360 Fisumsc 1s AMERICAN WATERS. 
M. Coste then advised that the numerous ponds of Ver- 
sailles be employed as “stables” wherein to propagate fishes 
for the waters of France, believing that in those spacious ba- 
sins fishes which inhabit alternately the fresh and salt waters, 
such as the salmon, shad, lamprey, and plaice, might be culti- 
vated. The advice was followed with unsuccessful result. 
In the mean time, two engineers of bridges, WAL Detzem and 
Bertol, made large protits by peopling the Canal du Rhdne. 
They had been invited by the préfet of Doubs to verity the 
method in use in the Vosges, when, with assistants, they 
hatched in four months 3,382,000 eges of salmon, trout, perch, 
pike, ete. On May 7th, 1851, they placed in basins confided 
to their care 1,583,111 fishes recently hatched. 
The facility for hatching fishes by millions induced them to 
calculate how many fishes might live in the fresh waters of 
France. Estimating the actual population to be twenty-five 
millions of fishes, they concluded that by four years’ artificial 
hatching the number would be increased to three billions, 
one hundred and seventy millions, and yield a revenue of . 
more than nine hundred millions frances. 
It was evident that they had consulted but one side of the 
question, and that the least difficult. Myriads of fishes may 
easily be hatched, but the questions of greater import are, 
how are they to be protected, subsisted, and made to grow? 
These are the questions which most seriously address them- 
selves to the student of modern fish-culture. Thg brains of 
Bertol and Detzem were made dizzy by the presence of a cal- 
culation which proved millions of revenue easily obtained, 
and they exclaimed, “Is it possible to endow France with 
such a revenue?” On the examination of results so unexpect- 
ed, no member of the Fisheries’ Commission evinced a senti- 
ment of distrust, stating that they were aware the calculation 
produces the same impression on all those who examine the 
subject. 
Bertol and Detzem, encouraged by the Minister of Agricul- 
ture and Commerce, followed their work with great zeal, and, 
