72 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



cheapness of this poor food, and the scarcity of better, and partly owing 

 to tbeir want of good taste. This is not begging the question. The 

 tastes of a nation travel forwards, so to speak, not backwards, and food 

 which previous generations accepted is refused by those that follow 

 them. This is a fact, however much as in certain respects it may be a 

 subject of regret. Jack and carp can hardly be considered as generous 

 dishes at modern, civic, or regal banquets, as they were of old, though I 

 believe the latter fish is still served at Windsor Castle. But the Virginia 

 water carp do not appear at the royal table till they have spent a con- 

 siderable time in clear, sharply running water, arranged for the i)ur- 

 pose in which they, to some extent, are freed of their muddy flavor. 

 And, after all, this serviug of the old Elizabethan stew must be more 

 a matter of form and of keeping up old traditions, than based on any 

 real appreciate n it meets with. Of course^ scientific pisciculture might 

 improve the quality of our pond and river fish; and proper feeding, 

 due cleansing of the ponds, a proper regulation of the number of fish 

 in any given space, and a cleansing of those about to be used as food 

 in stews of swiftly running water, according to the old custom, might 

 do much to make the fish more palatable; but I cannot imagine that 

 the time will ever recur when the old saying recorded by Izaak Walton, 

 "He that hath bream in his pond hath always a welcome for his guest," 

 will be true either in reference to the poor-eating fish named, or to the 

 other ordinary inhabitants of our waters. We cannot expect by scien- 

 tific culture to improve their breed as we have that of our flocks and 

 herds. The salmon family and eels seem to be the only i)roducts of our 

 fresh waters really worth cultivating from a food-supply point of view, 

 or as ministering to the pleasures of gastronomists. 



If pisciculture is destined to supply us with any appreciable increase 

 of palatable fresh-water fish-food, it must be by the introduction of new 

 species from other countries, and their acclimatization in our waters. 

 Several such have been proposed as most suitable, and some have actu- 

 ally been introduced by way of experiment. For instance, the Sihirus 

 giants, or "sheat-fish" of Central Europe, is thought by some as a very 

 likely kind to thrive in our waters. It is excellent food, and grows rap- 

 idly, and to a great size. It was in reference to the enormous weight 

 which this fish attains that a humorous contemporary suggested that, 

 if naturalized in our rivers, it would show excellent sport when played 

 with a chain cable attached to a crane, which should move on a tramway 

 along the river's bank. The great lake trout of Switzerland has been 

 successfully introduced into some of our waters, as so has the Salmo 

 fontinalis, or American "brook trout." The black bass [Grystes nigri- 

 cans) from the northern districts of America, and that from the south- 

 ern and western, known by the name of Gristes salmoides, have also been 

 found likely to suit our waters. The Marquis of Exeter has been very 

 successful in the acclimatization of some species of black bass at Bur- 

 leigh-house, and it is a fish which would probably thrive well in some of 



