1864.] ON PISCICULTURE. 133 



Now, in the case of the fish, nature has kindly packed up all the 

 nourishment that it will want for some six or eight weeks in a neat 

 little bag or parcel, which she has affixed to the body of the fish in 

 such a manner that it can be absorbed into the system ; while as 

 the fish does not suck milk like a warm-blooded animal, its lower 

 jaw is not developed. 



What is, then, the most important organ to the young fish ? 

 He has numerous enemies, and it is his first object to get out of 

 their way. The eyes, therefore, are the organs which first arrive at 

 perfection. The eye is in perfect working order at the moment of 

 birth, though the rest of the body is far from complete. 



One of my many visitors to the tanks at the Field newspaper 

 office, where I exhibited the process last year, was narrating to 

 me how he once caught an enormous saimon in the Tay, weighing 

 some thirty odd pounds ; this put the idea into my head to weigh 

 one of my salmon. He has, poor little fellow, a deal to make up 

 before he arrives at tljirty pounds, for at present (four days old) 

 he hardly turns the scale at two grains. 



By the kindness of Mr. Ashworth, of Cheadle, near Manches- 

 ter, I am enabled to show you a drawing of the young fish which 

 weighs about two grains. He has also given me the following 

 observations as regards the increase of weight in the young 

 salmon : The fry at three days old is about two grains in weight. 

 At sixteen months old it has increased to two ounces, or 410 times 

 its first weight. At twenty months old, after the smelt has been 

 in the sea, it has become a grilse of eight and a half pounds : it 

 has increased sixteen times in three or four months. At two 

 years and eight months old it becomes a salmon of twelve to 

 fifteen pounds in weight ; after which its increased weight of 

 growth has not been ascertained, but by the time it becomes 

 thirty pounds in weight it has increased to 115,200 times the 

 weight it was at first. 



Among the numerous progeny of fishes, it could hardly be 

 expected that all of them would be straight-limbed and healthy ; 

 we find, therefore, occasionally, but not very commonly, crippled 

 and deformed fish. Thus I show you, this evening, diagrams and 

 living specimens of a fish of a cork-screw shape, also of a fish with 

 four eyes and one head, also of a salmon and of a charr with two 

 heads and one body. I take the greatest care of these fish, and 

 trust they will live, and should they be caught hereafter by any 

 angler they would astonish him. 



