April 7, 1881] 



NA TURE 



533 



hence, puzzle some antiquarians, who may naturally 

 assume that these races, speaking the same language, 

 mean the same thing by the same word. They all are 

 due to the jealousy usually felt by the introduction of new 

 machinery m any industry. The set-line fishermen, who 

 complain of the beam trawls in this country, form the 

 very class which the hand-line fishermen complain of in 

 America under the name of trawlers ; and the Govern- 

 ments of both countries may safely disregard both 

 complaints, since one of them is the most effective answer 

 to the other. 



We have reserved for the close of this article all refer- 

 ence to what the Commissioners would consider the most 

 important portion of their Report. The Americans are the 

 greatest fish-breeders in the world, and fish-breeding is 

 conducted in the United States at a co5t and to an e.vtent 

 of which in this country we can have little idea. According 

 to the Report, the Commissioners distributed in 1878 no less 

 than 15,700,000 shad and 4,460,000 Californian salmon, 

 besides other fish. Such prodigious efforts will excite 

 surprise among persons who are acquainted with the diffi- 

 culties of obtaining even a few thousand ripe salmon eggs, 

 and we naturally turn for information as to the results 

 which have ensued from such unprecedented efforts. Here 

 however we find, as it seems to us, the least satisfactory 

 portion of the Report. The Commissioners claim indeed 

 that no less than 500 salmon were taken in the mouth of the 

 Connecticut River in 1878, a river which they imply had 

 had few or no salmon in it for many years. It is possible 

 therefore that the Commissioners' efforts may have been 

 successful in restocking that river with salmon ; though we 

 own that we should feel more certain of this if the fish 

 had been taken in the river itself, and not in the mouth 

 of it. But when they go on to infer that they may increase 

 the yield of shad, and even of herring and of cod, we 

 read with admiration of their energy, but without being 

 convinced by their reasoning. In this country, at any 

 rate, the best observers are satisfied that cod, herring, and 

 other fish are annually bred in numbers compared with 

 which the fifteen millions of fry of the United States 

 Commission would represent an insignificant fraction, 

 and that the destruction which is going on among them 

 by natural causes is so vast that even the capture of white 

 bait by the ton-load makes no appreciable addition to it. 

 The arguments which Malthus, at the commencement of 

 the century, used to illustrate the principles of population 

 are thought in this country to be strictly applicable to fish. 

 Sea-fish, like all other animal;, are undoubtedly increasing 

 in greater proportion than their food ; and it is obvious 

 therefore that unless man can increase their food it is 

 only lost labour to increase their number. 



We have thus reviewed, at some length, a few of the 

 leading facts in this long and interesting Report. With 

 many of the conclusions in it we are unable to agree ; but 

 we cannot part from it without expressing a feeling of 

 ahnost envy at the elaborate pains which the Government 

 of the United States is taking to understand the best 

 methods of developing the great industries of their seas. 

 In this country we do not even take steps to obtain the 

 best statistical information on the subject. Might we 

 not in such a matter with advantage follow the example 

 of our Transatlantic kinsmen .'' 



THE PARIS OBSERVATORV^ 

 A BOUT two years ago Rear-Admiral Mouchez, director 

 ■^ »■ of the Paris Observatory, resolved to bring together 

 for exhibition the instruments scattered in various parts, 

 and by joining to that collection the portraits of great 

 astronomers and methodically grouping all the documents 

 relating to the history of astronomy which could be pro- 

 cured by bequest or otherwise, to lay the basis of a 



■ From an article by M. Gaston Tissandier in La Nature, and M. 

 Mouchez's oi&cial Report of iSSo. 



special museum of very great interest. This proposal, 

 having received the approval of the Minister of Public 

 Instruction, is now being realised. One of the large 

 rooms on the first floor of the Observatory has already 

 been fitted up and occupied, and through the kindness of 

 Admiral Mouchez, who himself did us the honour of 

 giving full details of his new collection, wc are able to 

 publish the description. 



The first hall of the Astronomical Museum is very 

 artistically decorated. It is circular in form, and well 

 lighted by several windows. The ceiling will probably 

 be adorned by a painting representing the transit of 

 Venus over the Sun. There are nine paintings in the 

 room, representing Louis XIV., founder of the Observa- 

 tory, and directors and eminent astronomers who have 



Flc. 1. — Plan of the Observatory, with the proposed < 



side to the B'julevard Arago Present stale: a, the Observatory ; b, 

 the '"siddrostat," c, the meridian circle; D, the great telescope; E, 

 e^uatorials ; m, ditch to be filled up ; l l , ditches Ground to be 

 annexed; F. the Bischoffshcim equatorial; G, the great refractor of 

 o'74m. aperture; H, Forlln's circle ; K, the astronomers' dwelling-house. 



succeeded each other to the present day : Cassini, Lalande, 

 Delambre, Laplace, Bouvard, Arago, Delaunay, and Le- 

 verrier ; the latter painted after death by Giacomotti, is 

 the gift of M. Bischoffsheim. In the embrasures of the 

 windows are displayed astronomical paintings representing 

 groups of nebulae, Saturn's rings, lunar volcanoes, clusters 

 of stars, the remarkable drawings of Jupiter and Mars 

 executed by MM. Henry, &c. 



On the oak mantelpiece stands a magnificent Louis- 

 Quatorze clock made by Coypel and recently restored by 

 M. Passerat, a specimen of art so unique that virtuosos 

 would certainly attach a great value to it. Round the 

 room are observed several globes mounted on marble 

 and oak pillars, two being especially worthy of attention : 

 the celestial sphere of Gerard Mercator (1551), and the 

 terrestrial sphere of the same geogi-apher (1541). On the 

 latter globe may be seen figured a certain number of the 

 great lakes of Central Africa already known and their 



