258 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. 



received from the Isle of France additional fishes, but still 

 had no success. Finally, having transferred his fishes into 

 a vivarium near the seashore, he succeeded in inducing 

 propagation. This experiment had, however, taken thirty 

 years, and during this time, success in propagating the 

 species in the island had become despaired of. As has 

 been seen, acclimatization often depends on causes very 

 simple in appearance, but which are only discovered after 

 a long time. Since the period named, the fish has been 

 widely spread through the island/' and is now abundant. 



The next earnest attempt to introduce the species into a 

 distant country was made at the instance of M. Moreau de 

 Jonnes, who, in 1818, induced the " minister of marine" 

 of France to order the transportation of specimens to the 

 French possessions in the West Indies. Accordingly, in 

 April, 1819, a hundred small fishes were intrusted to the 

 care of M. De Mackau, captain of a store-ship Le Grolo 

 and the interest and zealous care manifested by that officer 

 were rewarded by the comparatively slight loss of only 

 twenty-three fishes during the entire voyage to the West 

 Indies ; and when it is recalled that a slight blow, an abra- 

 sion of the sides, or loss of a scale may cause death, and the 

 difficulty of adjusting the supply of fresh water, &c., to 

 their necessities is taken into consideration, the small per- 

 centage of the lost must be considered as remarkable. 

 Of the seventy-seven which remained alive, twenty-six 

 were distributed to the islands of Martinique and Guade- 

 loupe severally, and twenty-five to the colony of Cayenne. 

 The fortunes of the strangers in their new places of abode 

 were various. Cuvier and Valenciennes, in the seventh 

 volume of their " Histoire Naturelle des Poissons," pub- 

 lished in 1831, acknowledge the reception of one of the 

 fishes originally taken from Isle-de-France to Cayenne. 

 The belief that their acclimatization in America had sue- 



