296 Dr. J. EK. Gray on Natural-History Nomenclature. 
to study the habits of the fish, and to imitate as much as possible 
their natural proclivities. 
Thus, for example, it appears to me that, when attempting to 
introduce young artificially hatched fish into a river, we should place 
them in the smallest streamlets, where the fish would themselves 
deposit their ova, and not in the wider parts of the stream, where 
they are liable to injury from various causes. Again, the notion of 
fishing the breeding-fish out of a river, collecting their eggs and arti- 
ficially impregnating them, seems to me an unnatural mode of pro- 
ceeding, and such as is not practised in the cultivation of any other 
animal. I cannot see any practical advantage that can possibly be 
derived from it. 
For the replenishing of worn-out fisheries of oysters and pearl- 
shells, all that seems necessary or advantageous to be donc is to place 
round the bed twigs and various similar substances so arranged as to 
retain the eggs when deposited, and to protect them by all the means 
in our power, leaving the beds undisturbed for a sufficient time to 
allow the new brood to become firmly established in them. 
Besides the numerous attempts at home to replenish our rivers 
and oyster-beds, much has been written and large sums have been 
expended in trying to introduce salmon into the rivers of Australia ; 
but the many failures show how littie those who undertook the task 
were acquainted with the most common physiological questions con- 
nected with the removal of fish, and how small was their knowledge of 
the habits and peculiarities of the fish which they proposed to remove. 
What, indeed, could be more absurd than the attempt to introduce 
salmon into rivers which for a considerable part of the year are re- 
duced toa series of stagnant pools. I think I may venture to predict 
that, if ever salmon are introduced into Australia, they are much more 
likely to succeed in the deep and rapid rivers of Tasmania than in the 
streams of Australia proper. At the same time, when we consider 
the very limited geographical range of the salmon in Europe, confined 
as it is to those rivers which have their exit into the North Sea, that 
the attempt to remove it from one river to another in Europe has 
always been a failure, and that it is not only necessary that the 
salmon should have a river similar to that which it inhabits here, but 
also the same food and other peculiarities, without which apparently 
it cannot subsist, I must confess that I have no great faith in the 
success of the introduction of the salmon into Australia. I think, 
therefore, that it is to be regretted that the Australian Acclimatization 
Society do not rather make some experiments on the introduction of 
the gouramy, or some of the other edible fish of countries nearer to 
and more resembling their own. 
With other members of the British Association, I have received a 
reprint of the Rules of Nomenclature drawn up by Mr. Strickland 
and others, and printed in the Report of the twelfth Meeting of the 
Association (1842), accompanied with a request to examine them 
carefully, and to communicate any suggestions to Sir William Jar- 
dine, Bart. 
