248 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. 



V. 



ARTIFICIAL SPAWNING-BEDS.* 



While artificial fecundation apparently fulfils the chief 

 requisites for the propagation of some fishes, such as the 

 salmonids, there are others for which it cannot be employed 

 with equal advantage. Nature has, in such cases, been 

 assisted by the preparation of places suitable for the deposit 

 of the ova and milt of the fishes which it is desired to pro- 

 pagate, and by the preparation for such of beds which will 

 be instinctively resorted to by them. This practice has 

 been especially employed in France, and has been very 

 recently advocated by the celebrated academician, M. E. 

 Blanchard, professor at the museum of natural history, &c., 

 in an excellent work on the fresh-water fishes of France. 

 The obvious advantages resulting from the exposition of an 

 author's own words, induce the writer to submit a transla- 

 tion from M. Blanchard's work : . 



u In view of the present condition of the rivers and canals 

 of France, the idea of artificial spawning-beds would appear 

 to be a most happy one. M. Millet, before the Society of 

 Acclimatization, has insisted, with great earnestness, on the 

 preference to be given, in many cases, to artificial spawning- 

 beds over artificial fecundation. M. Coste has justly re- 

 marked that artificial fecundation is not all-sufficient, and 

 yet a contrary opinion is generally prevalent. No one has 

 forgotten the marvellous results which we were to obtain 

 by means of artificial fecundation ; fishes, left to themselves, 

 could not thrive and have a numerous progeny. Their 

 duties should be assumed by us, and the advantages would 

 be incalculable. More than fifteen years have elapsed since 



* From Agricultural Report, 1866. 



