70 FISHES AND FISHING. 



the railways, with a large quantity of nutritious food. 

 The Minister of Marine and Colonies has ordered ex 

 periments to be made, as to salt water, and some 

 kinds of shell fish ; and Commissioners have been ap 

 pointed to examine the mouths of rivers, and the 

 coasts from Havre to La Teste, Cherbourg, Gran- 

 ville, and in the environs of Trouville. 



It is a very serious subject for consideration, or 

 ought to be, with the government of this country, to 

 promote as much as possible the breeding of fish, as a 

 means of providing, in some measure, for the immense 

 increasing population ; the law should be put in force 

 against every person taking fish with spawn, or milt in 

 them, or of an illegal size ; for every individual who 

 captures them contrary to these regulations, is 

 thoughtlessly an enemy to the community, by de 

 priving it of what would contribute to the support 

 and nutriment of many of his fellow-creatures. 



The skegger, or scegger is the most beautiful of 

 English fishes, and formerly abounded in the Thames. 

 They had the shape and fins of the salmon ; the back 

 was a dull, dark, blue green, gradually going off to a 

 bright silver, as it went down to the belly ; it was 

 marked with black and carmine- coloured spots, and 

 a row of shaded blue marks, descending from the 

 back to the belly, at intervals from the head to the 

 tail, dark blue at the back, and by degrees less intense, 

 as it descended to silver. 



