82 THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH. 



either on our coasts or in our streams, will be a real 

 benefit for all classes of population. Eiver fishing is 

 generally little productive in France ; but it is only- 

 necessary to cast one's eyes upon the doings of our 

 neighbors of other countries, to comprehend what 

 might be its value, if means be found to stock with 

 good fish our rivers and ponds, as amply as nature 

 has stocked those of Scotland and Ireland, and as 

 agriculturists stock their fields with herbivorous ani- 

 mals, equally destined to serve our subsistence. 



Kiver-fishing has long been the object of enact- 

 ments favoring the reproduction of fish, and pro- 

 tecting the development of the fry. The royal ordi- 

 nance of 1669, forms the basis of our legislation on 

 the subject, and contains many clauses of incontest- 

 able utility. 



Proprietors of ponds bestow ordinarily some care 

 upon stocking them, but all that relates to reproduction 

 of fish in our rivers is left to mere chance, and while 

 bitterly lamenting the constant and rapid decrease of 

 their products, we have not, till now, given sufficient 

 consideration to the remedies for the evil. 



Public attention was at last awakened to this 

 question, by a lecture delivered two years since, at 

 the Academy of Sciences, by one of our most distin- 

 guished zoologists, M. de Quatrefages, formerly one 

 of the Faculty of Science of Toulouse. This learned 

 and elegant writer, gave our agriculturists useful 

 counsel on the art of bringing-up fish, and strongly 

 urged upon them the putting in practice a process of 



