248 MAKITIME PISCICULTURE. 



the infusorice, fall at last into some place unsuitable to 

 their ultimate development, and are frequently smothered 

 in the mud. 



It is thus of the greatest importance that art shall 

 come to the assistance of nature, if man is to be a sharer 

 in the exuberant abundance which is such a striking 

 characteristic of so many species of fish. Millions of 

 embryo molluscs, floating in the ocean at the guidance 

 of the waves, afford the repast provided for certain 

 species of creatures. If man is to partake in this feast, 

 which doubtless is the intention of the beneficent 

 Creator who has given him " dominion over the fish of 

 the sea " " this great and wide sea, wherein are things 

 creeping innumerable," he must exercise intelligence 

 and put forth industry. The waves which surround 

 his dwelling will not, in their random movements, waft 

 these edibles into his hands. In this, as in many other 

 instances, the growing wants of the human race can 

 be adequately supplied only by the union of science 

 with rightly-directed labour. If we wish to have mil- 

 lions of oysters for our million-peopled cities, we must 

 look for the coveted supply not from the rude hands of 

 unskilled fishermen, often so greedy as to senselessly 

 ruin their fields of industry, but from the hands of the 

 scientific naturalist acquainted with the laws of genera- 

 tion peculiar to fishes, and able to turn them to account 

 by the resources of patient ingenuity, which teaches 

 him to wait and reap many harvests from the domain of 

 the waters, rather than impair its future productiveness 

 by reaping a few, in which the immature portion of the 

 crop infinitely preponderates over that which has at- 

 tained maturity. 



This is understood and practised at Fusaro. These 

 stakes and enclosures, which we have described, are 

 arranged for the purpose of arresting this generative 

 dust, and supplying it with points of attachment, just 

 as a swarm of bees settles in the bushes they meet with 

 on their exit from the hive. It does, in fact, become 



