WALLEM ON AMERICAN FISHEEIES. 103 



of development, a large aquarium,* the importance of whicli for scientific 

 ■study was especially set forth . It was not long before they found out what 

 should especially be done ; they resolved to devote great energy to the 

 propagation of young fishes, or, to speak perhaps more correctly, to the 

 protection of young fishes. Instead of leaving the young to their own 

 fate, they secure the spawn and the milt in time, allow the whole pro- 

 cess of development to proceed in the publicly established apparatus, to 

 set free therefrom the young as soon as they can take care of themselves. 

 For many years have a portion of the fishermen followed the business 

 of hatching spawn, raising the young in order to sell the grown fish 

 later ; and so skillful had individuals become in this achievement that 

 the scientific men learned from them and took some of them into the 

 service of the state as superini^endents of the hatching operations 

 throughout the Union. This thing, that individuals had acquired a con- 

 siderable fortune by hatching and rearing fish, contributed naturally to- 

 wards giving the whole matter the powerful impulse in a i)urely practical 

 direction, which it gained very early. 



In a book on trout-culture, written by a practical breeder, it is said, 

 quite significantly for the stand-point which has already been reached, 

 that it "pays better to rear trout than hogs '' ; and every one knows what 

 the pork business is for America. All that I have learned indicates that 

 this assertion has gained general acceptance both among the common 

 people and the learned ; and it is said to be assured that in the art of 

 rearing fish the Americans surpass all others. 



Partly to control the fisheries themselves, and partly in great measure 

 to carry on the hatching operations, there were by degrees appointed in 

 eighteen different States, taken together, fifty -two commissioners or fish- 

 ery inspectors, besides a regular staff of subordinate officials. There 

 was established by the United States Government, besides, a fish com- 

 mission, Avhose chief is the well-known Prof. Spencer F. Baird. With 

 this complement of special i^ractical cultivated oflicials and talented sci- 

 entific men the effort was untiring to produce and distribute young fishes 

 from the mountain to the sea in small rivers and lakes, in the great 

 streams, and in the great bays, both of fresh-water and salt-water fish. 



Of large hatching-establishments there are many, public as well as 

 private. A more detailed description of them would certainly be inter- 

 esting, but without illustrative drawings such a thing would be hard to 

 understand. Besides, the public is much too little informed about the 

 matter to regard anything other tiian the practical results as particularly 

 interesting. I shall, therefore, here devote my attention to throwing 

 light upon what I will call the great enterprise of the hatching opera- 

 tions in America. 



*Tliis aquarium was set up after the example of the previously uamecl society, the 

 "American Fish Culturists' Association." It was established in New York on a rather 

 large scale, and had at one time even a living whale to exhibit, which, however, un- 

 fortunately died, after the expiration of some time, from consumption, according to the 

 statement of the doctors. 



