REPOPULATION 147 



only later that the very simple idea came to me of bring- 

 ing, when I brought the fish, a bottle of real salt-water. 



From the foregoing facts a conclusion is to be drawn 

 upon which I wish to insist. 



It is needless to remark that if we preserve, trans- 

 plant, and rear fish with so much care, it is not from 

 benevolence nor paternal solicitude towards the fish. 

 Rather is the prudent fisherman like the African negro, 

 who fattens his prisoners before selling or eating them. 

 The protection of man resembles a small capital from 

 which large dividends are expected. 



Now, the use of dams and fishponds is a form of 

 protection. Let us take a definite example already 

 familiar to us. A thousand young mullet left unprotected 

 in the sea and then devoured in the state of fry by a fish 

 whose flesh may be utilised will not produce more than 

 a pound of edible flesh, while the same quantity of fry, 

 introduced and reared in a fishpond, produces more than 

 a ton weight of excellent food. 



. (B) Fish _> lib. 

 (A) 1,000 mullet { 



Fishpond 



\ i ton. 



Fi 



^^ a few living adults left. 



So here, in round figures, is a ton of fish saved from 

 certain loss. No one, not even the species, would have 

 profited by the loss. Reduce the figures by half ; half a 

 ton is still saved. Now, we must remember that a certain 

 number of adult specimens will inevitably escape and 

 continue to perpetuate the species. 



The same is true of mullet, bars, eels, &c. ; so that the 

 fisherman of the coast who constructs dams and fishponds 

 intervenes as a protector of numerous edible species ; 

 becomes, in short, a pisciculturalist. 



