586 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES, 



factories are obliged to put the refuse, which formerly was thrown into 

 the river, to some use. Rivers which at an expense of many millions of 

 dollars have been purified of the refuse of sewers and other poisonous 

 matter, amply repay this outlay by the better health of the population 

 and by the increase in fine fish. During the year 1869, 33,321 barrels 

 of salmon each weighing 100 pounds, the whole valued at more than a 

 million dollars, arrived at tbe wholesale market in Billingsgate ; 2,405 

 of these barrels came from English rivers, which in 1864 had only sup- 

 plied 752.* 



France. — The French, in their establishment at Hiiningen, have imme- 

 diately carried out, on a large scale, the system of artificial impregnation, 

 which was first discovered by a German, Jacobi, and much later by two 

 Frenchmen, Gehin and Reiny, and have thereby exercised a very bene- 

 ficial influence on pisciculture throughout the whole country. 



Even small bodies of water are cultivated, and the best possible use 

 is made of the different character of the water : thus, in marshy places, 

 eels are raised ; in otherwise useless small streams, crawfish, imported 

 from Germany, are increasing rapidly ; and in the clear brooks number- 

 less trout are found. 



The cultivation of the oyster, which had been almost entirely de- 

 stroyed by the former system of plundering, begins, though slowly, to 

 revive on many parts of the coast. 



Even the raising of turtles has been commenced ; their eggs are 

 gathered, and the young ones cared for and protected till they are old 

 enough to take care of themselves. 



In all parts of France, there are numerous private individuals who 

 breed and raise all sorts of marine animals, partly as a pastime and 

 partly for the sake of gain. The exaggerated expectations which in 

 the beginning were connected with artificial fish-breeding in France 

 have, however, not been fulfilled. Ignorance of the subject, which was 

 A r ery prevalent till better methods gradually gained ground by long 

 experience and by many failures, demanded many sacrifices. It must, 

 nevertheless, be acknowledged that, through the better cultivation of the 

 water since the year 1849, when a beginning was made to extend the 

 system of artificial breeding to the French rivers, and at first to those 

 where there was the greatest amount of poverty, a new life has been 

 developed along these rivers, so that many a poor fisher and farmer has 

 become a man of means through his little fish-pond and his few pots 

 for artificial impregnation. 



One establishment belonging to the Marquis de Folleville at Imsle- 

 ville in Normandy yields an annual income of $750 to 8900 from one 

 stream and pond which ten years ago did not produce a single dollar. 



Before the war, France possessed about 4,600 (English) miles of nav- 

 igable rivers; nearly as many miles of canals; 322 miles of mouths of 

 rivers and bays; about 920 miles of private waters; more than 92,000 



* Beta, (H.) op. cit. p. 31. 



