however, must not be quite
flat, but graduated, rising from the end furthest
from the. head of the current towards the opening
or drain-mouth.  The necessary inclination can be
given to the bottom  of the pond by beginning with




154    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
a layer of' gravel one foot thick at the furthest endl,
and finishing off towards the mouth with a layer of
gravel eighteen inches in depth.  The bottom  of
the pond will thus become an inclined plane.  The
ova are to be deposited at the top of the gradient,
where you have finished off with a layer of eighteen
inches of gravel, in order that they may have the
benefit of sharply running water. The lower part
of the inclined plane, or the deepest part of the
pond, suits best the fry after incubation. The walls
that are to secure the ponds must be strongly built
of rough stone.  No lime must be used in the construction of the walls, or of any thing connected
with the ponds.  Every one ought to know the destructive effects of lime upon fish.  To secure the
ponds from the entrance of the smallest fish, besides
the iron grating already mentioned, there must be
another fixed inside it of copper wire closely interlaced, so closely as to prevent the possibility of the
smalleSt trout passing through the interstices.  If a
diminutive trout s houldc enter it would devour the
fry as soon as they were hatched.  Each end of the
pond should be secured in the same way.  At the
end where the pond water runs out there should be,
if possible, a fall into the river, which would effectually prevent the ascension to the ponds of any predatory fish.  Some persons have tried artificial breeding in ponds supplied with water fiom  springs and
hill-burns, but in such trials no sensible person
ought to expect satisfactory results, or, at any rate,




THE -NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.    155
results similar to those that would be derived by the
use of ponds constructed in salmon rivers, or fed by
water directly emianating from them.  Both the development of the fish in ovo and ab ovo depends
upon the temperature of the water and we lknow
that a -single frosty night will reduce by many degrees the temperature of rills and rivulets; whereas
the currents of large rivers are little affected by it.
Fry hatched in ponds fed by these hill-streams must
be stinted in growth —kept in a statfus quo during
many weeks-and they can never arrive at the smolt
state in the same period of time as fry produced and
bred in the waters of rivers.  These latter fry are in
their natural clement-natural in its temperature
and in the food, insects, and so forth, it produces.
On the contrary, fry bred in ponds fel: by springs or
hill-burns, are, as it were, subjected to a different
climate, strange and unnatural to them, barren, or
nearly so, of insects, and foreign to their innate
tastes.  Their progress in growth, therefore, cannot
equal that of fry bred in favorable localities.  When
the ponds are perfectly formed and constructed,
they should be filled with water, and it should be
allowed to run freely into and out of them for a few
days previously to depositing the spawn in them.
This is necessary, in order that the newly-laid gravel
may be washed well, the beds properly seasoned,
and all mud or alluvial matter got rid of.  The
artificial spawning-beds must be reduced as nearly as
can be to the condition of the naturally formed ones




156    THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.
of rivers. The next step to be taken is towards
procuring proper spawn for deposition in the ponds.
To do so we must watch carefully some natural
spawning-ponds of the river at the time when the
operations of spawning are going on, and we must
capture a pair of salmon that have actually coimmenced the spawning process.  If we do not, we
cannot be sure of procuring spawn in a ripe state.
WVe must avoid capturing at random  any pair of
fish we may see on the spawning-bed, because many
consorted males and females are seen hovering about
the spawning-grounds several clays before they begin
depositing their spawn.  If from  such fish ova are
expressed by manipulation, they will be found in an
immature state, their pores not as yet open for the
reception or absorption of the milt, and expressing
it over them  will not produce impregnation.  On
the contrary, when a pair, of course male andcl female,
that have commencedl spawning, are captured, their
ova and 1milt will be found in the mature state required, or, at least, a portion of them.  A vessel,
can, pail, or small tub must be ready, containing a
small portion of clean gravel from the river, and as
much river water as will cover the gravel, and the
seed about to be deposited in it.  The female salmon just captured must be held up by the head over
the vessel, with one hand, whilst, with the other
handcl, gentle pressure is made down the belly of the
fish. This pressure will cause the expulsion of all
the ova that are mature, which will be received in




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.   157
the vessel.  The male fish is then to be held and
pressed in the same way, which will cause the emnission of mature milt into the vessel.  The fish are
to be returned to their native element, where, if the
manipulator be not a rough one, they will speedily
recover, and, when the remaining spawn, not artificially forced from them, becomes mature, they will
deposit it as if nothing had happened.  Having expressed ova and milt into the vessel, it must be
shaken so that gravel, water, muilt, and ova be properly mixed, and that no ova escape from  coming
into contact with portions of milt.  If any do, they
will not be impregnated.  On the contrary, the ova
that are touched by the milt are impregnated, and,
if properly cared for, will, in due time, produce
young salmon.  I solicit the attention of the owners
of rivers to the following great fact: —Salmon-spawn
artificially expressed from  parent fish, and treated
in the manner just now directed, may be conveyed
without injury very long distances-fromu rivers in
one country to rivers in another........ To return
to our artificial pond, now ready for the reception of
the impregnated spawn.  It must be imbeddcled at
the head of the pond-at the commencement of the
inclination of its bottom, in a small trench about
five inches in depth, formed longitudinally with the
current, and not across it.  The spawn must not be
laid all of a heap in the trench, but carefully mixed
with gravel all over its bottom, and then covered in
with the gravel that has been excavated in formlinglD
the breeding furrow.  The trench and its covering




153    THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.
must be on the slightly inclined plane principle,
The gravel with which the trench is covered in must
not be pressed down, except very slightly, in order
not to prevent the free percolation of the water,
which must have full ingress and egress to and from
the spot where the seed lies deposited.  The action
and contact of moving water are essentially necessary to perfect this strange incubating process.
Without them ova will be non-productive, for, placed
in gravel at the bottom of still, or sluggishly running water, they will putrify, or, to use a generally
known expression, they will be'addled.' "
it will be seen that ~Mr. Young's method requires no complicated machinery, no spawning utensils or salmon-breeding boxes.  He made his beds in
the soil of an old mill-race in the river Shin, and
took his spawn from that river.  Of course the temperature of the waters of the spawning-beds and of
the river was the same.  His artificially bred salmon
fry assumed the silvery, migratory, smolt coat at
the end of twelve months.  This proves only that
the Shin salmon fry become smolts at a year old,
but it does not prove that to be the case in cll
rivers.  I think it is so in the great majority of salmon rivers.  I should very much like to see impregnated salmon ova from the Shin placed in the river
Nith, and vice versa.  If done, it would go far towards enabling us to come to a conclusion as to the
age of smelts.
EPHEMIERA.
Jan. 27.




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.   159
LESSON V.
ON the 8th December last I commencecl these lessons; I now conclude them.  They have given rise
to most important communications to this journal,
on the subject of breeding salmon artificially, from a
Lancashire gentleman, who signs himself "' Salino,"
and from a Scotch gentleman who has for years
written on all that relates to salmon, under the signature of " Y."  They have led to other writings on
the subject in the provincial papers, by far the most
important of which are those contributed to the
Keclso IlfaiCl, now printed in a pamphlet form, by
Mr. Thomas Todd Stoccldart, the author of that excellent book, The Angler's Comnpanion to the Rivers
cand Locks of Scotland.  At the end of this lesson I
shall make extracts from Mir. Stoddart's pamphlet.
In the course of my lessons I have shown that salmon breed in the shallows of rivers, in nests they
form in the gravel —that the female deposits her ova
in them, and that immediately afterwards.the male
impregnates the ova by shedding his milt upon
them-that the ova are hatched on an average in
120 days-that the foetus so produced does not
assume the perfect fish form until one month oldthat it is then a salmon fry, and so continues to its
twelfth month, when it becomes a smolt, with silvery
coat, its length five inches or so, and its weight two




160    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
or three ounces —that it then migrates to salt water,
feeds therein, and in the course of three or four
months becomes a grilse or maiden salmon, weighing not unfrequently 81b. (rapidity of growth most
marvellous and almost incredible!) —that in this
grilse state it returns to its native river, spawns in
due season upon its fords, and not long afterwards
migrates for the second time to sea —that having
fed there for two or three months, it becomes an
adult salmon, weighing 12, 14, or 16lbs.-that it
again returns to its native river, deposits in the
spawning beds some 10,000 or 15,000 ova, which
are impregnated by the male, and give life, in all
probability, to 7,000 or 8,000 salmon —that salmon
will migrate and immigrate every year, until they
are captured, increasing in size, not in the same ratio as in their first years, annually, and breeding
annually.  I have shown how salmon are to be bred
artificially, and I have noted many of their minor
and curious habits for the satisfaction of the young
naturalist and angler.  Nothing remained for me to
do but to show how salmon might be best preserved.
I was just about to do so, when I received the coimmunication, printed underneath this, from " Salmo"
on the very same subject.  He has forestalled my
suggestions, and so ably shown how salmon are to
be increased and preserved, that I deem it for the
present totally unnecessary to write a single word
more upon the subject.  I am not, however, going
to close my lessons abruptly.  I have something




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    161
very singular to communicate to my readers —something that will induce them to fancy that the habits
of salmon are not the same in all rivers and countries.  I have occasionally fancied so myself, an d
supposition is now almost converted into belief.
By what means?  I will show you, reader, in a few
minutes.
There have appeared lately two large imperial
octavo volumes, beautifully printed, and most profusely, ornamentally, and usefully illustrated, publishedc by Mr. Bentley, New Burlington-street, publisher in ordinary to her Majesty.  The title of this
superb, interesting, and instructive work is, Scacncdinavian Atdventures durling a Residence of Twenty
Years, by L. Lloyd, author of Field Sports of the
North.  The title-page furthers tells, and truly
tells, that the volumes "represent sporting incidents, and subjects of natural history, and devices
for entrapping wild animals; with some account of
the northern fauna."  A large portion of the first
volume is occupied with the history, habits, and
modes of capture of the fish of Scandinavia.  For
the present I shall confine myself to a portion of
what the author writes about salmon.  Chapter VI.
is devoted to that fish, and commences thus:-  The
natural history of the salmon tribe having of late
years excited much interest in England, I cannot
do better than to devote a chapter to some remarks,
the result of an attentive study of their habits for
several consecutive years, recorded by my gifted




162    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
friend and countryman, Mr. Alexander Keiller; observations which, I doubt not, will be interesting
even to the unscientific and general reader."  The
observations were made on the river Save, a tributary of the Gotha, near Jonserud, where the water
is invariably clear.  They were made from a moveable observatory, lantern-shapedl, suspended  by
means of ropes andl pullies from a pole fixed in the
bank and inclining over the river.  This observatory
is large enough to hold a man, and a drawing of it
represents Mr. Keiller seated in it, and observing
through its bottom the fish that swim or perform
other operations beneath him.  You have seen a
bale of goods suspended from a crane over the hold
of a vessel.  Imagine the bale a large glazed frame,
with a bottom strong enough to sustain the weight
of a man, the hold of the ship the bed of a river,
and lMr. Keiller sitting within the glazed frame, and
then you will have a notion of his ingenious observatory.
Let us now see what he saw fiom his watch-box
hanging over and a little above the river. " Salmon," he says, "'are pretty abundant in the Save.
The fishing produced, including grilse, about three
thousand pounds weight annually.  Many fish were
taken in weirs, others in nets, or by the rod.  The
larger salmon always appear first in the spring; as
the summer advances, the fish are much smaller;
but in the autumn heavy fish again show themselves.  These are not fresh rnn, however; at least




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.   163
they are somewhat discolored, from which it is to be
inferred they have been lying either in brackish
water or in the deep pools below." In the British
rivers, generally speaking, the same thing occurs.
The small summer salmon are with us, for the most
part, grilse.  Whllat will Mr. A. Young, " Salmlo,"
MIr. Stoddart, my Worcester friends, Messrs. Allies,
George, and Flinn, ancl the scientific Gottlieb Boccius say to the following mode of breeding? I am
all agape as I copy it:-" Salmon commence spawning in the Save the first days in November, and continue through the month.  The female deposits her
eggs in comparatively still, shoal water, from six to
eighteen inches in depth, immediately above a rapid.
She selects such a situation for the following reasons: Comparatively still water in preference to a
current, because otherwise the exertion of retaining
her position, and spawning combined, would be too
much for her powers; a shallow, instead of a pool,
that she may be secure from the sea-trout and other
fish, which, if in deep water, would congregate about
her to prey upon her eggs; and lastly, that her ova,
in dispersion, may be carried by the gentle stream
to a secure resting-place amongst the stones below."
In this country the choice of shallow water, by
breeding  salmon, is attributed to a far different instinct, viz., that the ova, or rather the water in
which they are, lmay be subjected to the influence
of atmlosphere and light, and be more oxygenated
than they would be if deposited in still water.  A




164    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
current is considered absolutely necessary for their
development.  Now comes a statement totally opposed to our salmon beds-"' hills" and " riclds," as
we call them: —' It is commonly supposed that, in
conjunction with  the  male, the female salmon
scrapes a hole or furrow in the bed of the river [they
certainly do so in the rivers of the United Kingdoms, Englandl, Scotland, and Ireland; I do not
know how they manage connubial matters in the
Principality], in which to deposit her eggs, and that
afterwards, and as a protection from their numleroiis
enemies, they cover them  over with gravel; but
such is not the fact in the Save.  The male has
nothinig to do with this part of the work; and the
ova, instead of being dropped into a cavity, are depositecl on a comparatively smooth surface.  Whilst
in the act of spawning, the female retains her natural position. Her belly is near the ground; at
times, indeed, probably to rest herself, actually
touching it. The process of dropping her eggs appears to be slow.  When a few are collected, she
turns on her side, waves the flat of her tail gently
towards the roe, but lifts it up again with great
force, by which such a vacuum is causedl as not only
to raise the eggs from the ground, and thus to distribute them in the stream, but to throw up a mass
of dirt and stones, the latter not unfrequently of
very considerable weight. As the mere distribution
of the ova would require only a slight wave of the
tail, it appears that the violent lunge is for the ex



THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.   165
press purpose of disturbing and muddying the water,
thereby to conceal the eggs, in a degree at least, from
their numerous enemies lying in wait below. When
spawning has once commenced, it seems that the
male can no longer retain his milt, nor the female
her roe, the emission continuing under all circumstances.  This has often been noticed, even long
after death. The female salmon leaves the spawning-bed many times during the day, and makes little
excursions about the river, generally into the dead
water above. At times these trips are somewhat
extended-say to a distance of some seventy or eighty
paces.  " But," said 3MIr. Keiller, C as from my elevated position I could watch all her movements, I
feel perfectly confident that, during her absence from
the spawning-bed, she never in any way comes in
contact with the male fish. I am at a loss to understand the cause of these trips. At times, I have
thought it is for the purpose of resting herself after
the fatigue or exhaustion of spawning; at others, I
have imagined it to be a special provision of nature;
for if her original position were a bad one, and she
were to remain stationary, all her roe would be destroyedcl; whereas, by occasionally Imoving, as she
does, about the stream, and dropping her eggs as she
goes, some of them, at least, are pretty certain to
find shelter."  The specific gravity of the roe is but
little greater than water; when once, therefore, in
motion, unless intercepted, it will float a considerable
dlistance down the stream.  A large portion of the




166    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
eggs are of course devoured, but the remainder find
their way into crannies, andclunder stones inaccessible
to an enemy.  Froml the slow manner in which
the salmon spawns, it might be thought on the first
view of the subject that a large portion of the eggs
in the body of the fish were in an iztnctlzre
state; but such is not the fact.  [It is the fact in
this country, and therefore a female salmon of large
size is obliged to continue the operation of spawning
for several days. The ova next the throat are immzatlre, and cannot be expelled except by violent pressure.  Repeated experiments have proved that they
will not absorb the milt, and therefore cannot be imlpregnated.  Mir. Keiller's experime-nt, proving the
contrary, is very extraordinary.  I am bound to believe it, but cannot account for it.  Can you, " Salmo'" and "Y?"]  To prove this, 3Mr. Keiller once
took the roe in a mass from  the belly of a salmon
recently captured, divided it transversely into three
equal parts, and applied to each the needfull quantity
of milt.  [What, without separating the ova?]  In
clue time the several portions produced fry, though
it is true that the portion taken from the upper part
of the belly when the eggs were of a somewhat less
size, was less productive than the other two.  [To
be sure it was, because the unproductive ova were
inatre.].....  At the tail of a
spawning ground the work of a single salmon —or at
all events never occupied by more than one at a time
-there is, towards the close of the season, an im



THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    167
mense accumulation of gravel, stones, &c. —occasionally, indeed, a good English cartload.  [What causes
the accumulation of these stones?  Surely there
must have been some digging, or excavating process,
done by the salmon to form such a cairn.]  What
with ice and floods, however, not only is this heap
in great part carried away, but the very cavity
[Who, or what formed the cavity?] from whence it
came, often of great extent, is so filled up, that by
the succeeding summer the bed of the river has assumed nearly its usual appearance.             It
has been shown that, whilst the female is spawning,
-the nmale is stationed some ten feet in her realr.
Again, at a respectful distance behind him-say
twelve or fifteen feet, but still in a direct line with
the female-a lot of trout, sea-trout, andl other fish
are always posted, in readiness to pounce on the eggs,
when the female starts them  adrift with her tail.
On the appearance of the several clouds of dirt, it is
amusing to see them all scurrying into the thick of
it, and following the ova clown the stream.  It has
never been observed that the female has a liking for
one male more than another; but it has been repeatedly noticed that some one male in particular occupies the same spot.  At some little distance to the
right and left of this male, two or three other males
are usually to be seen, and much of his time is occupied in keeping these interlopers at a distance.  His
charges against them are most vigorous and deter.
mined, and sofrequent that he is seldom stationary




168    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
for a minute together. This almost incessant motion
of the male seems a special provision of nature; for,
were he to remain still, only that portion of the ova
which passes over him would be impregnated, whereas,
by moving so much about, his milt becomes distributed, in a manner, over the whole stream."
I must say that, if this is the breeding process
pursued by Swedish salmon, it is a very improvident
one.  I cannot see how a tithe of the ova can be
impregnated by it, since so many must escape coming in contact with the milt, so many must be washed
uselessly away, and so many eaten by trout and
other predatory fish. I can vouch for it that our
Sutherlandshire salmon are much more " cannie" in
their manner of accouchement, &c. An illustration,
very curious, is given of three pair of salmon in the
act of spawning.  WVe see one female salmon on her
belly, about to deposit her ova, a male lower clown
in a line with her, his head turned aside, " casting a
jealous glance at an interloper."  Mr. Lloyd, carrying on the description of the diagram, says: —" Second
pair in the centre-female on her side, in the act of
distributing her ova (when shed, with her tail), the
male passive, and the fry (predatory trout, &c:) reyelling in the passing cloud.  Third pair to the right
— the female passive, the male seizing a poacher on
his manor, in which interval, it will be observed, an
intruder takes advantage of the liege lord's absence,
and is about assuming his place.  The zigzag lines
represent the manner in which the milt of the male




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.   169
salmon, according to his peregrinations, become distributed over the whole river."  A glance at the illustration, of  which the above is a written description, will at once show the extraordinary and extravagant way in which Mr. Keiller's salmon spawn.
It may be recollected, that in my writings I more
than once stated that I could not account for the cartilaginous, upright excrescence found in the underjaw of the male salmon during the spawning period.
The following is a singular opinion as to the use made
of it:-" It is the commonly-received notion, that
the hook on the lower jaw of the male salmon is for
the purpose of enabling him to assist the female in
forming a hole in the bed of the river, for the deposit
of her roe.  But such ]Mr. Keiller convinced himself
is not the object for which it is designed. In his
opinion, it is intended to prevent the males, which in
the spawning season are most pugnacious, fronm killing each other, for when the jaws of even a 25-pound
fish are distended to the utmost, the hook is so much
in the way, that the opening in the front of the
mouth will admit little more than the breadth of a
finger, and, consequently, he cannot grasp the body
of an antagonist.  Indeed, were he able to do so he
would soon destroy him."  Swedish salmon appear
to have all the fighting propensities of that most disinterested of royal soldiers, Charles XII.; exempli
yrati:;-" In the breeding seasons the contests between the males are incessant and desperate.  Mr.
Keiller repeatedly noticed an immense salmon charge
8




170    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
another with such thorough good will as to throw
him fairly out of the water.  As it is, their battles
are bloody enough; not only are the fish observed to
be gashed in every direction —probably by their side
teeth, for those in front, or on the tongue cannot be
brought properly into play, owing to the hook —but
with large pieces of flesh and skin actually hanging
down their sides.  At the close of the season all the
males are covered with scars.  Unless one has seen
the fish at this time, it is difficult to conceive his
mutilated condition, and it appears certain that were
it not for the hook not more than a single male salmon would leave the spawning ground alive.  But it
is the males alone who, at the termination of the
spawning season, are thus seamed with scars.  Another evidence, were such wanting, that the injuries
have arisen fromn combats between themselves, for,
were the wounds inflicted by otters, as many imagine,
the females would be equal sufferers with the males,
which is not the case."  All male animals —man
among the rest-fight and make fools of themselves
to be the lords and masters of females. The jackass
is a ferocious ass in this respect, and the stag or hart
will knock to smithereens his antlers, and dash his
Turkish brains out in a fiery contest for a harem of
hinds.  Yet, according to the bulletin of MIr. Keiller,
the salmon is the most sanguinary sultan of them
all.  I have done for the present with quotations
f'rom ScatidfZzavian Advenztures, the best work by far
ever written on the field sports of Northern Europe.




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.   171
I have, in another column, noticed it more prominently. The habits of the salmon, as above described,
are after Mir. Alexander Keiller. 3Mr. Lloyd does
not always coincide with the conclusions of his friend.
3Mr. Keiller is of opinion that salmon fry pass two
summers in fresh water previously to their first migration to the salt-water feeding grounds.
I shall now carrry out my promise, and notice
Mr. Stoddart's pamphlet on Thle Artifticial Breecding
of cSalmnon in its connection wfith the Tay and the
Tweed.  He does not think artificial breeding necessary in the Tay, and of the mode in which it is now
being tried at Stormontfield, on that river, near Perth,
he has by no means a favorable opinion.  He makes
the following calculations to show that there are
abundance of spawners in the Tay and its tributaries, and that the assistance of 400,000 impregnated ova, placed in the artificial breeding boxes at
Stormontfield is not wanted, and is paltry in comparison with the 150,000,000 ova naturally deposited
annually in the Tay and its tributaries:C I think I am in no degree overshooting the
mark, when I set down the annual number of salmon
and grilse which spawn in the Tay andclits tributaries,
at 30,000.  The fact that the average number of salmon, independent of grilse altogether, which is captured annually in Tay, approaches the figure fixed
upon, is of itself good security for the spawning to
that extent, in any previous year.  In 1846, for instance, there were taken by the net on Tay and




172    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
Earn, below the mouth of the Islay, upwards of
34,000 salmon and 30,000 grilses. The 34,000 salmon, according to certain well-established theories,
must consequently have spawned in Tay and its tributaries, some as grilse, some as salmon of inferior
growth, during the fence season of 1845. A supposition, therefore (if it deserves that doubtful name),
which confines the number of spawning fish on these
rivers to an average of 30,000, cannot be held as an
outrage upon truth-nay, is greatly within limits.
These 80,000 fish, we shall suppose, according to the
notions set afloat by Mr. Young and others, are
equally matched in respect to sex; that is to say,
that out of the whole number, 15,000 are spawners,
andl the other 15,000, milters or he-fish.  To each
spawner I assign an average weight of 10lb. A tenpound breeder, it has been ascertained, yields about
10,000 ova, certainly not fewer; consequently the
number of ova cast, in the spawning season, on the
various breeding grounds referred to, may be computed at 150,000,000.  How much of this large
amount of spawn are we entitled to suppose is
brought to life, becomes distributed over the rearing
grounds, attains the smelt size, ancl, assuming its
plumage, eventually finds its way into the sea or
firth? "
Mr. Stocldart computes the result of the above
number of ova at 20,000,000 smolts, having allowed
for every sort of destructive casualty.  He calculates
that the 400,000 ova deposited in the breeding boxes




THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.    173
will produce 300,000 fry —a very high calculation
indeed-and he then says:
"' The artificial nurseries or rearing grounds in
process of construction are, I fear, much too limited
in size to afford accommodation to the number of
fry anticipated from the boxes. I shall assume that
they occupy an area of five acres, although I have
reason for believing that not one fourth of that extent of surface is intended to be put into requisition.
Five acres of ground converted into ponds or reservoirs for the reception of 300,000 fry! Five acres,
in a state of artificiality, subjected, possibly enough,
to the influence of a stream  or diversion of water
passing through their several divisions, and so preventing them  from  becoming stagnant, but totally
devoid of the advantages possessed by the natural
rearing grounds of Tay, in the shape of shelter andl
sustenance! Are we justified in taking it for granted
that so limited an extent of nursery will suffice for
the wants, assist the growth, and do justice to the
condition of 300,000 young salmon, during the space
of an entire twelvemonth?-in other words, that a
single square yard of artificial rearing ground, be the
depth of water what it may, affords ample enough
accommodation for twelve smolts and the fractional
part of a thirteenth, throughout the whole period?
I certainly think not."
It seems that the fry artificially produced near
Perth are to be artificially fed for one whole year.




174    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
Upon this senseless project Mr. Stoddart sensibly
remarks:" As to the hand-feeding proposed, it may be all
very well to apply it to the bringing up of such fish
as carp and tench, but to carry it into successful
operation with young salmon, will, I fear, turn out a
work of imlpracticability.  An expensive one, at any
rate, it is acknowledged to be-the most costly item
in the whole series of experiments.  WVhy, therefore,
pursue it at all?  Why not rest content with the
hatching process, and allow the infant fry, after its
full development, convenient access to the river?
A sluice or run in communication with the boxes towards the Tay will effect this object.  In that case
-were the experiment allowed to rest at this juncture, the object of it may possibly to some extent
become attained.  It never can, by prosecuting it
farther in the way proposed-that is by cooping up
the fry in mere tanks or ponds of very limited dimensions, and by hand-feeding them with such unnatural aliment as chopped liver."
If the fry hatched at Stormontfield are confined
in nurseries for a year, or until the migratory period,
the experiment will be a failure. WVhen a month
old they should be turned into the river, and they
will take care of themselves, migrate naturally, and
all that escape destruction return as grilse.  I am
of opinion that confined and hand-fed fry, if confined
anad fed for the space of a year, will not return, if
they do migrate to sea, from it.




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.   175
Mr. Stoddart finds the stock of fry very scanty
in his own river, the Tweed, and he proposes something like artificial breeding in it to increase the
stock, which appears as necessary to be done in the
border rivers as it is unnecessary in the abundantly
stocked Tay. He writes:" The opening of Tweed on the 15th of February, as is well ]known, has of late years been signalized or rather rendered notorious, by an immense
slaughter at many of the netting stations not only
of kelts, but of baggits and. kippers to boot. Last
year, as I have been given to understand, scores of
ripe spawners were captured during the opening week
below Tweedmill and in the vicinity of Twizel. I
have known to the amount of 80 she-fish, all large
and primed with ova, having been taken in a single
day, from the Tweed, on a similar occasion, and there
is every reason to believe that the termination of the
present fence time will be followed up, as usual, by
extensive massacres of unspawnecl salmon and grilses.
Now, what I propose is this, that the proprietors or
parties holding salmon fishings on Tweed should instruct competent persons to attend the various netting stations at the opening of the season, for the
purpose of expressing, collecting, and inoculating,
when opportunity offers, this great annual wastage of
spawn-for the purpose also (not of stowing it away
in wooden boxes, over which an artificial run of water
shall be directed), but of committing it to'ridds'
formed with the shovel, hoe, or plough in the bedl of




176    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
the river itself, there to await, as a matter of common certainty, its being brought to life.
Immediately on the expiry of close-time, the nets
and cobles are set in motion.  A few shots determine,
in most cases, the contents of the river, near the station where these are made. For every clean salmon
taken during the first fortnight, in Tweed, there are
at least a dozen kelts and four or five unspawned fish
generally in a very forward or mature state. These
are secured, as a matter of course, during the ordinary endeavors made by the fishermen to bring the
net into contact with something better.  There is no
cost: or extra labor therefore required, in order to obtain the spawn. The attendance of one or two of
the ordinary river police at each likely station, during
the first three weeks of the season, is all that is
needed in order to collect the ova and conduct the
inoculating process.  This, under the instructions of
Mr. Mitchell, the active superintendent of that body,
any one accustomed to the handling of salmon can
accomplish.  Say the ridds, by permission, are formed
with shovel or plough at the Monk's Ford, betwixt
Old Melrose and Dryburgh-nothing more is necessary than to forward the spawn to the Newtown station, and thence conveying it to the ford in question,
llix it up with gravel or river sand, and commit it
to the riddc; all which may be done within two or
three hours of its being taken from the fish.  Can
any thing be simpler or less expensive? Well, mark
the results. Here is a quantity of ova which never




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    177
would have a chance of being brought to life (for
even supposing the baggits themselve are returned
alive to the river, the disturbance occasioned by the
constant plying of the nets on or near the spawning
grounds, and the liability such fish incur of being
retaken, over and over again, make miscarriage almost inevitable)-these ova, down to a single pellet,
are rescued from certain destruction and buried with
extreme care in a choice portion of the river, where
no ordinary calamity can possibly overtake them.
The result will be, that almost all the ova so inhumed
will come to life; and say that they form the supply
from only two hundred baggits, each baggit yielding
a trifle beyond 10,000, we have at once, added to
the natural resources of the Tweed, a hatch or brood
consisting of 2,000,000 of fry, all vitalized at the
expense of a few pounds sterling.  Of these fry,
nearly one-half, without any additional cost whatsoever, is likely to attain the smolt stage, and allowing
that only a single individual out of two hundred find
its way back to Tweed, in the shape of a grilse, the
annual produce of the river undergoes an increase of
nearly 5,000 available fish. Let Mr. Ramnsbottom's
system of breeding and rearing, at one farthing per
smolt, match this if. it can."
I am strongly of opinion that the Tweed Commissioners would act wisely by paying prompt, substantial attention to the feasible suggestions of Mr.
Stodclart.  It is a great pity to allow poor old Tweed
to go to rack and ruin.  We London salmon anglers
8*




178     THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.
shall lament over her irremediable decay, for, apart
the beauty of her scenery, she may, if Mr. Stoddart
be listened to, be rendered the best nearest salmon
river to the English and Scottish capitals.
For this year, at least, I have done with the natural history of salmon.  Let not my drying my pen
on the subject prevent " Salmo," " Y.," and others
from keeping theirs in working trim.  For March
19th I shall write, with this motto from the captives
of Plautus,
"Nunc hoc animum advortito, ut ea quoe, sentio pariter scias,"
my first angling lesson for the season.
EPHEMERA.
Feb. 24.




ON THE BREEDING AND PRESERVATION OF SALMON.
[The following article on the Breeding and Preservation of
Salmon, is the communication signed SALMO, published in Bell's
Weekly.lfessenger of March 5, 1854, and referred to in the Fifth
Lesson of EPEMNIERA, on Salmon Breeding, published in the same
number of that journal.]
MR. EDITOR: We all remember the sensation producecl by a late and now lamented secretary for Ireland, when, remonstrating with the landowners of
that suffering country, he reminded them that " Poroperty has its duties as well us its rights."  Every
man is conscious of the truth of this remark, which
has now passed  into a proverb, but few men could
have said it so pithily and so well.  I intend to borrow this maxim as the basis of the suggestions I have
to offer as to the best means of preserving and increasing the breed of salmon, of which it is impossible to magnify the importance. As an article of
food, it is beyond comparison the most valuable of
fresh-water fish, both on account of the delicacy of
its flavor, anl the numbers in which it can be sup



180    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
plied.  By wise and prudent legislation it may also
be rendered cheap, and accessible to the family of an
ordinary artisan.
The salmon requires only two conditions to enable
her to lmutiply and increase indefinitely, viz., an undisturbed breeding-ground in fresh water, and an
uninterrupted feeding-ground in the sea. How happens it, then, that these two simple wants cannot be
conceded?  I will tell you in a few words.  The
salmon, being a migratory fish, is continually changing its habitation.  To-clay it may be in the seato-morrow in the river-and in a few days afterwards
at the top of some remote mountain stream. John
Graball, who owns the lower part of the river, reasons thus with himself:-" All the salmon which
comes into the river, must pass through my liberties
before they can be taken by any one else, and as salmon is now selling at 3s. a poundl, I will let none of
them escape if I can prevent it. Now's my time to
reap the harvest; what I leave, any one else may
catch if he can."  The same motives and the same
feelings actuate John's neighbors higher up the
stream, until you reach a point at which the fish arrive so late in the season, or in such'small numbers as
not to be worth the expense of men and nets. The
proprietors of the upper rivers then, with the exception of a few occasional fish taken by the rod, derive
no benefit from the salmon.  They have the pleasure
of preserving them, finding them breeding ground,
watching over them during the most critical parts of




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.   181
the year, and, when these duties have been fully and
conscientiously discharged, they have no other reward
than the satisfaction that they have acted as good
citizens, and have merited the approbation of the
public. However, it sometimes happens that one of
these proprietors is not over scrupulous. He will
take fish out of season, either with rod or net. He
will spear the spawning salmon for the sake of the
roe, and make a profit by selling it to the retailers
of fishing tackle, who dispose of this tempting lure
in large quantities to ambitious anglers. Perhaps
John Graball gets to hear of this illicit traffic, and
pays a visit to the unlicensed poacher, and threatens
with information and fine, or possibly with imprisonment, if the money be not forthcoming.  Our friend,
however, does not let MBr. Graball have all the talk
to himself. We may suppose him making some such
answer as this:-" I'll tell you what, Mr. Graball,
if we come to balance accounts fairly between you
and me in the matter of these fish, you have the
best of the bargain by long odds. You only own
about half a mile of the river, and yet you contrive
to get a profit of ~500 or ~1,000 a year out of it.
You never breed a fish. All yours is deep water,
without a yard of breeding ground in it.  You never
feed a fish, for they all come out of the sea ready
fed, and ready fattened to your hand.  Now, look at
me. I have five miles of water running through my
estate, and brooks and rivulets without number.
From November to January my waters are crowded




182    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
with fish, salmon, and grilse, and sea trouts; but
they are worth nothing to me. They come here to
breed, and I never see a fish fit for the table.  See
the thousands, aye, millions of young fry that leave
my waters for the sea every year, and yet I have no
benefit from  them. You catch them all at the
mouth of the river, and make a fortune bythem,
whilst they do not return me the value of a shilling.
I breed them; her Majesty, as Queen of the Ocean,
feeds them, and you catch and sell them, and yet
you grudge me a trifle of salmon roe, which I take
more for the name of the thing than for any great
profit to be made by it.  But I tell you what, John
Graball, now that you have broached the subject, I
intend to be plain with you, I will not consent any
longer to breed salmon for you, unless I am to have
a share of the profits. I will throw the river open
to everybody who chooses to come, either with rods
or nets.  I will watch the fords at night, and I will
spear every salmon I canl find.  I will do at the upper part of the river what you do at the lower part.
I will take every fish I can lay my hands on, and
make all the profit I can by it.  Yet I am not an
unreasonable man, John; I admit that property has
its duties, and it is my duty to preserve the salmon
for the public good. But there is another side of
that question, and property has its rights as well as
duties; and if I do my duty by preserving the salmon, I claim an interest in the salmon as my right.
It is of no use to tell me that the law will prevent




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.    183
or punish me for taking foul fish, or destroying spawn.
When the law is palpably unjust and one-sided nobody cares for it, nobody respects it.  The law, to be
respected and cared for, should deal equally with the
rights of property, and the duties of property; and
if it enforce the one and neglect the other, it will
only generate contempt and apathy.  Now I'll tell
you what I'll do, John; I'll join with you in calling
a meeting of proprietors from the top of the river to
the bottom, and we will try to make a bargain that
shall be for the benefit of all.  Let us form ourselves
into a company, and preserve the waters carefully at
our joint expense, and if there be any profit in the
fisheries, let us join in the profit. You cannot have
the salmon if I refuse to breed them, and I do positively refuse any longer to keep a brood farm, and
let you have all the young stock. If you agree to
this offer, we can breed ten times as many fish as we
do at present, and we shall all do our best to preserve
them.  As matters now stand, I care nothing about
them; I have no interest in them beyond the pride
of having salmon in my waters; but you know, John,
that pride will not pay rates and taxes.  WTell I! is
it a bargain? Are we to be partners or antagonists?
choose for yourself."
You have here, Mr. Editor, if not the words, at
any rate the sentiments, of all those river proprietors
who are debarred, by their distance from the sea, from
ever taking a salmon in a seasonable condition.
There are many of them who incur considerable ex



184    THE NEW  ART OF BREEDING FISH.
pense in watching and preserving their waters, and
yet derive no pecuniary advantage from  their care
and expenditure. This is manifestly unjust, and this
injustice is the main cause of the diminution in the
numbers of salmon.  Unless the breeding-grounds
are superintended with great care and vigilance, the
only source of supply is cut off. As the salmon diminishes in numbers, the owners and lessees of fisheries are compelled to use greater diligence to capture
the few that present themselves, andl these two causes
continue to operate in a gradually increasing ratio,
until the breed must and will become extinct, unless
some prompt and efficient remedy be adopted.
What, then, is the remedy?  Simply this: give
every proprietor of land on the banks of a salmon
river, a legal right to a participation in the profits
of the fisheries. Offer him every inducement, by that
most influential and seductive of all. motives, selfinterest, to become a breeder and preserver of salmon.  By the same agency, you deprive him of every
motive to kill unseasonable fish, or destroy their ova.
He has a claim to this participation by natural and
undoubted right, and, until this concession is made
to him, all other projects must and will fail.  Pror2erty has its r-ights as well as its duties, and it is one
of the rights of property, that he who breeds the fish,
and feeds the young, until they are strong enough to
migrate to the ocean, ought to share in any profit to
be derived from  the capture of these fish, on their
return to the river. To deny this proposition, woulcl




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.;    S5
be a libel upon the common sense and the primitive
instincts of man, which never fail to appreciate,
though they often fail to analyze, a glaring and palpable injustice.
You may aslk me how I propose to accomplish
this object.  In the first place, I would put an end
to all conflicting rights on a salmon river by making
the proprietors a corporate body, and placing the
whole under one management.  Take, as an example, the river Ribble. I would constitute the proprietors a company, under the name of " The Ribble
Fisheries Company." Every proprietor should be a
member of- this bodcly; and- entitled to a voice in its
management, as in a railway or other company constituted by an act of Parliament. By this means
we should get rid of many jealousies, where there
are conflicting rights, and we should have salmon
at the lowest cost, because there would only be
one set of nets, one set of men, and one board of
management. I would prohibit, under heavy penalties,
the use of a net in any part of the river, by any but
the constituted authorities, unless on a written application for some experimental purpose, to be submitted
to the boardcl, and conducted under the superintendence of a conservator of the river. By this plan
every landowner on the banks of the river, or of any
tributary stream to which salmon resort for breeding,
wouldc become a shareholder in the company, and entitled to participate in the profits.  The only practical difficulty would be to determine the proportions in




186    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
which the profits should be divided between the proprietors of the upper and lower parts of the river.
This is a matter of detail which might easily be arranged, as questions of tenfold more difficulty occur
every year in the conduct of ordinary corporations.
It may be asked, would I make the adoption of this
scheme compulsory on every salmon river. Certainly
not.  I would first pass a general act of Parliament
prohibiting the use of stake nets or any other engine
or device of any description whatsoever that was fixed
and self-acting in any river, or estuary of a river,
frequented by salmon.  The close days might be left
to the discretion of the magistrates assembled in
quarter sessions, as provided by statute now in force.
It would then be necessary to prohibit the use of any
net in a salmon river under a certain sized mesh, so
as to prevent the taking of all young fry, or fish, under a given weight.  I think these provisions imperatively necessary in any public act.  It is impossible
to say how many thousands and millions of young
salmon are destroyed by these pestilent inventions.
Take as many as you can with the rod, but let no
man, under a penalty, take with a net, in a salmon
river, any fish less than five pounds weight. This
would simplify the matter very much, and would injure no one, as the real mercantile value of a fishery
is determined almost altogether, by the weight and
number of the salmon taken.  Let any man consider for himself the amount of mischief done by
taking so many thousands of salmon in their first




THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.   187
year of immigration, averaging from  lb to 5lb, instead of giving them another season's grace, to return
valuable prizes of 71b to 141b each. I speak within
compass when I say that this single regulation would
quadruple the number of salmon in the second year
of its trial. After making these provisions I would
give power to a certain number of the proprietors, by
mere petition to the House of Commons, to incorporate the fishery, and erect themselves into a company,
with power to levy rates, to appoint directors and
other officers, in the same manner as any other public body which derives authority from an act of Parliament, the powers and functions of this body and
its officers to be defined by the public act. I have
here given an outline of a scheme which, I feel satisfied, would meet the urgent and immediate wants
of the salmon-loving public.  The general good
would be consulted by strict enactments against the
present vile and destructive practices. Private interests would be respected by recognising a property
which at present is ignored by the law, although it
is recognized by conscience and common sense; conflicting claims and mutual jealousies would subside
under the influence of a-joint and common interest;
poaching and unseasonable fishing would rapidly
abate, if not disappear altogether, by uniting in the
closest of ties all persons interested in the protection
of the fish; and the salmon would enjoy, for the first
time in the memory of man, the full opportunity of
developing all her resources, and of proving how




188    THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH.
much she has been libelled by those feeble drivellers,
who have voted her incompetent to discharge the
functions which constitute the chief end and object
of her existence. Give us these provisions, ye men
of tanks and incubators! ye philosophers of conjecture and romance! ye novelists and theorizers! Grant
to the salmon one-half the chance you give to your
pigs, your cattle, your poultry, or your game, and
let us see whether she forms the only exception to
that noble and beneficent ordination of Providence
which has formed every animal perfect in its kind,
and has given it the instincts and the capacity to
accomplish worthily and effectively the purposes for
which it was created.
Feb. 18th, 1854.                SALMO.
THE END.




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