Sept. 14, 1882] 



NA TURE 



475 



in the United States. A table of the numbers of these 

 fish which have been brought to market, being the yield 

 from the Potomac River only, shows that the catch in 

 fifteen years, namely, from 1866 to 18S0, amounted to 

 10,62 I, 444 individual fishes. The averages captured in 

 periods of five years were as follows : — 



First five years (1S66-70) 

 Second ,, (1871-75) 

 Third ,, (187680) 



870,109 .--ingle shad. 



874,114 



380,065 „ 



These figures are instructive. The shad fishery, as 

 demonstrated by the number of fish marketed at Alex- 

 andria and Washington, seems to have culminated in 

 1873, when the numbers offered for sale were 1,142,629 

 individual fi=h. After that year the supply begins to fall 

 off, till in 1S7S the figures are reduced to 166,923 single 

 shad. The fluctuations of various years can be accounted 

 for in different ways to some extent, but as the Commis- 

 sioner says: "We must recognise in these statements 

 the inevitable result of successive years of over fishing ; 

 of disturbing the fish on their spawning beds ; and of 

 preventing them from reaching such beds." The ease 

 with which all kinds of fish can be treated pisciculturally 

 has been a really important discovery for the American 

 people, because there has begun all over the United States 

 a sensible, and in some instances a very marked, decline 

 in the supply of nearly all kinds of fish, even the salmon 

 — in that great depository of these fine fish, the Columbia 

 River — are diminishing in numbers, consequent upon the 

 incessant capture. It is gratifying therefore to learn from 

 the present report that there need be no bounds put to 

 the increase of our food fishes, and to be told that fishes 

 inhabiting the salt water exclusively can be as readily 

 propagated artificially, and increased to as unlimited an 

 extent as the " anadromous fishes," with whose spawn- 

 ing habits we are more thoroughly acquainted. We 

 have at home been accustomed to look with feelings of 

 wonder on the hatching of a hundred thousand salmon 

 eggs as if that were a sort of miracle, but the record of 

 the shad hatching operations given by Major T. B. Fer- 

 guson sinks into insignificance anything that has yet been 

 accomplished in the way of "pisciculture" in Great 

 Britain. In a period of some fifty days, upwards of 

 twenty million eggs of the shad were obtained, and over 

 eighteen millions of these eggs came to life as fish ! 

 These young fish were all safely deposited in waters where 

 they had a good chance of growing to maturity and ulti- 

 mately contributing to the national commissariat. It 

 would seem to be a leading idea of those who have the 

 largest say in the regulation of the American fisheries 

 that it is better to multiply the fish by means of what is 

 known as pisciculture than to restrict in any way the 

 operations of the fishermen during the legitimate fishing 

 seasons ; so long as the work of the pisciculturists can 

 keep pace with the work of the fishermen there can be 

 no objection to the occasional 'glutting of the markets 

 with such wholesome food. 



We learn from a portion of Mr. Ferguson's report that 

 there are on the Atlantic Coast of the United States nine 

 fishes belonging to the herring tribe. Although no special 

 hatching station has yet been established for the propa- 

 gation of the Clupedia, it has been ascertained that like 

 other fish they can be operated upon "pisciculturally," 



and many hundred thousand eggs of these fish have been 

 hatched by way of experiment, the newly developed fry 

 being at once restored to the water. Some varieties of 

 this fish are of great commercial importance, and will 

 doubtless at once attract attention, as being capable of 

 being bred in millions on the artificial system. Indeed 

 the Menhaden has been already so operated upon with 

 great success. 



Some interesting details are given by Major Ferguson 

 of the piscicultural work doae in connection with the carp 

 and landlocked salmon. Great interest has been taken 

 in carp culture throughout the United States. The 

 original stock of carp from which all supplies have been 

 obtained, were imported by Prof. Baird, of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, some years since from the best ponds 

 of Europe — chiefly from Germany ; the " leather " or 

 scaleless variety is held in most esteem. It appears that 

 the carp has been acclimatised in America with great 

 success, increasing in bulk year by year with almost 

 phenomenal rapidity, the ratio of growth being truly 

 remarkable. This is accounted for by the great abun- 

 dance of thsir natural food which these fishes find in 

 American waters, and by that comparative mildness of 

 the weather, which affords them a much longer feeding 

 season than they have in their native country. During 

 their spawning season, great pains are taken to procure the 

 eggs of these fish ; they are, however, allowed to spawn 

 naturally, but the twigs and blades of grass on which the 

 ova found a resting place were at once removed to ponds 

 which had been prepared for their reception, where the 

 eggs speedily came to life. The carp have been exten- 

 sively distributed over the States of America in small 

 numbers — from ten to twenty pairs only being given to 

 applicants, but the fish has multiplied exceedingly, so that 

 in the course of another year or two the carp will be quite 

 a common fish throughout the United States. " This 

 fish," says the report, " is so admirably adapted for 

 domestic purposes, that every one in the State who has 

 even a small pond, such as is usually devoted to the col- 

 lection of ice, should prepare it for rearing the carp, which, 

 being largely a vegetable feeder, can be raised at very 

 little expense, and can be utilised for the consumption of 

 the waste of the kitchen garden." It is interesting to 

 know that a war of extermination had to be entered upon 

 to get rid of the kingfishers : these feathered robbers 

 having played havoc among the young fish. The 

 "golden ide," from its conspicuously brilliant colour, 

 became the chief prey of the birds. 



Among the miscellaneous fishery work mentioned in 

 the present report is the hatching of 200,000 eggs of the 

 Californian salmon in floating boxes in the north branch 

 of the Potomac, near its source. The fry were protected 

 till the umbilical sac was absorbed, when they were 

 liberated to shift for themselves ; it will be interesting to 

 know how these fish progress. So far as it could be 

 carried, the experiment was greatly lauded by experts in 

 fish culture. The reporter is in favour of movable hatch- 

 ing boxes, being convinced that " by means of such 

 apparatus our streams can be much better stocked with 

 Salmonidae, than by the systems hitherto pursued of 

 developing the eggs in hatching houses and transferring 

 the young fish thence." 



The remainder of the report is devoted to a long 



