12 Tliirli/-s!.r(h. Annual Meeting 



opinion tliat tlic disappearance or decrease of fish in (he rivers of 

 l-'i-iuue was (hie mainly to the pollution of the waters hy indus- 

 trial refuse, hut that there was hope of a remedy. 



The ilinistcr of Agriculture summed the matter uy) in these 

 words. "As concerns existing manufactures, the interministerial 

 commission of fish and the commission of scientific studies ap- 

 pointed in connection with the hydraulic service is engaged in 

 researches as to the best means of regulation and of purifying 

 residuary waters turned into the water-courses. Thanks to the 

 work of eminent savants, we shall soon reach this point of find- 

 ing out easy processes of purifying sewerage and industrial 

 waters, and the day when scientific methods will permit us, we 

 shall do away with that constant source of contaminatio]i. Lt is 

 a matter of national concern to put a stop to the turning of in- 

 dustrial waters into our rivers, not only on account of the dis- 

 appearance of fish, but lieyond that and above all, on account of 

 the public health." 



The appropriation of 20,000 francs was voted by the cham- 

 ber, but with the condition that it should be divided among the 

 three establishments : at Nancy, at Thonon and at Toulouse. 



Altho the river fisheries of France are at a low ebb in com- 

 parison with their former condition of productiveness, they are 

 by no means exhausted. Even of salmon, those rivers discharg- 

 ing into the North Sea and the Atlantic, which drain nearly 

 nine-tenths of the area of the country, and which alone were na- 

 turally frequented by salmon, are still annually producing, we 

 are told, salmon valued at about a quarter of a million of dollars, 

 — a large sum, but, it is claimed by some writers, little more than 

 a twentieth part of what those rivers are capable of yielding. 



Besides the three fishcultural establishments named above, 

 there are 68 others belonging to municipalities and 58 to private 

 parties. Among the former may be counted the aquarium of the 

 Trocadero in Paris, which has done as a side-issue a good deal 

 of fishcultural work, with the following species: California 

 salmon, carp, tench, guene, roach, bream, eels, pike, gudgeon, 

 bitterling, stickleback; some of these being of course propagated 

 (•nly for omamental purposes, but a great many fish were placed 

 in open waters for eventual food purposes. ^ An idea of the 

 species cultivated by other parties may be obtained from the 



