372 WHERE TO BREED GOURAMI. 



tunity in endeavouring to procure more living specimens. 

 Should I be successful, the places where they ought to 

 be turned out should be ponds where the water is warm, 

 such as those in Yorkshire, where the water, being 

 heated by the waste steam from cloth factories, is so 

 favourable to the breeding of Gold-fish. Still better 

 places than these would be the ponds or reservoirs 

 constructed and already existing in large green-houses 

 or establishments for forcing grapes, &c. Of these so 

 many exist attached to country mansions as well as 

 town houses, the heat of which has not been suffi- 

 ciently devoted to experiments on animal life, though 

 the success with vegetable life has proved indubitable. 



FISH CULTUEE IN CHINA. 



In June, 1877, his Excellency the Chinese Minister 

 having heard that we English were considerably ad- 

 vanced in the science of fish culture, expressed his wish, 

 through Dr. McCartney, to visit my Museum of Eco- 

 nomic Fish Culture at South Kensington. My friends 

 Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Murray kindly made arrange- 

 ments, and I had the honour of giving them and his 

 Excellency a lecture in the museum itself. 



Of course I could not understand a word in Chinese, 

 the conversation being carried on by means of Dr. 

 McCartney, who speaks that language quite fluently. 



Before I could give any advice, it was necessary to 

 know what were the natural fish of China. I therefore 

 placed in the hands of his Excellency a light fishing- 

 rod, with a request that he would point out to me, from 

 the casts on the walls, the kinds of fish like those in 

 China. It was soon evident that salmon and trout, if 

 found at all in China, are a rare fish. I conclude from 

 what the Ambassador demonstrated, that the fish which 



