OF ALL COUNTRIES. 523 



the principality of Novgorod, an establishment of pisci- 

 culture, founded by M. Vrasski, whose efforts, though 

 unattended at first with success, have since produced the 

 very best results. The locality chosen by M. Vrasski is 

 admirably adapted for the purpose on account of the 

 abundance and the purity of the water, and the establish- 

 ment being located at the point of separation between the 

 basins of the Volga and the Ladoga, is especially suited to 

 the purposes of acclimatisation. From half a dozen other 

 countries of Europe the same story reaches our ears. Bel- 

 gium and Hungary, Germany and Switzerland, all tell the 

 selfsame tale of anxious effort to repair exhaustion caused 

 by wanton carelessness ; and in the last-mentioned of the 

 countries, at Meilen, near Zurich, 200,000 trout are annually 

 produced to repair the ravages of former years. The new 

 country too is in the same category with the old, and in the 

 United States, to quote a single example, the Commissioner, 

 Mr. Atkins, states that the " passage of fish was interrupted 

 by building impassable dams for manufacturing purposes on 

 the Kennebec and Penobscot, in 1837. On the Kennebec 

 the first fall is 17 feet at the head of the tide-waters." 

 These two rivers of 500 miles had previously produced 

 180,000 salmon, and are now reduced to a catch of 2100 

 annually. Two other rivers, the Androscoggin and Saeo, of 

 320 miles in length, which had previously produced 50,000 

 salmon annually, now produce only 2000. "Most of the 

 rivers in the State are in the same condition as the Ken- 

 nebec." The three rivers that previously produced 230,000 

 fish are 580 miles in length, and now produce only 4100 

 annually. We may fairly estimate the loss of 225,900 

 salmon, of average weight, 9 Ibs., or upwards of fifty 

 thousand pounds, at only 6d. per Ib. value, as the annual 

 loss of valuable nutritious food paid for the erection of a 



