NATURE 



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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY lo, 18S7 



THE HISTORY OF HOIVIETOUN 

 The History of Horvietoun. Part I. By Sir J. Ramsay 

 Gibson Maitland, Bart. (Stirling, N.B. : J. R. Guy, 

 Secretary Howietoun Fishery, 1S87.) 



PROBABLY every one at all interested in fish- 

 breeding has heard the name of Howietoun, and a 

 great many people, especially in Scotland, have some 

 knowledge of the character of the establishment and the 

 operations there carried on. Occasional paragraphs in 

 scientific periodicals, as well as in daily papers, an- 

 nounce some experiment in the artificial stocking of 

 home waters with some kinds of trout or with salmon 

 fry, or some successful exportation of salmonoid ova to 

 .•\merica or to the colonies at the Antipodes. The name 

 of Sir James Maitland or of Howietoun very often occurs 

 in such announcements. Those who have given attention 

 to the subject will find much to interest them in the account 

 of the development of his fish-farm, and in the descrip- 

 tion of its present condition, which Sir James Maitland 

 is now placing before the public. At present we have 

 only the first part of the work, in which the history is 

 brought down to the spring of 1879. A note on the fly- 

 leaf informs us that the remaining part will be issued 

 shortly. The present volume is of large quarto size, 

 printed in large type, and liberally illustrated with ex- 

 cellent woodcuts. 



The author states in the preface that the culture of 

 Salmonidse is now an achieved success, and he describes 

 the gradual progress of the efforts which have culmi- 

 nated in this result at Howietoun, with the hope that his 

 experience may prove of use to those who are working 

 on the still larger question of our sea-fisheries. The 

 first seven chapters contain a general description of the 

 regular operations which are now carried on after thirteen 

 years of practice and experimental ingenuity at the Howie- 

 toun farm. Sir James Maitland asserts emphatically 

 that Great Britain is pre-eminent among all nations in 

 matters pertaining to fisheries. He does not argue at any 

 length in support of this patriotic claim, which he seems to 

 found chiefly on the perfection of the Howietoun esta- 

 blishment, and the success of the system of Govern- 

 ment supervision under which the Scottish herring trade is 

 carried on. His eulogy of these two institutions is quite 

 justified by facts, and there can be little doubt that the 

 value of the fisheries of Great Britain, in proportion to 

 the total population and total wealth, is greater than in 

 many other countries. But there are other matters pertain- 

 ing to fisheries in which the pre-eminence of Great Britain 

 may well be disputed, and has been disputed very fre- 

 quently of late years. The scientific study of the sea-fish- 

 eries, and the application of the results of such study, have 

 undoubtedly been carried out to an enormously greater ex- 

 tent in other countries than with us. The reproduction of 

 the cod was first investigated in Norway ; oyster-culture 

 as understood in Holland and in France is still unknown 

 in Britain ; and the organised scientific investigation of 

 fishery matters, which has been commenced by the Scot- 

 tish Fishery Board and is about to be instituted by the 

 Marine Biological Association in England, has been, as 

 Vol.. XXXV.— No. 902 



it were, forced upon us by the example of the United 

 States. Perhaps no American salmon-hatchery is quite 

 as efficient as the Howietoun farm, but the extent of 

 piscicultural operations applied to Salmonidje in the 

 United States is certainly greater on the whole than in 

 Britain. This is not the occasion, however, for a com- 

 plete comparison of Great Britain with other countries 

 with regard to pisciculture. The history of Howietoun 

 shows how greatly Sir James Maitland, by his individual 

 energy and enterprise, has advanced the art of breeding 

 Salmonidae, and we have to notice shortly some of the 

 most interesting parts of his book. 



Before considering particular points, we may remark 

 that the " History of Howietoun" is a book that can not 

 only be referred to with profit, but read with pleasure. 

 The author's genial individuality has an interest of its 

 own, and his pages are full of suggestions of healthy, 

 cheerful, energetic out-door life which make them pic- 

 turesque and refreshing. The use of the plural " ova " 

 as a singular seems to be common among pisciculturists, 

 and it is a pity that this small blemish was not remedied 

 in the proofs. 



The greater number of the ova hatched at Howietoun 

 are from Loch Leven trout kept in ponds at the farm. Ova 

 are collected from wild Salmo salar taken from differen 

 Scottish rivers, and small numbers of ova of .S". fario and 

 S. fontinalis are dealt with, but the greatest amount of 

 space and attention seems to be devoted to S. Icvencnsis. 

 In the account of the " egg harvest " some interesting dis- 

 coveries are mentioned which show a constant relation 

 between feeding and breeding. If the fish are highly fed 

 at an early date in the year, they begin to spawn earlier ; 

 the food used for this purpose is Pecten, and if this is 

 given early in February, maturity is reached early in 

 November. To obtain the ei^gs for the hatchery the 

 females are stripped over large earthenware milk-plates, 

 into which the ova fall. About 10,000 ova are stripped 

 into one pan, and these can usually be impregnated by 

 the milt of one male. After the milt has been added, 

 only a tumblerful of water is poured into the pan ; the 

 eggs are then left to impregnate for 30 to 45 minutes. 

 The ova, when first shed, are soft to the touch and in- 

 clined to adhere together ; after impregnation they feel 

 hard, and separate easily. The next process is to pour 

 the ova into large pails full of water, which are held im- 

 mersed in one of the inlets to the ponds, so that the milt 

 is washed away ; the ova are then carried in the pails to 

 the hatching-house. 



Collecting ova from fish in the wild state is a much 

 more laborious process than from the fish in the ponds, 

 and Sir James advocates strongly the advisability of 

 Fishery Boards building proper ponds in which to retain 

 the gravid fish until ripe. At Howietoun 20,000,000 trout 

 (presumably levencnsis) ova can be produced at a cost 

 of little over 1000/. a year. 



The account of work in the hatching-house would 

 naturally follow that of the egg-harvest, but the chapter 

 on packing has been inserted between them. The work 

 in the hatchery is described in detail. The eggs are 

 poured with a glass measure over the centres of the glass 

 tubes forming the grilles, and afterwards dressed into 

 regular rows by " feathering," an operation performed by 

 girls, as the eggs at this stage are easily killed by too 



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