718 KEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



B— THE INTEODUCTIOE" AT^D ATTEMPTS TO INTRODUCE 

 THE GOURAMI INTO FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



AUTHORITIES. 



In tliis cliapter are given, in more or less detail, accounts of the at- 

 tempts to introduce the gourami into various countries. These have 

 been chietiy compiled, as before indicated, from the " Bulletin de la Society 

 Zoologique d'AccIimatation," and to enable ready reference to be made 

 for verification or further details of the facts here mentioned, references are 

 added in parentheses, the larger numbers (e. g., 1870) indicating the year 

 of publication in the Bulletin, and the smaller numbers the pages of the 

 aunual volumes. 



EAST INDIAN ISLANDS. 



No other fish has been the subject of such earnest and oft-repeated 

 attempts to introduce and acclimatize in foreign countries as the gou- 

 rami. Originally, it is claimed, (by Mr. Dabry,) peculiar to Cochin 

 China and the neighboring countries, it is said to have been introduced 

 at the commencement of the last century in Java, and thence into the 

 neighboring islands Madura, Penaug, Borneo, Sumatra , and Molucca. 

 No positive data, however, have been published — or, at least, are known 

 to the writer — of the details of those efforts, and the accounts are there- 

 fore somewhat apocryphal. 



ISLAND OF MAURITIUS. 



The first well- authenticated transportation and introduction of the 

 fish into a foreign country were into the island of Mauritius, (then called 

 " Isle of France,") in 1761, at that time under the dominion of the 

 French. 



In that year, several naval officers — chief of whom were Captains De 

 Surville, Joannis, and De Maguy — took some fishes to the island, but, it 

 is said, rather for the gratitication of the sight and for exhibition in 

 vases than with reference to its eventual naturalization in the island ; 

 these were confided to Cere, (who has been accredited with the intro- 

 duction of the goldfish into France,) who was at the time mentioned 

 commander of the French troops in the island, and he especially inter- 

 ested himself in the introduction of the species. The fish placed in the 

 ponds propagated; some escaped into the contiguous streams, and the 

 species had become already domiciliated in the island when Commer- 

 son, the naturalist-traveler, visited it in 1770. According to Commer- 

 son, the fishes introduced had been brought from China; but according 

 to others, and especially M. Carpentier-Cossigny, (and with greater prob- 

 ability,) they were carried from Batavia. 



ISLAND OF BOURBON OR REUNION. 

 The gourami was next introduced into the neighboring island of 

 Bourbon or Reunion in 1795, through the efforts of M. Desmanieres, a 



