11 



public as well as in the Academy; and surprise was 

 generally expressed at the singular fact that it should 

 have fallen to two uneducated fishermen to show the 

 practical value of a discovery known to the learned for 

 nearly a century. 



The Academy, seeing at once the immense national 

 importance of the two fishermen' s proceedings, hastened 

 to call the attention of the Government to it. The 

 Government, on its part, after making proper inquiries 

 and finding all that was said was true, resolved, as was 

 plainly its duty to do, to have the system applied to all 

 the rivers in France, and especially to those in the poorer 

 provinces. Gehin and Remy were accordingly summoned 

 to Paris, and taken at once into the employment of the 

 Government at good salaries ; their duties being first to 

 stock with fish, by their system, such rivers as should be 

 pointed out to them, and next to teach that system to 

 the peasantry. They were treated, too, as men who have 

 made a great scientific discovery, and secured an im- 

 mense benefit to their country. Many savans vied with 

 each other in doing them honour ; and the President of 

 the Republic and his ministers made them dine at their 

 tables and figure at their receptions. A Commission, 

 consisting of distinguished scientific men, was appointed 

 to superintend their operations. 



v. 



We now proceed to describe Gehin and Remy's plan 

 as applied to trout. No great space will be required to 

 do so, for, like most things that are really useful, it is of 

 remarkable simplicity. 



