FRENCH FISHERIES' COMMISSIONERS. 359 



stocked them with frogs also, because the spawn of these 

 time-beaters is an aliment which the young trout search with 

 avidity ; and the tadpole furnishes an excellent pasture for 

 trout more advanced in age. 



For fifteen years Gehin had been working under the full 

 knowledge of what now engaged the sages of political econ- 

 omy. The subject enlarged, as they thought of stocking the 

 waters of France with all the choice fishes of the world ; and, 

 conformably with the view explained by M. Milne Edwards, 

 a commission was named by the Minister of Agriculture and 

 Commerce, dated September 28, 1850. The commission in- 

 cluded MM. Milne Edwards, Valenciennes, members of the In- 

 stitute ; Susanne, Inspector of Forests ; de Bon, Commission- 

 er of Marine ; de Franqueville, Chief of Navigation and of 

 the Ports, and Minister of Public Works ; Monny de Mornay, 

 Chief of the Division of Agriculture, of the Department of 

 Agriculture and Commerce ; Coste, Professor of Embryogo- 

 ny at the College of France ; Doyere, Professor of Zoology 

 at the National Agronomique Institute. 



The decree was signed by Dumas, and in the spring of 1851, 

 M. Valenciennes the ichthyologist received a mission from 

 the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce to visit and pro- 

 cure the large fishes of the rivers in Germany wherewith to 

 stock the lakes and ponds of France. He succeeded in ob- 

 taining several species, of which he conveyed to Paris the 

 living individuals, including sandre, genus Lucioperca^ Lin., 

 the silure, one of the" most voracious fishes in creation, the av- 

 erage size of which is large enough to dine eighteen persons. 



The silures (silurus glanis), with the sandres and a dozen 

 lotes (eel-pouts), were placed in the reservoirs at Marly. The 

 selection of fishes speaks unfavorably for the taste of M. Va- 

 lenciennes. The sandre grows large enough to dine eight per- 

 sons, but is a dry fish ; the eel-pouts are detestable, and dis- 

 gusting to behold ; the glanis is similar to a Missouri River 

 catfish ! Of this selection wherewith to stock the fresh wa- 

 ters of France, not one lived to leave any posterity. 



