HISTORY OF FISH CULTURE. 13 



more than probable that had artificial means been 

 resorted to for the impregnation and hatching of 

 the ova, some account of it would have been 

 transmitted to us. 



The numerous fasts imposed upon the monks 

 during the middle ages by the Roman Catholic 

 Church, rendered an ample supply of fish food 

 an article of paramount importance to the mo- 

 nastic fraternity ; and to them we would natur- 

 ally look for any improvement in the art of fish 

 culture. While hunting among the musty arch- 

 ives of the Abbey of Reome, Baron Mongaudry 

 accidentally discovered that a monk of that relig- 

 ious establishment, yclept Dom Pinchon, during 

 the fourteenth century, practiced a method of 

 hatching, at least similar to that still pursued in 

 some of our largest trout farms. How the rever- 

 end father obtained his spawn is unfortunately 

 not recorded ; but obtain them he did, and no 

 doubt received the blessing of his confreres for 

 the welcome additions to their larder. To Dom 

 Pinchon must be ascribed the honor of the inven- 

 tion of the first hatching-box. 



In 1761, C. F. Lund, of Linkoeping, Sweden, 

 having noticed the spawning of fishes in Lake 

 Koken, prepared a large, wide, shallow box, in 

 which, the bottom being covered with brush, he 

 placed male and female carp during the spawning 



