THE HISTORY OF FISH-CULTURE. 531 



origiual of the trough method. Tlie manner of procuring of the eggs is 

 not referred to ; he merely explains how he prepared the bed of sand 

 upon which to deposit the eggs whicli he had previously made fecund.* 



The baron based his statements upon the manuscript found at Keome, 

 without quoting from it, and leaves his readers in ignorance as to 

 whether the mode of obtaining the eggs is described in the original. 



In the absence of any publication of the manuscript the only data to 

 support the claim are the statements made by Baron Montgaudry and 

 the reference in a foot-note of Jules Haime's paper on pisciculture (see 

 page 472) to the method employed for obtaining the eggs ; this informa- 

 tion on the subject afforded by Baron Montgaudry, and referred to in 

 the foot-notes, was probably imparted in conversation, as there is no 

 record of it in the papers published in the Bulletin or in the report of 

 the Proces-verhaux des seances of the society from the time of Mont- 

 gaudry's references to Dom Pinchon to the date of publication of Jules 

 Haime's paper. 



The publication of the manuscript, if it is still in existence, would 

 clear up the uncertainty and afford a definite record for the history of 

 this important advance in the art of fish culture. 



To J. L, Jacobi, lieutenant of Lippe-Detmold, a German principality, 

 belongs the credit of discovering and making public in a journal pub- 

 lished in Hanover in 1703, the methods in the art of fish culture now used 

 in modified and improved form. 



The description of his box accords in general form and proportions 

 with the trough in modern use. It was 12 feet long, 6 inches deep, and 

 18 inches wide. It lacked the cleat partitions now used that divide the 

 troughs into nests, the eggs being sheltered from the force of the current 

 by hollows and cavities in the bed of gravel in which they collected. The 

 water supplied to the trough flowed through a screen or grate of brass 

 wire, and the outlet was guarded by a similar screen. The screens 

 would be considered of rather large mesh for use in the hatching estab- 

 lishments of the present, as they were about eight wires to the inch. 

 Jacobi regarded covers to the troughs as a necessity, but not for the 

 purpose they are now deemed essential. There is no evidence from his 

 letter that any building or roof was thought of in connection with his 

 troughs, and tight covers were necessary to protect the ova from their 

 natural enemies, the one he most dreaded being the water shrew ; this 

 use of a screen under the supply-stream being more with regard to pro- 

 tection from this animal than for the purifying of the water. 



Spring-water from a rocky, pebbly locality he considers to be the 

 best. The supply of water to each trough, he asserts, should be an 

 outflow of a pipe one inch square, with one or two feet head, and should 



* II proparait uue lej^ere profoudeur daus la couche de sable pour deposer les anifs, 

 qu'il avait pr6alablemeut fait f^comler. 



