1 6% On the Means to be employed* 



Teen in the Oder, in the environs of Stctten, at the difbnee 

 of more than ninety miles from the mouth of that river ; 

 and T have been often told by the iifhers of Mark and Cnck- 

 huvfen, that the herring is found in the river Vollenhoven 

 on the other fide of the Zuyder Zee, cfpecially towards the 

 end of the fi filing fcafon. 



There is no doubt, then, that thefe different fait water fifh 

 might be eafily naturalized in frefh water; and that the cafe 

 would be the fame in regard to many other fpecies, if proper 

 care were taken, after their removal, tobeftowon them that 

 attention neceffary to enfure fuccefs to the experiment. We 

 have a proof of this in the ponds of Eaft Friefland. The Urge 

 plaice, tranfported thither from the North Sea, have multi- 

 plied by myriads; and they now people thofe pieces of water 

 which before were totally unproductive. While encouraged 

 by thofe examples, is there any reafon to doubt of fuccefs ? 

 Has not the induitry of man, feconded by pcrfeverance, ob- 

 tained remits far more altonithing than thofe which might be 

 expected from fuch experiments ? By care and attention he 

 has been able to naturalize birds of paffage, produced in di- 

 ftant latitudes, and which are now domefticated. Diverting 

 themfelves of their favage and free ftate, the ilork, the goofe, 

 the duck, and the fheeldrake (anas tadoma), have increafed, 

 in the courfe of time, the number of our poultry and the in- 

 habitants of our farm-yards. The rabbit has forgot its pa- 

 ternal burrows, the pigeon and the turtle-dove have deierted 

 the hofpitable hollows of the oak to inhabit among us; and 

 from this amiable bird, to that fuperb animal which fhare3 

 in the labours of man, how many living beings have ex- 

 changed their manners for habits and wants which we have 

 forced them to adopt? Man, the fovereign of nature, has 

 not confined his dominion to that which he exercifed over 

 animals ; and though the domain of the vegetable kingdom 

 feems placed beyond the limits of his power, trees and vege- 

 tables of every kind have been fubjecled to trials and experi- 

 ments, the fuccefs of which feems almolt miraculous. Guided 

 by the fpirit of invention, and enlightened by genius, art has 

 every where triumphed. What has been done, therefore, 

 for the furface of the earth, by collecting in different points 

 vegetables brought from every part of the globe, and afto- 

 nithed at living together, let us do alfo for the population 

 of our internal waters. 



In the year 1799 I had the honour of reading, in one of 



the fittings of .the National Inftitute, a memoir on the means 



and advantages of naturalizing the herring, a fait water fill], 



m the waters of the Seine, near its mouth, See. The account 



9 of 



