524 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



thus anticipated the Europeans. The principal data relating to fish 

 propagation in China are to be found in the publications of the Socicte 

 (PaccUmatation of France, and in a large work published in Paris in 

 1872 entitled ^'■La pisciculture et al peche en Chine,''' by P. Dabry de 

 Tbiersaut, with an '•'•Introduction sur la pisciculture chez les divers peu- 

 ples,'' by Dr. J. L. Soubeirau. A "History of the Chinese Empire," by 

 Father Duhalde, a Jesuit missionary, also contains a reference to pisci- 

 culture. Special inquiries have also been made by Mr. George Shepard 

 Page, of New York, through the State Department, and satisfactorily 

 answered. 



All authorities ' agree with reference to the antiquity of the practice 

 by the Chinese of the first two methods described, but no evidence is pro- 

 duced that they have now or ever had any knowledge of artificial 

 fecundation of the eggs of fishes as employed by Europeans. 



At the i)resent day a certain class of the Chinese devote their time at 

 the proper season of the year to the capture of quantities of embryo 

 fishes, which are carried to ponds, streams, and lakes, and turned loose 

 in their waters to increase their stock of fishes. These eml>ryos are 

 found in holes or pockets in the beds of the rivers, and are obtained by 

 divers. Ova are also obtained in large quantities in the rivers, by 

 straining the current through nets or mats, and intercepting the eggs as 

 they are carried down stream. 



2. — TRANSFER OF LIVING FISHES. 



I 



The pike or piclxerel. — The transfer of fishes early gained the at- 

 tention of the people in this country as well as in Europe^ and it is 

 a singular coincidence that in Central Europe as well as in different 

 parts of the United States the same species, the lake pike, or pickerel, 

 {Esox lucius,) received favor in this direction, both countries having 

 afterwards had reason to regret its distribution. This fish, the merits 

 of which are sometimes defended in regions where it is the principal 

 species, is not only very destructive of other fishes, but is of indifferent 

 flavor and full of bones. 



In Maine, New Hampshire, and other States its introduction is now 

 regarded as a mistaken enterprise, and the same expressions of regret 

 that are found in the reports of the fish commissioners of some of the 

 States, at its distribution in the waters, occur, in papers on the fishery 

 interests of Germany, and in certain English publications. 



The disposition to introduce this species into new waters has been rec- 

 ognized, and its fatal error is so well understood that in some of the States 

 laws have been enacted inflicting a fine upon any one convicted of hav- 

 ing introduced the pickerel into waters where it does not exist. 



The muslcellunge. — About 1840 this species [Esox nohilior) was placed 

 in a pond near Bellows Falls, Vermont^from which it escaped into the 

 Connecticut Kiver, and has maintained its presence ever since. 



