19G 



PI8CATAQUA 



PISCICULTURE 



HIM earliest work U supposed to be the ' Depoei- 

 tion ' over one of the doom of the cathedral at 

 Lucca, dated 1237. His icputation is supported 

 liy three important work-, which are -till admired 

 for their excellence the pulpit of the baptistery at 

 Pisa (1260), the 'Area' or shrine of St Domini'- for 

 the church of that saint at Bologna ( 1207), and the 

 pulpit of the cathedral at Siena ( 1288). He died 

 at Visa in 1278, and wax buried in the Campo 

 Santo. He was also a great architect and a skilful 

 engineer. His influence on art was wide, reviving 

 the love of beauty and giving new birth to the 

 plastic arts. His pupils Arnolfo and Lapo executed 

 numerous works at Home, Siena, and other cities. 

 Hi- son and heir in reputation, GIOVANNI PISANO 

 ( 1250-1330), was not his equal either as sculptor or 

 as architect. Niccola's pupil Andrea de Pontedera, 

 generally called ANDRKA PISANO (1270-1349), was 

 first a goldsmith, but became famous as a worker 

 in bronre and a sculptor in marble. He settled in 

 Florence, and hU best work there (one of the 

 baptistery doors and many sculptures on the Cam- 

 panile) shows strong traces of Giotto's influence. 

 Vittore Pisano, or Pisanello (1380-1456), was both 

 fresco -painter and medallist. See Crowe and 

 Cavalcaselle, fiiiiilint/ in Italy (1864); Symond's 

 Remittance in Italy (1886); Leader Scott, Early 

 Italian Sculptort ( 1882 ). 



Pisoat aqua, a river which constitutes part of 

 the boundary between Maine and New Hampshire, 

 and forms at its month the excellent harbour of 

 Porteinonth. See NEW KAMI-SHIRK. 



Pisciculture* Fish-culture is the art of increas- 

 ing the supply of food-fishes first, by breeding 

 and rearing them artificially ; secondly, oy protect- 

 ing the gravid fish and the natural spawning and 

 nursery grounds through legislation ; thirdly, by 

 creating new breeding -grounds through the removal 

 of olmtructions or the placing of fascines, stakes, 

 tiles, &c. for the collection of ova or of spat ; 

 lastly, by increasing the amount of natural 

 food* in any practicable manner. In recent years 

 the artificial culture of sea-fish has been attempted 

 on a large scale in several countries. In the United 

 States and in Norway fully equipped hatcheries for 

 sea-fish and shellfish have liecn in operation for 

 a number of years. In 1889 the Newfoundland 

 government erected a marine hatchery at Dildo, 

 Trinity Bay ; and a similar establishment was 

 completed in 1891 bv the Canadian govern- 

 ment near Pictou, on the Northunilwrland Strait, 

 Nova Scotia. In 1890 the Newfoundland butchery 

 turned out over fifteen millions of rod fry and four 

 hundred millions of voting lolwters. In Britain 

 the hatching of sea-fish has not yet been under 

 taken on a Targe scale; but very excellent ex peri - 

 mental work ha* been done at Plymouth l.\ Mr 

 J. T. CmuBgham, who succeeded in artificially 

 fertilising and hatching the eggs of the common 

 sole in tlie early part of 1890; at St Andrews by 

 Professor M'lntosn; and by the Fishery Board for 

 Scotland at Dun bar. I'nder the second head the 

 Fishery Board for Scotland entered in 1883 on a 

 series of experiments to ascertain what legislation, 

 if any, was required to protect the inshore waters 

 either an B|wwmng, nursery, or food producing 

 grounds, and several bylaws have Ix-en passed 

 protecting the greater 'portion of the Scottish 

 inshore waters. These provisions were extended 

 by the Herring- fishery (Scotland) Amendment 

 Act, 1889. 



Ponds for fresh-water fishes have been common 

 from a very remote antiquity. It appears from 

 Isaiah, xix. 10, that they were used in ancient 

 Egypt. In the time- of Koman luxury almost 

 every wealthy riti/.en hud fish-ponds. The Chinese 

 have long liestowed more attention on pisciculture 



than any other nation, and with them it U truly a 

 brunch of economy, keeping up the supply of food, 

 fish l>eing used as much as meat by rich and poor 

 at every meal. In China a large proportion of fish 

 for the markets of the interior are reared in ponds. 

 Some of these are generally placed in front of the 

 villages, and in some places large numbers of them 

 spread over plains. A common way of rearing 

 in that country is to keep a number 'of male and 

 female fish in small ponds so as to furnish eggs. 

 After these are hatched, and the young fish become 

 two or three inches in length, they are transferred 

 to larger ponds. At the end of six or eight months 

 they are caught and sent to market. Carp, perch, 

 tench, and bream are some of the kinds kept in 

 ponds. In some countries of modern Europe this 

 branch of pisciculture is also prosecuted to a very 

 considerable extent, particularly in German}' and 

 Sweden, and of late years in France, in order to in- 

 crease the supply of lish for the market. In Britain 

 it bos only recently been systematically prosecuted. 

 The country-seats of the nobility and gentry have, 

 indeed, been generally provided with fish ponds, 

 hut in most cases rather as ornamental waters than 

 for use. In the northern part* of Britain trout, 

 perch, and pike are almost the only ii-h kept in 

 ponds ; in England they are often stocked with 

 carp and tench, and are turned to much letter 

 account than in Scotland. In (Germany ponds 

 carefully attended to are found very priidiictixe 

 and remunerative. There can l>e no doubt that in 

 Britain also many a piece of land at present very 

 worthless might easily be converted into a pond, 

 and mode to yield large quantities of excellent 

 fish. 



The greatest improvement in pisciculture, and a 

 most important branch of it, to which the term is 

 often restricted, is the breeding of lish in artificial 

 breeding-places, from which not only ponds but 

 rivers may be stocked ; or the art of fecundating 

 and hatching fish-eggs, and feeding and protecting 

 the young animals till they are of an age to secure 

 their own food and protect themselves from their 

 numerous enemies. 



In the middle ages, and especially in the 14th 

 century, fish-ponds were common in the domains 

 of princes and nobles and religious communities ; 

 but these were used only for rearing purposes. The 

 first attempt at artificial fertilisation of fish eggs 

 appears to liave been made at the l>eginning of the 

 I. Mil century, by Dom Pinchon, a French monk ; 

 but his i'\|n-tiini-iit- attracted no attention. Be- 

 tween 1725 and 1765 Stephan Ludwig Jacobi 

 of Ilohenhaiisen, Lippe- Del mold, bred trout arti- 

 ficially ; but commercial pisciculture owes its 

 origin to the French, the art having been first 

 practised by Kemy, a poor fisherman who worked 

 the streams of La Bresse in the Vosges. It was 

 the great waste of eggs incidental to the natural 

 system of fish-breeding that led Keiny about 1842 

 in conjunct inn with a partner, G6hin, to try to 

 repcopfethe fish streams of his native district. II i- 

 plan, ix-ing successful, attracted the notice of many 

 of the French savants, and led to preferment for 

 Heniy : the new art was besides taken up by the 

 government. At Hiiningen in Alsace, on the 

 Khine, a gigantic fish-nursery and egg-depot was 

 erected in 18T>2, chiefly througi> the energy of M. 

 Coste. Since the cession of Alsace to Germany 

 the operations of the establishment at HUningen 

 have been conducted on a still larger scale by a 

 German association. 



Itcmy and Goliin's plan of rearing trout artifici- 

 ally is this : At the time the female is about to 

 spawn slur is caught and gently pressed on the 

 atKlomen by the hand, when the ova or rggs spurt 

 forth into a vessel containing water. In the same 

 way the milt is taken from the male. The egg* 



