CHAP, in.] BEST KINDS OF FISH TO REAR. 97 



This they do in the night-time : crawling cautiously ashore, 

 and scraping a large hole in a part of the sand which is never 

 reached by the tide, they deposit their eggs, and carefully 

 cover them with the sand, leaving the sun to effect the work 

 of quickening them into life, 



It may be as well to state here that the French people eat 

 all kinds of fish, whether they be from the sea, the river, the 

 lake, or the canal. In Scotland and Ireland the salmon only 

 is bred artificially as yet, and chiefly because it is a valuable 

 and money-yielding animal, and no other fresh-water fish is 

 regarded there as being of value except for sport. In France 

 large quantities of eels are bred and eaten ; but in Scotland, 

 and in some parts of England, the people have such a horror 

 of that fish that they will not touch it. This of course is 

 due to prejudice, as the eel is good for food in a very high 

 degree. In all Eoman Catholic countries there are so many 

 fast-days that fish-food, becomes to the people an essential 

 article of diet ; in France this is so, and the consequence is 

 that a good many private amateurs in pisciculture are to be 

 found throughout the empire ; but the mission of the French 

 Government in connection with fish -culture is apparently 

 to meddle only with the rearing and acclimatising of the 

 more valuable fishes. It would be a waste of energy for the 

 authorities at Huningue to commence the culture of the carp 

 or perch. In our Protestant country there is no demand for 

 the commoner river or lake fishes except for the purposes of 

 sport ; and with one or two exceptions, such as the Lochleven 

 trout, the charr, etc., there is no commerce carried on in these 

 fishes. One has but to visit the fishmarket at Paris to observe 

 that all kinds of fresh-water fish and river Crustacea are there 

 ranked as saleable, and largely purchased. The mode of keeping 

 these animals fresh is worthy of being followed here. They are 

 kept alive till wanted in large basins and troughs, where they 

 may at all times be seen swimming about in a very lively state. 



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