PRACTICAL TROUT CULTURE. 



CHAPTER L 



HISTORY OF FISH CULTURE. 



IT is a fact well known that fish-hatching has 

 been carried on by the Chinese from the earliest 

 periods of the world's history, their oldest writers 

 mentioning the fact, and it is stated by savans 

 that in the works of Fo-hi, who flourished, accord- 

 ing to the computation of the best authorities, 

 2,100 B.C., mention is made of laws regulating the 

 time at which fish spawn should be taken. The 

 earliest European notice of Chinese pisciculture 

 we have met with, is that of Father Duhalde, a 

 Jesuit missionary, who, in 1735, published at 

 Paris a history of the Chinese Empire, in which 

 he states that, "At a certain season of the year 

 an immense number of merchants resort to the 

 banks of the Yang-tse-kiang for the purpose of 

 purchasing fish spawn. In the month of May 

 the country people place across the current of the 

 river, mats and hurdles extending for a distance 



