1868.] 391 [Lyman. 



February 19, 1S68. 



Vice President Dr. C. T. Jackson in the chair. Thirty-two 

 members pi'esent. 



Mr. Theodore Lyman exhibited an apparatus invented by 

 Mr. Seth Green for hatching the spawn of the shad. 



It consists of a box, so arranged with floats a^he sides as to be 

 slightly raised at one end; the bottom is made of wire-gauze, sixteen 

 wires to the inch, upon which the eggs are placed. The box is an- 

 chored, with the raised end directed up the stream, and the water, 

 which is deflected into it by the bevelled edge of a cross-bar, keeps 

 the eggs in constant but easy motion. When the young are hatched, 

 they are sufiered to ^lass out through a wire netting of large meshes, 

 ten wires to the inch, at the end of the box. This is done at ni<dit, 

 when their natural enemies, the larger fish, leave them undisturbed. 

 Unlike most of the ii-y of river fish, the yoimg shad swim imme- 

 diately to the deepest part of the stream, and are at once safe ti'om 

 their foes. 



Mr. Lyman also exhibited a model of a fish-breeding establishment, 

 and explained the manner of raising trout. As these fish will only 

 deposit their spawn upon pebbly bottoms, the ponds in which they 

 are kept are furnished with mud, while the artificial streams which 

 feed the ponds are supplied with clean gravel. The breeder places 

 boards over portions of these streams, and the shady places thus 

 formed are sought by the fish in the bi'eediug season. Here they are 

 easily caught without disturbing the fish in the pond, and the spawn 

 can be extracted at will. 



Mr. Albert S. Bickmore read a paper describing his journey 

 from Canton, tlirough the interior of Cliina, to Haukow, on 

 the Yangtse. 



He first passed thtough the delta of the Sikiang, whose broad, fer- 

 tile banks support a most dense population. Mr. Bickmore thinks 

 the continued fertility of these low lands can be accounted for in two 

 ways: first, the Chinese are careful to save everj'thing that can pos- 

 sibly serve as manure — in some places even to the hair they shave 

 from their heads; and, secondly, these fields are subject, at least once 

 a year, to floods, which cover them with a rich deposit of fine mud. 

 At Wuchau, eighty miles up the Sikiang, Mr. Bickmore reached the 

 last missionary outpost, and induced the missionary then visiting that 



