90 KEPORT — 1864.. 



witli the learned and energetic Prof. Coste and other French Government officers, 

 — Dr. Graumiout, M. Gerbe, M. Tayeau, M. Bourie, and Dr. Kemmerer, — he had 

 submitted tive principal causes of the failure of the young oysters in England and 

 France. To these all had agreed ; still there must be other causes as yet to be dis- 

 covered ; and he trusted this important national subject would be earnestly taken 

 up by the numerous talented and highly scientific members of the British Associa- 

 tion who were then present. 



On Sahnon-liatcMng and Salmon-ladders. By Feaitk Buckland. 

 The author said — Whereas the oyster is stationary, and is treated in its cidtiva- 

 tion more like a mineral than an animal, the salmon is literally a vagabond, always 

 on the move, and never remains long together in the same place. Upon this fact 

 depend its preservation and multiphcation, in spite of the many difficulties it has 

 to contend with, — the gi-eatest enemy being man. The conditions of a good salmon 

 fishery are three : — 1, the sea ; 2, a river; 3, mountainous or hilly country. From 

 careful observation of geological causes, especially of the watersheds of rivers, the 

 elevations of land, it might be determined whether a river was or was not siutable 

 for salmon. Such was the mar-sellous instinct which compelled the salmon to run 

 up from the sea to the elevated gi-ound fit for spawning, that the salmon caught at 

 the mouth of the Rhine, and which are sold in the London market, run up that 

 river no less than 630 miles to their spawning-ground, and, of course, 630 miles 

 back again. Thus we may fairty conclude that a fish weighing twenty pounds has 

 travelled in its journeys up and down the river no less than 6000 miles. The sal- 

 mon hatched in the upper waters of the Rhine are caught at Rotterdam, where 

 there are five fishing-stations : the annual produce of these fisheries is said to be 

 200,000 fish, which, calculated at Is. 6(/. per poimd, woidd amoimt to an immense 

 sum of money. These salmon are, howe'N'er, stopped in their upward progi-ess by 

 the falls of Schatt'hausen, and it was a gi-eat pity that some arrangement was not 

 made to allow them to get up. The fish had Aery rapid currents to contend with, 

 and at the mouth of the Rhine they were caught vnih. gigantic nets that were 

 payed out by a steamboat, and haided ashore by horse-power. He then gave rea- 

 sons why artificial hatching of salmon should be encouraged. First, because it 

 might be said that the salmon did not know their oyni business, and were very bad 

 um'ses ; for it has been calculated on excellent data, that out of one thousand yoimg 

 ones only one ever became human food. Salmon made their nests in the gravel 

 one over the other, heaping up immense mounds, so that the bottom eggs woidd of 

 necessity be crushed, and only those near the top ever hatch out. Secondly, there 

 Avere so many enemies of the salmon, both when in the form of an q^'^ and in the 

 foi-m of a yomig fish, that they reqidred presen-ation and careful watching, like 

 young pheasants. Severa-1 of these enemies were enumerated, and a good Avord 

 said for the water-ouzel, who eats, not the salmon-eggs, but the insects that come 

 to feed on the eggs. Artificial breeding had restored salmon to the Thames, for 

 his esteemed and persevering friend Stephen Ponder, Esq., of Hampton near 

 Hampton Court, had for the last three years, in his piivate greenhouse, been hatch- 

 ing out many thousands of salmon and trout, and turned tliem into the Thames. 

 The consequence is that in the shallow waters aboAe Hampton Court, great num- 

 bers of young salmon and trout, from 1 to 5 inches long, could be seen any fine 

 sunny morning. AU this was done on behalf of the Thames Angling Preseryation 

 Society, to whom the City of London had intrusted the twenty -two miles of this 

 noble HA'er, for the benefit of all anglers with rod and line ; no netting, except for 

 bait, being allowed. It was still a question what woidd become of these salmon ; 

 but in 1866 the main drainage Avoidd be finished, and then they wovdd have a chance 

 of retm-ning fi-om the sea. It had been stated that the French piscicultural esta- 

 blishment at Himingue, over which his friend M. Coumes, the eminent French 

 Government Engineer, presided, was retrogi-ading ; but he could state that this year 

 more than one million sahnon-eggs had been collected, and a large proportion distri- 

 buted gi-atiutously all over France, and also to many parts of England. The laws for 

 the protection of fish in France were deficient ; but M. Coste had informed him that 

 a new laAv woidd be proposed next season enabling him to shut up the fishery, 

 and preserve the fish of any river in France for three years. The salmon-laws in 



