ZOOLOGY. .317 



on the eggs. Artificial breeding had restored salmon to tnc Thames, 

 for his friend Stephen Ponder, Esq. near Hampton Court, had for 

 the last three years, in his private greenhouse, been hatching out 

 many thousands of salmon and trout, and turned .them iuto the 

 Thames. The consequence is that in the shallow waters above Hamp- 

 ton Court, great numbers of young salmon and trout, from one to 

 five inches long, could lie seen any line sunny morning. Any private 

 individual might (if he could get the eggs) hatch salmon or trout with 

 the same ease as chickens ; and he explained a simple apparatus made 

 by Mr. King, aquarium-dealer, of Portland Place, suitable for small 

 experiments, say eight or ten thousand eggs. It had been stated that 

 t!u- French pisciculture! establishment at Iluningue, over which M. 

 Connies, the eminent French government engineer presided, was retro- 

 grading ; but he could state that this year more than one million 

 salmon eggs had been collected, and a large proportion distributed 

 gratuitously all over France, and also to many parts of England. The 

 laws for the protection of fish in France were deficient; butM. Coste 

 had informed him that a new law would be proposed next season en- 

 abling him to shut up the fishery, and preserve the fish of any river 

 in France for three years. The salmon laws in England afforded 

 protection for the fish; and his friend, Mr. Ffennel, Inspector of Fish- 

 eries, was always busy in obtaining facts, which would enable him to 

 gain knowledge on which the laws for the future should be amended 

 and regulated. He had tried last year to obtain a hybrid between a 

 salmon and a trout, and had been much laughed at for his pains. 

 Still he was pleased to inform the meeting that Thomas Garett, Esq. 

 of Clithcroe, had succeeded, not only this year, but also in previous 

 years, and this gentleman was the first in England to obtain success 

 in this curious experiment. M. Coste had moreover showed him, a 

 few days since, in Paris, several specimens of hybrids between salmon 

 and trout, and also one between the trout and the " ombre chevalier," 

 or charr, the latter being a most curiously striped fish. M. Coste 

 had also shown fish hatched from the eggs of a salmon which had 

 never been to the sea, having been confined all its life in a freshwater 

 pond, proving that even though salmon do not thrive without going 

 to the sea, still they will carry eggs capable of producing young. 



Upon the subject of salmon-ladders Mr. Buckland was particularly 

 earnest, pointing out that it was not only cruel, but exceedingly short- 

 sighted policy not to assist the salmon to get to the upper waters to 

 lay their eggs ; it was just the same as not putting a ladder to allow 

 the hens to get up to their roosts. How could salmon be expected to 

 get over a wall any more than a human being, unless a ladder were 

 provided for either fish or man ? And be it recollected that the lad- 

 der for the fish to ascend need not always be placed in the weir, but 

 only at the time the fish wanted to go up. One only placed a ladder 

 in an apple-tree when it was necessary to gather the apples, and the 

 ladder was not left on the tree all the year round. So with the sal- 

 mon-ladders. A temporary ladder might be roughly constructed 

 with poles and boards, which would answer all the purpose, and 

 might be removed when not wanted. The millers complained greatly 

 of ^salmon-ladders, because they robbed them of the water wanted for 

 the mill-power : but he exhibited and explained a model, a new kind 



