i HAI'. III.] 



PISCICULTURE ON' THE THAMES. 



115 



their best to create public opinion on the subject. Lectures 

 have been delivered on fish-culture, and letters have been 

 thickly sent to the daily papers, advocating the extension of 

 the art ; but no great movement has been made beyond stock- 

 ing the upper waters of the Thames with a few thousand trout 

 and some fancy fish. Salmon also have been hatched ; but 

 can they reach the sea in the present state of the river ? 



PISCICULTURAL APPARATUS. 



In order that gentlemen who have a bit of running water 

 on their property may try the experiment of artificial hatch- 

 ing, I give a drawing of an apparatus invented by M. Coste 

 suitable for hatching out a few thousand eggs it could be 

 set up in a garden or be placed in any convenient outhouse. I 

 may state that I am able to hatch salmon eggs in the saucer 

 of a flower-pot ; it is placed on a shelf over a fixed wash-hand 

 basin, and a small flow of water regulated by a stopcock falls 

 into it. The vessel is filled with small stones and bits of 

 broken china, and answers admirably. Out of a batch of 

 about two hundred eggs brought from Stormontfield, only fif- 

 teen were found to have turned opaque in the first five weeks. 

 Eggs hatched in this homely way are very serviceable, as one 



