APPENDIX. 175 



they grew and flourished apace, and lo, and behold 

 you, here is a portion of the first crop. 



The only obstacle experienced, as we have heard, 

 in this the first year of the experiment, was, the dif- 

 ficulty of procuring a sufficient number of female 

 fish ; the males found in the river being in a very 

 large majority (fourteen to one) to females. This 

 scarcity of female fish, with superfluity of males, has 

 been before observed in other rivers, and we would 

 here merely point attention to it, incidentally, while 

 describing this process of artificial breeding. It is 

 a disproportion also observable, to an incredible ex- 

 tent, amongst graveling, or early young of the sal- 

 mon, in their first and second years, as every sports- 

 man knows ; and it is a circumstance well worthy of 

 ulterior consideration ; but at present we prefer pur- 

 suing the course of our observations. 



Messrs. Ashworth, while thus devoting time and 

 money to the elucidation of this curious subject, have 

 not confined their investigations solely to their own 

 fishery at Galway, but have, we believe, visited the 

 Continent during the present summer, for the pur- 

 pose of extending their inquiries ; at least we have 

 just seen, and have read with much interest, a let- 

 ter from Mr. Edmund Ashworth, dated Geneva, 26th 

 June 1853, in which he describes the Government 

 estabhshment for the artificial propagation of fish, at 

 Basle, which he had just visited; the reservoirs 

 breeding places, and suitable constructions, cover a 

 space, he states, of from 20 to 30 acres of ground, 



