142 TRANSACTIONS. 
else. Only the other day he received a consignment of very 
healthy salmon ova from America. In Canada the salmon rivers 
had been taken in hand, and in some of them reception houses 
had been built which the salmon entered, being prevented by an 
artificial obstruction from going further up the river, and having 
attendants to wait upon them. In some instances they were 
actually kept for some time in the fresh water and then sent back 
to the sea. This alone, he need not say, would tend to keep them 
out of the hands of the poachers. In the management of our 
salmon rivers, he was sorry to say, we were much behind the 
Americans. What with pollutions of various sorts and absolute 
neglect in many cases, they seemed to be going to destruction. 
Fish culture had at first to encounter a good deal of opposition, 
partly arising from our ignorance of the subject. This was the cause 
of its being often carried on in a rather blind manner, not sufficient 
care being taken with the development of the embryos, &c. While 
people were successful in producing fish, in many cases these would 
not live to grow up. However, within the last ten years they had 
made great strides in their practical knowledge, and this difficulty 
had been entirely overcome. Having referred to the hatchery on 
the Tay, first at Stormontfield, now at Duplin Castle, and to the 
great encouragement given to fish culture by the American Govern- 
ment—which has provided an aquarium car for transference of fish 
from one part of the country to another, and allows trains by 
which it travels to be stopped at streams for watering and other 
purposes—the lecturer quoted from a letter by the late Professor 
Baird, inspector of fisheries in that country, to this effect: ‘In 
the Sacramento River we are absolutely certain of our ground, 
having brought up the supply of salmon to more than its pristine 
condition of abundance by planting about two millions of young 
fish every year. The catch has increased in five years from five 
million pounds to fifteen millions; and in 1881 there was more 
fish than could be utilised in all the canning establishments on the 
river.” With reference to the quantity mentioned, Mr Armistead 
observed that it was no use attempting to deal with a salmon river 
unless the thing was done on a large scale. Similar results had 
been attained on many other rivers both in the United States 
and Canada. As an example of the practical value of fish culture 
in our own country, he exhibited a diagram showing the results 
obtained from stocking Loch Leven with trout fry. 9000 fry were 
turned into the loch in 1875—a very small number for such a 
