88 AN IMPORTANT QUESTION. [CHAI-. in. 



what we obtain here are a mere percentage of the grand totals 

 deposited by the fish." 



Of course, as the operations are pursued over a large dis- 

 trict of two countries, no immediate difference will be felt ; 

 but how if these Huningue explorateurs go on for years taking 

 away tens of thousands of eggs ? Will that not ultimately 

 prove a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul ? I know full well 

 that all kinds of fish are enormously prolific, and the reader 

 would see from the figures given in a former section that it is 

 so ; but suppose a river, with the breeding power of the Tay, 

 was annually robbed of a few million eggs, the result must 

 some day be a slight difference in the productive power of the 

 water. I would like to know with exactitude if, while the 

 waters of France are being replenished, the rivers in Switzer- 

 land and Germany are not beginning to be in their turn im- 

 poverished ? It surely stands to reason that if the impoverish- 

 ment of streams resulting from natural causes be aided by the 

 carrying away of the eggs by zealous cxploratmirs, they must 

 become in a short time almost totally barren of fish. The best 

 plan, in my opinion, is for each river to have its own breeding- 

 ponds on the plan of those of Stormontfield on the river Tay 

 which I will by and by describe.* 



* On this part of the piscicultural question I had the following con- 

 versation with a peclieur who has a little place in the suburbs of Stras- 

 bourg, on the road to the Bridge of Boats : 



" By your system you collect the eggs of fish in the rivers of Switzer- 

 land and Germany, either from the spawning-beds, or direct from the 

 parents, which are then barbarously killed and sold, as we were told at 

 Huningue, and the eggs may be sent off to enrich some private specu- 

 lator in the north of France. Now, will not the rivers from whence 

 the spawn is taken be impoverished in their turn ?" 



" Oh, no ; it is considered by the piscicultural system that we only 

 obtain that portion of the spawn that would otherwise be lost." 



" What do you think is the proportion of young salmon that arrives 

 at marketable size under the ordinary conditions of growth ?" 



