362 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



Tocqueville had determined that a strong light was injuri- 

 ous, and that a lamp or candle should not be thrust before 

 young fishes. This was one of the reasons for placing the 

 government breeding apparatus at Huningue under cover; 

 another was to maintain in the hatching-troughs nearly an 

 even temperature throughout the winter while hatching 

 game fishes of the genus Salmo, that spawn late in autumn ; 

 for these, while young, are much more delicate than common 

 fishes, which (spawning in spring) hatch in a few days, and 

 require comparatively no care in the process or in the kinds 

 of feed; for, as they come into the world without a sac of pro- 

 vision to last them a month suspended to the umbilical cord, 

 nature prepares them for fighting their way for food from the 

 moment when they leave the shell. 



Gehin had visited Paris in 1850, and was presented to Lou- 

 is Napoleon, then president of the republic, as quite a person- 

 age, and received from the government, in compliance with 

 the promise of M. Milne Edwards, the mission to stock the 

 rivers of several departments. 



There were 50,000 brook and lake trout introduced to the 

 waters of the Bois de Boulogne in 1856, where they grew 

 rapidly. At this time many of the public waters through- 

 out France, which had rested dormant, began to astonish 

 and delight the neighborhoods with the leaps above water 

 of amber beauties, which formed miniature rainbows in the 

 gleams of the sun, and many peasants regarded this novel 

 gift of life and beauty as a providential blessing on Napo- 

 leon's reign. 



Reports of successes in pisciculture poured in monthly more 

 numerously from every department. The waters were ev- 

 ery where stocked with young fishes, which were doing well. 

 The ponds, lakes, and reservoirs in public parks were each 

 annually hatching 25,000 to 50,000 of the genus Salmo for 

 the benefit of the public rivers of France. 



In the departments generally, the zeal of the prefets kept 

 pace with that of the government, and men of science and 



