334. 



Now all present will, I think, admit that that day on 

 which it was found possible to protect and rear these infant 

 salmon, until they were fit to shift for themselves and be 

 turned into the river, constituted the turning-point in the 

 downward career upon which our salmon fisheries, up to 

 within a comparatively recent date, had entered. But for 

 this discovery, that the eggs and young of the Salmonidae 

 might be artificially reared and protected, and in spite of 

 all rules and regulations concerning a close time and the 

 protection of undersized fish that had been established, our 

 best salmon and trout streams would by this time have 

 been literally ruined. 



Now, gentlemen, the very important proposition that I 

 have to submit to your consideration is, that the eggs and 

 young of the lobster are, as compared with the salmon, 

 equally susceptible of artificial cultivation, and you will 

 agree with me, I think, if I can substantiate this statement, 

 that the resuscitation and restocking of our exhausted 

 lobster fisheries are brought within, at least, a measurable 

 distance of accomplishment. Nothing short of evidence 

 of the most practical description will, I am aware, assist 

 me in substantiating the position I have undertaken, and 

 such evidence I will now place at your disposal. At many 

 of the- large public Aquaria with which in former years I 

 have been associated as naturalist, berried lobsters have 

 brought forth their progeny in the tanks. On most of 

 these occasions the fate of the little lobsters has been to 

 either perish for want of suitable nutriment or to be eaten 

 up by the other fish. Notably, however, in the year 1875, at 

 the Manchester Aquarium, I observed of a newly-hatched 

 brood that they assembled like a cloud of gnats and fed 

 freely upon the finer particles of minced fish thrown into 

 the water as food for the ordinary occupants of the tanks. 



