126 THE NEW ART OF BREEDING FISH. 



also be greater. In well-preserved rivers, such as 

 the Shin in Sutherlandshire, or the Erne in Ire- 

 land, in which the fishings cease in the third week 

 of August, artificial breeding may not be requisite, 

 but in rivers badly cared for, or over-fished, I think 

 it may be profitably brought into requisition. My 

 excellent friend and old correspondent, " Y." writes, 

 " Although we allow that artificial breeding may be 

 a good supplementary fund to natural breeding, the 

 amount of that benefit is yet wholly to be seen. It 

 is all on paper, and not yet in reality. Artificial 

 breeding is valuable for the stocking of barren rivers, 

 and the discovery for that purpose is of the utmost 

 importance. But the attempts now in progress to 

 increase the numbers in almost fishless rivers that 

 negligence and bad laws have produced, are only yet 

 in embryo, and not too much dependence is to be 

 placed on them — at all events, not that dependence 

 that should induce us to underrate that beautiful 

 production of fishes which nature has so distinctly 

 granted them. We are aware that long previous to 

 the time that Mr. Jacobi wrote an account of his 

 artificial propagation of fishes in the Hanover Maga- 

 zine, that salmon, in Britain and Ireland, flourished 

 and increased to an incalculable degree, under just 

 and natural laws, and by natural breeding, and I 

 have no hesitation in saying that they would do so 

 still. The proprietors on Tay for the last two years 

 acted wisely towards that river, for they trampled 

 the present base act under foot, and closed the fish- 



