862 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



a few days after thev were hatched, before the entire disappearance of the yolk 

 sac and the beginning of feeding by external means. The Government of the 

 United States was the first to interest itself in this question of such important 

 general concern, by founding in 1878 at Gloucester, in the state of Massachusetts, 

 in the vicinity of the great city of Boston, the first pubHc establishment for 

 marine pisciculture. The establishment at Gloucester was soon followed by 

 one at Provincetown, one at Woods Hole, and one on the steamer Fish Hawk. 

 In 1883 Norway followed the example of the United States and created the ■ 

 establishment of pisciculture at Flodevig. In 1889 the Government of New- 

 foundland founded the establishment of Dildo and, lastly, in 1894, Great Britain 

 founded, thanks to the Fishery Board of Scotland, the establishment of Dunbar. 

 These various establishments gave each year to the sea several thousands of 

 cod, plaice, and even turbots, hatched in captivity; it must nevertheless be 

 said that it was never possible to obtain at Dunbar, the only establishment 

 where the replenishing of coastal waters with turbots was attempted, any 

 natural hatching of this fish, and that it was always necessary to have recourse 

 to artificial stripping and fertilization as practiced for the fresh-water fishes. 



It is not our aim to discuss, after so many others have done so, the question 

 of the real utility of marine pisciculture for the replenishment of the sea. Let 

 us merely remember from the experiments of our predecessors this very 

 important fact: It is due to their efi"orts that at the present time we have 

 been able to obtain natural spawning in captivity and the hatching of eggs of 

 the greater number of edible coastal fishes having pelagic eggs. 



For some twelve years French naturalists seem to have devoted themselves 

 to private or industrial artificial pisciculture. In other words, the work done 

 to-dav is an attempt at the entire process of breeding edible fishes from the 

 egg until they reach a commercial size, to create thus a real industry which 

 may in future become an actual source of riches. The first step in the new 

 direction was made by Mr. Edmond Perrier, Director of the Museum of Natural 

 History, Member of the Institute, and director of the maritime laboratory of 

 St. Vaast-la-Hougue, who has the great merit of having been the first to appre- 

 ciate the importance of the problem and to establish at his laboratory a com- 

 plete equipment for industrial marine pisciculture. 



It will be remembered that without any thought as to its industrial value 

 and for purely scientific purposes, Meyer had been breeding the herring since 

 1878; at Flodevig young cods were bred, at Plymouth young flounders, and at 

 Concarneau young bullheads; at Dunbar, Harald Dannevig had succeeded in 

 breeding young plaice. In addition to the fact that the industrial point of view 

 was entirely overlooked in these experiments, species of small or no commercial 

 value were experimented upon. 



