WATER-CULTURE. 151 



fish-rearing, a government establishment, like that at 

 Huningue, is eminently required as a central depot for 

 the supply of fecundated ova, and for promulgating 

 practical instruction how to rear them. But being 

 hopeless that Mr Gladstone will crave the Commons to 

 grant a subsidy for such a purpose, we must comfort 

 ourselves with trusting that the perusal of such books 

 as those of Mr Brown and Mr Francis will stimulate 

 many to carry out by personal enterprise the much- 

 needed work of stocking our lakes and rivers with the 

 more valuable kinds of fish. 



Water-culture, in his opinion, is a science yet in its 

 infancy. " We should know what kind of food suits our 

 various fish best, and what conditions best produce that 

 food, and how these conditions are best to be cultivated, 

 so that such food may be self-producing." This chapter 

 on the food of fish and its production, demonstrates, in 

 a very interesting manner, how great is our ignorance 

 of this department of knowledge. " There is not an 

 insect or small reptile that inhabits the soil beneath us, 

 or the waters around us, that is not food for fishes in a 

 greater or less degree. Worms of all kinds, flies, grubs, 

 larvae, cockchafers, crickets, leeches, snails, humble- 

 bees, young birds, mice, rats, all serve the turn of one 

 fish or another, and so in turn help to produce food for 

 man. Nothing living comes amiss, but doubtless some 

 kinds of food agree with them far better than others. 

 But we know very little on this branch of the sub- 

 ject. It is dreamland to us, with a very little waking 

 reality." 



Some rivers produce larger trout than others, like 

 them in all visible features. Mr Francis compares the 

 trout of the Chess, a branch of the Buckinghamshire 

 Colne, with those of the Wick, little more than a 

 good- sized brook, near High Wy combe. The May-fly 

 abounds on the Chess, but is hardly seen on the Wick, 

 and yet the Wycombe fish, attaining a size of from seven 

 up even to ten pounds, and of a red colour deeper than 



