REPORT ON ARTIFICIAL FISH CULTURE. 51 



shown that this transportation can be easily ef- 

 fected, even to considerable ' distances. 



For this purpose it is sufficient to place the 

 young eels in grass kept wet. The experiments 

 which M. Costa is now pursuing at Paris in the 

 laboratory of the College of France, proves that 

 young eels can be fed at small expense, so that 

 they will grow rapidly, and it seems to me that 

 in many marshy places, raising eels would be pro- 

 fitable. 



If I had to treat here of marine fishing, I 

 would ask of you, sir, permission to call your 

 attention to several matters touching the treat- 

 ment of our oyster beds, and the means of 

 favoring the multiplication of these mollusks. A 

 manufacturer of charente. M. Carbonnel, has con- 

 versed with the Academy of Sciences several 

 times laterly, and thinks it would be easy to 

 establish on our coast at different points such 

 artificial oyster beds. M. de Quatrefages has 

 also requested the naturalists on coasts to try 

 the artificial fecundation of oysters, and I am 

 persuaded that in studying experimentally all 

 that relates to the generation of these mollusks, 

 we shall arrive at results extremely interesting for 

 industry as well as science. But in the actual 

 state of our knowledge relative to the physiolo- 

 gy of these animals, we cannot pronounce on the 



