American Fuheries Society 69 



the exception of a single paper in French, all the proceedings 

 are in German. 



Among those taking part in the proceedings were representa- 

 tives from Anstralia, Baden, Chili, Denmark, Finland, Germany, 

 Holland, India, Ireland, Italy, Persia, Roumania, Rnssia, 

 Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, United States of American, Wnr- 

 temburg. 



The representative of the United States was Dr. H. M. Smith 

 of Washington, whose name also appears in the list of vice-pres- 

 idents. 



Fishculture in France. 



France has been styled, with some show of reason, the "birth- 

 place of fishculture," meaning by this, of the artificial fishculture 

 which is now applied to the salmonidae, and to a more limited 

 extent to some other families of fishes. Though the possibility of 

 artificially impregnating fishes' eggs and allowing them to hatch 

 under human care was discovered in Germany at an earlier date, 

 it seems to have been two French fishermen, Grehin and Remy, 

 who first, early in the last century, perceived the possibility of 

 employing the process for the benefit of the fisheries, and under- 

 took to apply their theories by actually hatching fish and turning 

 them out in open waters; and when one thinks of the beginning 

 of apparatus for fish-hatching the name that comes first and 

 most prominently to his mind is that of Coste, French professor 

 who devised the apparatus known by his name. 



France has not maintained her lead in this field, tho the 

 natural conditions are in some respects unusally favorable. To 

 state the present condition as it is viewed by one of her eminent 

 public men, we may quote the language of Mons. Jules Mercier 

 before the Chamber of Deputies on occasion of the consideration 

 of the question of appropriating money for the use of a hatchery, 

 in December, 1906 : 



"France is a country of rivers : there is no other nation more 

 richly endowed in this respect. We have 275,000 kilometers 

 (173,000 miles) of rivers, streams, brooks and canals. It would 

 seem that under conditions so favorable we ought to be in posi- 

 tion not only to provide for our home consumption, but to ex- 

 port fish to neighboring nations. It is not so however. The fact 



