ARTIFICIAL FISH-CULTURE. 29 



as in properly constructed hatching houses, where the water might be maintained 

 at a suitable temperature, and whatever is known to be injurious to the eggs 

 excluded as far as possible. 



The discoveiy of how to collect and artificially fecundate fish ova has been 

 claimed by many different persons in various ages and Iti widely separated 

 countries.* During this century the French Government in Europe f first turned 

 fish-culture into practical channels. Commencing experiments in 1842, their 

 establishment at Huningue came into existence near the Rhine and Rhone 

 Canal in 1848, and from it the rivers and lakes of France were re-stocked. In 

 Great Britain, whei-e the importance of Jacobi's re-discovery of how to propagate 

 Salmonidfe was recognized during the last century by the British Government, 

 who granted him a pension : and at the present time maintain five Inspectors of 

 Fisheries, their assistants and clerks, but the only connection they have with 

 fish-culture is the keeping up of a few tanks in the South Kensington Museum. 

 Although Mr. T. Shaw first succeeded in 1836 in artificially hatching .salmon eggs 

 in Scotland, it was not until December 20th, 1852, that this process was first tried 

 on a large scale in Ireland by the Messrs. Ashworths : by the proprietors of the 

 Tay, in Scotland, in 1853, and by Mr. Fisher, of Richmond, Yorkshire, associated 

 with other gentlemen of that town and county who in the same year commenced 

 breeding salmon artificially in the River Swale. 



For the purpose of obtaining the eggs of Salmonidas, in order to undertake arti- 

 ficial fish-culture, three sources, irrespective of purchase, are available : direct from 

 the fish living' in a wild state, or else from such as are kept in breeding-ponds, or 

 robbing the nests or redds in rivers or streams. Anyone who has been practically 

 concerned in capturing fish in a wild condition for spawning purposes knows the 

 vast amount of trouble, exposure, disappointment, and expense which this entails, 

 and in trout, at least, the most practical plan has been found to keep breeders in 

 suitable ponds, J well sepai-ated one from another,§ while a very great advantage 



culture, 1865, and the Practical Management of Fisheries, 1883, by Francis Francis ; Trout-culture, 

 by C. Capel, 1877 ; Fish-culture, by Francis Day, Great International Fisheries Exhibition, series 

 1883. 



* In the fifteenth century a monk, Dom Pinchon, brecl fish from eggs placed in boxes, lined 

 at the bottom with sand and gravel, and having their front and liind ends protected by basket 

 work, and through which a stream of water flowed. Stephen Ludwig Jacobi, a landed proprietor, 

 residing at Hohenhausen, a small town in Westphalia, as early as 1733, or tliereabouts, made many 

 experiments respecting the artificial breeding of trout, adopting much the same methods as 

 Dom Pinchon, except that the ends and upper covering of his troughs were constituted of fine 

 gratings, and these were deposited in streams, at suitable depths. His account of the results of 

 his 30 years' experiments appeared in 17C3 in the Hanover Magazine, and a translation exists iu 

 Yarrell's Britisli Fishes, second edition, vol. ii, jsage 87. Jacobi's experiments were deemed so 

 important that the British Government granted him a pension. See also a Treatise on the 

 Propagation of Salmon and other Fish, by E. and T. Ashworth, 1853, pages iii and iv, for a full 

 history of this paper. 



t The artiiioial breeding of salmon was placed by the French Government under the Minister 

 of the Interior, of Agriculture, and Commerce, and directly under M. Coste, and the two engineers 

 of the Ehone and Bhine Canal, lUM. Berthot and Detzen. The results of their labours, 

 together with a history of the experiments of Shaw, Andrew Young, Boccius, and Milne-Edwards 

 were detailed in a work by M. Coste, entitled Instructions Pratiques sur la Pisciculture, suivies 

 de Memoires sur le mSme sujet, 1853. 



J The private fish-cultural establishments in Scotland are at Howietoun, near Stirling, 

 belonging to Sir James Maitland, Bart., f.l.s. and f.z.s., commenced in 1873, and by far the most 

 complete iu existence, especially for trout, and upwards of ten million ova are annually incubated 

 there. Every 24 hours about one million gallons of water flow through the ponds, which are 32 

 in number and employed either for breeding fish or raising tlie young, or experimental work. 

 The Solwai/ Fislierij, established by Mr. Arniistead in 1881, and capable of hatching one million 

 ova, has 19 ponds : Stormontfield Ponds, erected in 1853 near Perth, now nearly superseded by the 

 Dupplin Hatclicrtj, instituted in 1882, where young are hatched for the Tay : also smaller ones at 

 Loch Leven, Linlithrjow Palace, at Culzean in Ayrshire, Benmore, at Khmun, Ai'gyllshire, Lochbuie, 

 Isle of Mull, Aberdeen, for the rivers Dee and Don, Moriston, in Invernessliire, Caithness on the 

 Forss, and a few others. While in England there are Mr. Andi'ew's at Guildford, Mr. Capel's at 

 Cray's Foot, and the National Fisli Culture Association at Delafore Park, and some few others, 

 mostly of a private character. 



§ Ponds should not be too large, while excavated ones are safer than such as are formed by dams, 

 these latter being more liable to give way. A fall from one to another is desirable, but they have to 

 be constructed in accordance with, if intended for breeders, fry, or fish for the market, also with the 



