04 THE NATURAL HISTORY AND HABITS 



that by damming up a river, the spawn of fishes 

 could be gathered in tubs, and sold by measure ? We 

 are aware that sturgeons are fished on the Rhine and 

 Danube for the sake of their spawn, but not for 

 the purpose of sowing, but to make isinglass and 

 caviare. And were the spawn of any fishes to be 

 sown in a river as we sow corn, what purpose could 

 it serve further than to feed the fishes and vermin 

 frequenting that river? for we are aware that spawn 

 of all kinds is eagerly sought after for food by all 

 fishes, and to sow it in the rivers by bushels, (how- 

 ever, the Chinese only say by measure, and that 

 might have been very small, from the unlikely means 

 of procuring it), it would have only been an extra 

 feed to the fishes of that river. But if it was pro- 

 ductive at one time, or at least expected to be so, 

 how now, when China and the Roman States are in 

 a much more advanced state of civilisation and intel- 

 ligence, has that system of propagating fish been 

 discontinued ? I have frequently talked with gentle- 

 men who have traversed the banks of the Hoang-ho 

 and Kiang-kean, the two largest rivers in China, 

 and I could never get any information regarding 

 sowing the spawn. The truth is, that Hoang-ho dis- 

 solves so much clay, and the water is so impure, that 

 it is unfit for the habitation of fish, with the exception 

 of the coarsest kinds. We must therefore conclude 

 that neither the Chinese nor Romans have given us 

 any substantial information worth acting on ; and 

 indeed Mr. Jacobi, the German naturalist, has traced 

 his artificial breeding very litle further than the egg'; 

 therefore, I will endeavour to give an account of the 

 fry from the exclusion from the egg to the smolt 

 state. 



