SALMON 47 



Proprietors should call meetings for this purpose ; 

 and Parrs, hitherto so called, should be protected by 

 law. Let all who have an interest in the river con- 

 sider the wisdom of mutual accommodation. The 

 proprietors of the lower part of the river are de- 

 pendent on the upper ones for the protection of the 

 spawning fish and the fry ; and they on their part 

 depend upon the lower ones for the strict adherence 

 to the weekly close time.* 



I think this method of artificial impregnation 

 would prove somewhat more successful than the 

 method said to be adopted by the Chinese, which, 

 for the better enlightening of barbaric nations, I 

 will transmit to posterity, from the authority of 

 The English Chronicle of the 25th July, 1839 : 



' The Chinese have taken a fancy to hatch fish 

 under fowls. For this purpose they collect from 

 rivers and ponds the gelatinous matter which con- 

 tains the eggs of fish, put it into vessels, and sell it 

 to the proprietors of ponds. When the hatching 

 season arrives, a fowl's egg is emptied of its usual 

 contents, and this gelatinous matter is put in. The 

 entrance is hermetically sealed, and the egg is then 

 put under a hen. After some days it is opened, and 

 placed in a vessel of water heated by the sun ; it is 



* The question of salmon hatcheries has been much debated 

 since Scrope's time and a good many experiments have been tried. 

 The general opinion seems to be nowadays that Nature's hatcheries 

 are effective enough provided that they have fair play. But 

 hatcheries have not yet been tried in this country on a scale large 

 enough to afford conclusive proof of their ability to keep up the 

 stock of salmon by themselves. The whole question of conserving 

 salmon has been discussed in the introduction. (Ii>.) 



