186 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



Now each in emulatiou of the other obstructs its end of the river, in 

 order to push into a kind of close passage the migrating salmon, which, of 

 course, never go out except to die. Millers also need a word. They 

 make of their mill-wheels the most deadly means of destruction. When 

 young salmon were there, they would take them by basketfuls in one 

 night, salt down these young fish scarcely as large as sardines, and in 

 case of superabundance would give them to their hogs. See where we 

 are! Almost nothing is found in all our river-basins. It is true that 

 England, Scotland, Ireland, and Xorway are willing to forward to us all 

 the trout and all the salmon preserved in ice which the market of Paris 

 calls for; but of course it is on the condition that we return them good 

 French money, and ■'ihis last commodity begins to become so scarce here 

 that perhaps it would be better if we were keeping it for ourselves." 



As we have the utmost confidence in our correspondent, we conclude 

 that affairs in Bretagne are going exactly as thej' are in our streams of 

 Central France, where, when the "prohibited" nets become too fatiguing 

 to manage and insufficiently productive, they never hesitate to call in 

 the aid of lime, of poison-berries (Coccuhis indicus), and at present, above 

 all, of dynamite. Sluggish species of fish and migratory species are 

 alike quickly passing away, since nothing is done to stop it. 



It will be with this plague — for it is one — exactly as it was with the 

 phylloxera. In 1865, when the American plant-louse began its ravages 

 among the rich vineyards of the Rhone, several hundred thousand francs 

 were considered sufficient, following the example of Switzerland and 

 Germany, to stop the career of the destructive insect. 



The indifference with which it was treated costs the Government an- 

 nually millions of francs, and causes a loss to agriculture of something 

 like a billion of francs every year. Even so in ten or twenty years there 

 will arise a statesman of genius who will discover that our rivers are 

 depopulated, and that this depopulation constitutes a crime of high 

 treason against the nation, because it deprives the people of an eco- 

 nomical kind of food, growing without labor, and one which our hun- 

 dreds of thousands of acres of water ought to furnish us at as low a 

 price as it is furnished in Scotland and China. In his patriotic indigna- 

 tion this statesman will call all the flsh-culturists to his aid ; they will 

 multiply breeding-basins 5 they will establish costly stations ; they will 

 restock the waters, rivers, streams, &c., with the i^rodigality in such 

 matters which should characterize the acts of every Government ; they 

 willexpend a hundred millions of francs to obtain with difficulty a result 

 which should be reached immediately and almost "free of cost," requir- 

 ing merely some employes to execute the laws which are now little 

 more regarded than scarecrows. Is to allow such a thing as this an act 

 of good government ? In spite of our desire, which we share with all 

 poor wretches, to be agreeable to the authorities, it is impossible for us 

 with sincerity to answer yes. 



La Petije Fkance, A2)ril 25, 1884. 



