TInrorting Satmon Ova. 363 
the Conseils Généraux voted the sums to successfully operate 
the enterprises. 
Thus the great work continued to proceed with unvary- 
ing success until 1862, when the Minister of Agriculture and 
Commerce published a history of the perfect success of Hu- 
ningue, which includes seventy acres laid out into artificial 
creeks, ponds, and hatching-houses. The statistics in this his 
tory were furnished by JL Courses, Ingenicur en chef des tra- 
vaue du Rhin, to whom application should be made for vivi- 
fied roe wherewith to stock waters in the United States. By 
my advice, Seth Green made such order in the autumn of 
1865, and in the spring of 1866 the eggs came to the New 
York Custom-house, where official and other delays detained 
them until they died. The French government had gener- 
ously presented Mr. Green 20,000 feeundated salmon ova, so 
nearly hatched as to show the eyes of the aevins, carefully 
packed them in moss, and shipped them gratuitously! And 
then to know that owr government was so callous to the ma- 
terial interests of the people as not only to have neglected to 
make any effort toward reducing the prices of food-tishes, but 
to have actually rendered the revenue officers a barrier 
against the efforts by men of enterprise who would embark 
their own money in it, is humiliating! 
Thumbly ask, Is it not the duty of Congress to authorize 
the Minister of the Interior to appoint a commission for the 
improvement of the fisheries in the United States?  Individ- 
ual states can not, unaided by the federal government, im- 
port either ova or young fishes of choice quality from abroad. 
Without the seal of a United States commissioner, the col- 
lectors of revenue have no discretion but to destroy the im- 
portation by delay, exposure to heat or cold, or to the air. 
Any authority given to United States consuls on the other 
hemisphere would prove ineffectual, for there are no consuls 
near the great piscicuitural establishments ; and, in fact, since 
the fiasco of the Acclimatization Society in the preserves of 
Mr. Francis Francis at Twickenham, there is no establishment 
