212 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



states that in the rivers flowing into the Mediterranean there 

 are sixteen species of fish, only three of which were common 

 to the whole region, one being the common eel. Eleven spe- 

 cies were peculiar to the coast portion of Algeria, among the in 

 a small trout. The common goldfish, although very abun- 

 dant, was not indigenous, and was scarcely entitled to be in- 

 cluded. In the upper part of Sahara were found two species, 

 and in the lower two others, found in the salt lakes, and fre- 

 quently ejected by the Artesian wells. 12 A, Aug. 24, 333. 



TAME CODFISH. 



Mr. Buckland,in Land and Water, gives an interesting ac- 

 count of a visit paid by him to a pond containing tame cod- 

 fish at Port Logan, Wigtonshire. The property in question 

 belongs to a gentleman by the name of M'Dougall, and con- 

 sists of an amphitheatre about one hundred feet in diameter 

 hollowed out of the solid rock by the. sea. All egress from 

 this is prevented by a barrier of loose stones, through which 

 water passes freely. On approaching the shore of the pond 

 many codfish of great size were seen, and when a servant- 

 woman who had charge of the fish approached with some 

 mussels, the surface of the water was perfectly alive with the 

 struggling fish. They came close to the edge, and after a 

 little while permitted Mr. Buckland to take hold of them, 

 scratch them on the back, and play w T ith them in various 

 ways. Among other experiments tried by him was that of 

 holding a mussel in his hand, and allowing the fish to swal- 

 low his hand in the effort to obtain the mussel. These fish 

 furnish to the proprietor an ample supply of excellent food, 

 the flavor being considered much superior to that of the cod 

 taken in the open sea. Whenever needed for the table, a se- 

 lection can readily be made from the most promising of those 

 at hand, and the fish secured without any difliculty. 



Another writer in Land and Water, referring to this ac- 

 count of the codfish at Port Logan, remarks, that when he 

 visited the pond fifty years ago, there was a blind codfish in 

 the pool, which the woman who had the pond in charge used 

 to feed with limpets taken from the rock. When this fish 

 came to the surface with the others she caught it in her fin- 

 gers, sat down with it upon a stool, having a pail of the lim- 

 pets, shelled, in her lap, with which she fed it out of an iron 



