726 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS. 



coast. Ill the report it is stated : " Sometimes among a school of 

 herring or menhaden, thousands of bluelish will be seen biting off 

 the tail of one and then another, destroying ten times as many tish as 

 they really need for food, and leaving in their track the surface of the 

 water covered with the blood and fragments of the mangled fish." 

 Fortunately this fish is itself valuable for food, and it is accordingly 

 taken iu large numbers.* 



But by far the most rapacious and destructive scourge of the waters 

 is man himself. By reckless extravagance in his methods of capture 

 he would soon consume the capital of his abundant patrimony, were no 

 restraints imposed upon the thoughtless improvidence of his greed. 

 With the growth of population and demand, and the improved facilities 

 for rapid transportation, the stimulus to inventive ingenuity occasioned 

 the establishing of fish-traps and fish-pounds on a large scale that gath- 

 ered thousands iu their confines, with little regard to the probable sup- 

 ply of the future. As these traps and pounds were placed directly iu 

 the way of the fish to their spawning-beds, it resulted that a very large 

 proportion of spawn fishes were taken by them, thus greatly reducing 

 the prospects of the succeeding generation. 



Whatever protective measures might be deemed expedient to check 

 this spendthrift waste, it was seen that the most immediate and prom- 

 ising work of the Commissioner would be to promote the ra.pid multi- 

 plication of fish; and to this dominant interest the annual appro- 

 j)riations by Congress haye been more and more largely directed. 



Pisciculture is by no means a recent art, it having been extensively 

 practiced by the Chinese for a number of centuries : and even the arti- 

 ficial fecundation of fish-spawn is nearly a century and a third old, 

 having been apparently first introduced by Jacobi, a German, of West- 

 phalia. Most of the European nations had already given attention to 

 the practical application of fish-culture, and iu different parts of our 

 own country enterprising individuals had undertaken the operation 

 with gratifying results. 



Under the organizing direction of Professor Baird a careful study 

 was made of existing methods, extended experiments on artificial propa- 

 gation were conducted, and successive improvements in the various 

 stages of incubation, hatching, and development introduced — each de- 

 tail receiving a scientific treatment — until a scale of success has been 

 effected far more complete and satisfactory than ever before attained. 

 While under natural conditions but a small proportion of the spawn 

 deposited is hatched (the greater mass being eagerly devoured by 

 various aquatic tribes), and of the portion hatched but a small per- 

 centage escapes to reach maturity, under the careful breeding of art 

 fully ninety per cent, of all the eggs> secured are fertilized and success- 

 fully developed. 



*In his first report, Professor Baird says: " I am myself cogaizanfc of the capture 

 of DO less than 20,000 bluefish, representing a weight of at least 100,000 pounds, in one 

 weir in the course of a single night." • 



