250 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. 



cavations or furrows, like those made by the salmon or 

 trout, to deposit their eggs in. M. Millet also recommends 

 that small heaps of pebbles should be raised at the edges 

 of these furrows. By means of these contrivances, trout, 

 especially, would often be attracted, and be content to stop 

 and spawn in places which they would not otherwise fre- 

 quent, and where it would be convenient to keep them/ 



VI. 



THE GOURAML ITS HABITAT, OR NATIVE COUNTRY.* 



Among foreign fishes, none has excited so much interest, 

 in an economical point of view, or has been the subject of so 

 many attempts at acclimatization among the French, as the 

 celebrated gourami the Osphromenus gourami of natural- 

 ists.f A somewhat extended notice of its peculiarities and 

 relations to other fishes, its habits, and of the attempts 

 made to acclimatize it in France and her colonies will, 

 therefore, doubtless be acceptable. 



The native home of the gourami is the fresh waters of 

 the Malaccan islands Java, Madura, Sumatra, and Bor- 

 neo ; and from the inhabitants of those islands we derive 

 the name as well as the fish itself. J It has been attributed 

 as a native to China, but erroneously. It has been intro- 

 duced into China, however, as well as into Pinang, Ma- 

 lacca, Mauritius, Reunion or Bourbon, Martinique, and 

 Cayenne. The gourami attains a very large size, and 

 reaches, it is said, five or even six feet in length, and a 



* From Agricultural Report, 1866. By Theodore Gill, M. D. 

 f This species is also known as the Osphromenus olfax, but the 

 prior name is that here adopted. 



t The proper pronunciation would be best indicated by gurahmee, 

 P 



