THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH. 99 



render his country solid service, but he alone would 

 enjoy but a small interest in the benefit so diffused, 

 and ordinarily would want the stimulus to undertake 

 the labor. 



The stocking of rivers, then, should be considered 

 a work of public utility, and it seems to me that it 

 is the business of the state to look after it. 



Trials of this kind made on a great scale, and 

 prudently conducted, and confided to intelligent 

 men, would not involve heavy expenses to lead to 

 important results. If you judge proper to have 

 them executed, you will find in the two fishermen in 

 question, capable agents, and I would add that the 

 charge of such work would be the least recompense 

 the government could make them. 



For the rest, such an enterprise would necessitate 

 serious preliminary studies, and give rise to several 

 questions, for whose solution the opinion of the adipin- 

 istration of waters and forests would be necessary, as 

 well as the light of naturalists, and it would perhaps 

 be necessary to have a mixed commission. To sum up 

 —we perceive that the stocking of fresh waters with 

 artificial methods was long since thought of, but it 

 has only been tried in France lately ; that Messrs. 

 Gehin and Kemy appear to have been the first to 

 put the method in practice among us, and that for 

 their part they have arrived at results analogous to 

 those obtained at the same period, in England, by 

 Mr. Boccius ; that the labors of these two fishermen 

 are worthy of attention, and that in applying to the 



