PROPAGATION OF FISH. 235 



ponds with the best of the fish that once inhabited 

 them. 



Another utterly erroneous impression exists that steam- 

 boats and river craft frighten away the denizens of the 

 deep, and the disappearance of striped bass in Hell Gate 

 is brought forward as an evidence. But the proof does 

 not sustain the proposition ; it cannot be doubted that 

 the fish have diminished, but in Hell Gate the change 

 was produced by blowing out Pot Rock and destroying 

 the best eddy. It may be well to remark, for the bene- 

 fit of the benighted individuals who do not reside in the 

 city of New York, that Pot Rock was situated in the 

 centre of Hell Gate, and being only some seven feet 

 under water, was as much admired by the bass as it was 

 dreaded by the steamboats, till the United States Govern- 

 ment employed a French gentleman to blow it to pieces 

 with gunpowder, so that there should be twenty-one feet 

 of water over it at low tide. Since this was done the 

 bass have left in disgust, and the steamboats have had 

 the better of it, which they never would have had unless 

 aided by gunpowder and a Frenchman. Of course, fish 

 are not so numerous as they were fifty years ago, when 

 there was little market for them, but the net is to be 

 blamed rather than the steamboat. 



The first attempt at artificial fish-culture in Europe 

 was made by Messrs. Gehen and Remy, in France, 

 although it appears to have been known to and prac- 

 tised by the Chinese for centuries, and by the Germans 

 a hundred years previously. In 1850, the attention of 

 the French government was called to their efforts, and 

 M. Milne Edwards was appointed by the Minister of 



