SALMONID.E. 



69 



for the purpose of' showing how they may be brought into direct 

 practical utility, and rendered subservient to the pleasure of the 

 angler, as a method of stocking inland waters ; and, secondly, of 

 pointing out how easily experiments might be made in this modej 

 as to the hybridization of fishes, and the rearing new species of mules, 

 or ascertaining that they cannot be reared, by the commixture of the 

 milt and roe of various distinct species of the same family in small 

 tanks, fed by running brooklets. 



It has been shown above, that the impregnated spawn of any two 

 live breeding fishes of the same family, may be artificially hatched 

 and preserved in waters other than those in which the parent species 

 are wont to live ; as even the Salmon in fresh- water. 



I shall now proceed to show that the same result may be obtained 

 by the commixture of the melt and roe in aerated water, of dead fishes 

 recently taken. 



It is absolutely necessary that the water should be aerated, or highly 

 supplied with oxygen. For it is for the purpose of finding water in this 

 condition, that the Salmon, the Shad, the Bass, the Smelt, and all 

 those fish which resort to fresh-waters, for the purpose of spawning, 

 run to the shallow, pure, and swiftly-flowing brooks, to which their 

 rapidity and frequent falls impart purity and vitality, by mingling them 

 with the atmosphere. In the same manner, the fish of the sea resort 

 for the deposition of their ova to the weedy shoals, where the vegeta- 

 bles, in process of their growth, under the influence of the sun, distri- 

 bute air through the waters around them. 



" The science required for this object" that is to say, the raising 

 foreign fishes for the stocking of home waters thus speaks Sir Hum- 

 phrey Davy, in his delightful work, " Salmonia" " is easily attained, 

 and the difficulties are quite imaginary. The impregnation of the ova 

 of fishes is performed out of the body, and it is only necessary to 

 pour the seminal fluid from the melt upon the ova in water. Mr. 

 Jacobi, a German gentleman, who made, many years ago, experiments 

 on the increase of Trout and Salmon, informs us, that the ova and 

 melt of mature fish, recently dead, will produce living offspring. His 

 plan of raising Trout from the egg was a very simple one. He had 

 a box made with a small wire grating at one end in the cover, for 

 admitting water from a fresh source or stream, and at the other end 



