4 68 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



two months or more. When you wish to take them out, lift the 

 cover, and place the boxes in pure water for a couple of hours, 

 after which the eggs may be removed safely and without injury. 

 I once transported twelve hundred trout, of all sizes, to one of 

 my ponds with perfect safety, from a distant brook, thus, without 

 changing the water, making four journeys. 



A large tierce was put upon a spring cart, and filled with pure 

 spring water, into which an abundance of ice was placed. As 

 the trout were caught by treading the brook, and thus driving 

 them into a net, they were imprisoned in the tierce without hand- 

 ling, and arrived at the pond in safety ; without ice, they would 

 have perished in half an hour. 



You may carry young salmon or trout in glass jars by railroad 

 any distance without changing the water, by placing a few aquatic 

 plants in with them. 



I am convinced, that with judicious care, and ponds suited to 

 the purpose, a branch of industry might be formed that w^ould 

 increase the wealth of the party attending to it unparalleled by 

 any other business. 



Let me, then, recommend all gentlemen living near the coast 

 on Long Island, and in New Jersey, wherever facilities ofifer, to 

 make salt water ponds, by calling to their aid a portion of the sea, 

 which may be carried inland by means of a short canal, and 

 therein place fish to fat, besides breeding oysters. One fish so 

 prepared for the table would be worth more as a luxury than six 

 taken directly from the ocean, from the fact that the severe exer- 

 tion required to be made by them to take their wary prey, only 

 preserves their bodily health and strength, without adding to 

 their fattening propensities. In such a pond, oysters might be 

 artificially fecundated in such a manner as to afford very inter- 

 esting results to science. I have been engaged some years experi- 

 menting with these admirable mollusks, not only in ponds where 

 I have beds planted, but in the Hudson river also. 



I have on several occasions spoken of the depth of the ocean, 

 and will now state the pressure that fish must sustain at certain 

 depths. At ninety-three feet a shad would be compelled to bear 

 about the weight of sixty pounds to every square inch of surface 



