Frenen Fisuerres’ Commissioners. 359 
stocked them with frogs also, because the spawn of these 
time-beaters is an aliment which the young trout search with 
avidity; and the tadpole furnishes an excellent pasture for 
trout more advanced in age. 
For fifteen years Géhin had been working under the full 
knowledge of what now engaged the sages of political econ- 
omy. The subject enlarged, as they thought of stocking the 
waters of France with all the choice fishes of the world; and, 
conformably with the view explained by M. Milne Edwards, 
& commission was named by the Minister of Agriculture and 
Commerce, dated September 28, 1850. The commission in- 
cluded MM. Milne Edwards, Valenciennes, members of the In- 
stitute; Susanne, Inspector of Forests; de Bon, Commission- 
er of Marine; de Franqueville, Chief of Navigation and of 
the Ports, and Minister of Public Works; Monny de Mornay, 
Chief of the Division of Agriculture, of the Department ot 
Agriculture and Commerce; Coste, Professor of Embryogo- 
ny at the College of France; Doyere, Professor. of Zoology 
at the National Agronomique Institute. 
The decree was signed by Dumas, and in the spring of 1851, 
M. Valenciennes—the ichthyologist—received a mission from 
the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce to visit and pro- 
cure the large fishes of the rivers in Germany wherewith to 
stock the lakes and ponds of France. He succeeded in ob- 
taining several species, of which he conveyed to Paris the 
living individuals, including sandre, genus Luctoperea, Lin., 
the sure, one of the most voracious fishes in creation, the av- 
erage size of which is large enough to dine eighteen persons. 
The sélwres (silurus glanis), with the sandres and a dozen 
lotes (eel-pouts), were placed in the reservoirs at Marly. The 
selection of fishes speaks unfavorably for the taste of JZ Va- 
Zenciennes. The sandre grows large enough to dine eight per- 
sons, but is a dry fish; the eel-pouts are detestable, and dis: 
gusting to behold; the g/anis is similar to a Missouri River 
catfish! Of this selection wherewith to stock the fresh wa- 
ters of France, not one lived to leave any posterity. 
