J. PISCICULTURE AND THE FISHERIES. 433 



tached enough to load two colliery brigs with full car- 

 goes. 2 A, Aug. 21, 140. 



PHYSICAL CONDITION OF THE HEEEING-FISHEEY. 



The Scottish Herring-fishery Board undertook in 1874 a 

 series of experiments in reference to the physical agencies 

 that affect the salmon-fisheries of Scotland, including a de- 

 termination of the temperature of the sea by means. of deep- 

 sea thermometers at the time and place when fishing was 

 going on. Mr. Buchan, secretary of the Meteorological So- 

 ciety, who has recently analyzed these observations, reports 

 that although the returns are not sufficiently full to afford 

 any accurate rule, owing to the lateness of the period before 

 the sea thermometers were ready to be sent to the fisher- 

 men, they prove that " during the periods when good or 

 heavy catches were taken, the barometer was in the great 

 majority of cases high and steady, the winds light and mod- 

 erate, and electrical phenomena wanting ; and, on the other 

 hand, when catches were low, the observations often indi- 

 cated a low barometer, strong winds, unsettled weather, and 

 thunder and lightning." From the complete returns of the 

 daily catch of fish and of the meteorological conditions, in- 

 clusive of the temperature of the sea, now obtained, it is an- 

 ticipated that materials will be collected in three or four 

 years from which most valuable conclusions will be ar- 

 rived at. 



FOOD FOE TEOUT. 



Dr. Middleton Goldsmith, the well-known Fish Commis- 

 sioner of Vermont, residing at Rutland, has lately satisfied 

 himself that trout can be readily fed and reared on corn- 

 bread, the experiment having now been conducted by him 

 over a period of several years with perfect success. He 

 thinks that trout are much healthier and of better flavor 

 when thus fed, although they do not grow so fast as when 

 provided with animal food. There are also fewer cases of 

 diseased fish, and they are much less liable to the attacks 

 of the white fungus which fastens upon any abraded sur- 

 face, and soon destroys the fish than w T hen fed upon meat. 

 It is quite probable that this fungus (from which fish in a 

 natural state are generally free, and which is the pest of all 



T 



