PROPAGATION OF FISH. 235 
ponds with the best of the fish that once inliabited 
them. 
Another utterly erroneous impression exists that steam- 
boats and river craft frighten away the denizens of the 
deep, and the disappearance of striped bass in Hell Gate 
is brought forward as «n evidence. But the proof does 
not sustain the proposition ; it cannot be doubted that 
the fish have diminished, but in Hell Gate the change 
was produced by blowing out Pot Rock and destroying 
the best eddy. It may be well to remark, for the bene- 
fit of the benighted individuals who do not reside in the 
city of 'New York, that Pot Pock was situated in the 
centre of Hell Gate, and being only some seven feet 
under water, w^as as much admired by the bass as it was 
dreaded by the steamboats, till the United States Govern- 
ment employed a French gentleman to blow it to pieces 
with gunpowder, so that there should be twenty-one feet 
of water over it at low tide. Since this was done the 
bass have left in disgust, and the steamboats have had 
the better of it, which they never would have had unless 
aided by gunpowder and a Frenchman. Of course, fish 
are not so numerous as they were fifty years ago, when 
there was little market for them, but the net is to be 
blamed rather than the steamboat. 
The first attempt at artificial fish-culture in Europe 
was made by Messrs. Gehen and Pemy, in France, 
although it appears to have been known to and prac- 
tised by the Chinese for centuries, and by the Germans 
a hundred years previously. In 1850, the attention of 
the French government was called to their efibrts, and 
M. Milne Edwards was appointed by the Minister of 
