XXV -NOTES ON PISCICULTURE IN KIANGSI.' 



By IT. Kopsch. 



Fish-culture Laving attracted rnucb atteution of late years in Europe 

 and America, a few notes on the manner in which it is conducted in 

 this part of China may be of interest. 



It is well known that "the Chinese have long bestowed more atten- 

 tion on pisciculture than any other nation, and with them it is truly a 

 branch of economy, tending to the increase of the supply of food and 

 the national wealth — not merely, as it seems to have been among the 

 Romans, an appliance of the luxury of the great. 



" The art of breeding and fattening fish was well known to the luxurious 

 Romans, and many stories are related about the fanciful flavors which were 

 imparted to such pet fishes as were chosen for the sumptuous banquets of 

 Lucullus, Sergius Orata, and others. The art had doubtless been bor- 

 rowed from the ingenious Chinese, who are understood to have prac- 

 ticed the art of collecting fisli-eggs, and nursing young fish, from a very 

 early period. Fish forms to the Chinese a very important article of 

 diet, and from the extent of the watery territory of China, and the quan- 

 tities that can be cultivated, it is very cheap. The plan adopted for 

 procuring fish-eggs in China is to skim off the impregnated ova from the 

 surface of the great rivers at the spawning season, which are sold for the 

 purpose of being hatched in canals, paddy-fields, &c, and all that is 

 necessary to insure a Large growth is simply to throw into the water a 

 few yolks of eggs, by which means an incredible quantity of the young 

 fry is saved from destruction." 



Such is the description given in Chambers's Encyclopedia, of pisci- 

 culture in China, but as all details are omitted, it is proposed to supply 

 a few from observations made in this vicinity. Fry-fishing commences 

 here (Kiu-Kiang, on the Yangtse) about the middle of May, and lasts 

 from ten to fifteen days. The preliminaries for this kind of fishing are 

 not numerous. The net, which is of coarse gauze, dyed brown, is fixed 

 on its proper frame, and the whole cast alongside the river-bank, where 

 there is a moderate current, sufficient, Lowever, to keep the net in posi- 

 tion, and to sweep the fry into the trap. 



A single frame as it floats upon the water represents our letter V, and 

 measures about 15 feet long, and S feet across the mouth. The net 



* Land and Water, XX, No. 510, October 30, 1875, pp. 338-339. 



