296 Dr. J. E. Gray on Natural-History Nomenclatwe. 



to study the habits of the fish, and to imitate as much as possible 

 their natural proclivities. 



Thus, for example, it appears to me that, when attempting to 

 introduce young artificially hatched fish into a river, we should place 

 them in the smallest streamlets, where the fish would themselves 

 deposit their ova, and not in the wider parts of the stream, where 

 they are liable to injury from various causes. Again, the notion of 

 fishing the breeding-fish out of a river, collecting their eggs and arti- 

 ficially impregnating them, seems to me an unnatural mode of pro- 

 ceeding, and such as is not practised in the cultivation of any other 

 animal. I cannot see any practical advantage that can possibly be 

 derived from it. 



For the replenishing of worn-out fisheries of oysters and pearl- 

 shells, all that seems necessary or advantageous to be done is to place 

 round the bed twigs and various similar substances so arranged as to 

 retain the eggs when deposited, and to protect them by all the means 

 in our power, leaving the beds undisturbed for a sufficient time to 

 allow the new brood to become firmly established in them. 



Besides the numerous attempts at home to replenish our rivers 

 and oyster-beds, much has been written and large sums have been 

 expended in trying to introduce salmon into the rivers of Australia; 

 but the many failures show how little those who undertook the task 

 were acquainted with the most common physiological questions con- 

 nected with the removal of fish, and how small was their knowledge of 

 the habits and peculiarities of the fish which they proposed to remove. 

 What, indeed, could be more absurd than the attempt to introduce 

 salmon into rivers which for a considerable part of the vear are re- 

 duced to a series of stagnant pools. I think I may venture to predict 

 that, if ever salmon are introduced into Australia, they are mucli more 

 likely to succeed in the deep and rapid rivers of Tasmania than in the 

 streams of Australia proper. At the same time, when we consider 

 the very limited geographical range of the salmon in Europe, confined 

 as it is to those rivers which have their exit into the North Sea, that 

 the attempt to remove it from one river to another in Europe has 

 always been a failure, and that it is not only necessary that the 

 salmon should have a river similar to that which it inhabits here, but 

 also the same food and other peculiarities, without which apparently 

 it cannot subsist, I must confess that I have no great faith in the 

 success of the introduction of the salmon into Australia. I think, 

 therefore, that it is to be regretted that the Australian Acclimatization 

 Society do not rather make some experiments on the introduction of 

 the gouramy, or some of the other edible fish of countries nearer to 

 and more resembling their own. 



With other members of the British Association, I have received a 

 reprint of the Rules of Nomenclature drawn up by Mr. Strickland 

 and others, and printed in the Report of the twelfth Meeting of the 

 Association (1842), acconi})auied with a request to examine them 

 carefully, and to communicate any suggestions to Sir William Jar- 

 dine, Bart. 



