220 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



a little lower, at Glattfelden ; the third at Meilen, on the Lake of Zurich. 

 There, as at Schaffouse, the products are placed in the Rhine and in the 

 lake without any anxiety to know who will be profited by this benefac- 

 tion. Notice that all these establishments were founded and are car- 

 ried on at the expense of the cantons. These are examples which I 

 would desire to see followed. I would be charmed to have this happy 

 rivalry establish itself between us and our neighbors, and 1 hope that no 

 prejudice will arise on account of the sacrifice, really insignificant, which 

 we would have to make. I will add that a good deed never goes unre- 

 warded, even on the earth. There is a natural law by virtue of which 

 the fish return, however long the journeys which they make, to the place 

 of their birth. The fact is everywhere verified to such an extent that 

 it can be regarded as unquestionable. It results thence that the fish 

 will be found again at the place where they were put into the water, un- 

 less untimely dams happen to impede their progress. It follows thence 

 that the sacrifices which I recommend would not be made in vain — they . 

 would lead to direct results. 



A fact of the same kind presents itself in my district. Since the en- 

 actment of the new fishery law the founding at Gaud of a piscicultural 

 association has been vaguely contemplated. Well, would you think it I 

 The United States of America, who have agents everywhere, it is true, 

 learning of this, have offered, through the great Commission of Fisher- 

 ies of that country, to send us a fish that we have not and which is dis- 

 tinguished by peculiar merits. This fish has been selected for us* by 

 the learned men of America, with special solicitude, because it is partic- 

 ularly suitable to the muddy waters of the Escaut. It would be of no 

 use'to us to receive trout or salmon ; they would make a sorry figure in 

 our rivers. Animated with broad and generous intentions, these men on 

 the other side of the ocean, devoted to science and to humanity, have 

 chosen what answers to our wants, and thus show us that for them there 

 is no obstacle which can prevent the propagating of a good idea or the 

 doing of a good action. You will read, one of these days, in the papers, 

 gentlemen, that there have come to us from North America fishes for 

 the basin of the Escaut. 



These principles of solidarity, by enlarging the ideas, will bear impor- 

 tant fruits, far beyond the limited point of which I am speaking. 



* It is proposed by the United States Fish Commissioner to send some catfish to Bel- 

 gium this fall, aa being well adapted to its muddy and sluggish waters. See corre- 

 spondence in Bulletin for 1882, vol. 2, p. 153.— C. W. S. 



