CHAPTEE IV. 



FISH CULTURE. 



Antiquity of Pisoitfulture— Italian Fish-Culture — Sergius Grata— Be-dis- 

 covery of the Art — Shaw versus Gehin and Eemy — JacoM — Shaw of 

 Drumlanrig — The Ettrick Shepherd^Scientifio and Commercial Pisci- 

 culture—A Trip to Httuingue — ^Bale and its Pishmarket — Huningue 

 described — The Water Supply — Modus Operandi at Huningue — Pack- 

 ing Fish-Eggs—- An important Question — Artificial Spawning — Danube 

 Salmon — Plan of a Suite of Ponds — M. de Galbert's EstabUshment 

 — Practical Nature of Pisciculture — Turtle-Culture — Best Kinds of 

 Fish to rear — Pisciculture in Germany — Stonnontfield Salmon-Breed- 

 ing Ponds — Design for a Suite of Sahnon-Ponds — Statistics of Stor- 

 montfield — ^Acclimatisation of Fish — The Australian Experiment. 



The art of fish-culture is almost as old as civilisation it- 

 self. We read of its having been practised in the empire of 

 China for many centuries, and we also know that it was much 

 thought of in the palmy days of ancient Italy, when ex- 

 pensively-fed fish of all kinds were a necessity of the wonderful 

 banquets given by wealthy Eomans and Neapolitans. There is 

 stiU in China a large trade in fish-eggs, and boats may be seen 

 containing men who gather the spawn in various rivers, and 

 then carry it into the interior of the country for sale, where the 

 young fish are reared in great flocks or shoals in the rice-fields. 

 One Chinese mode of collecting fish-spawn is to map out a river 

 into compartments by means of mats and hurdles, leaving only 

 a passage for the boats. The mats and hurdles intercept the 

 spawn, which is skimmed off the water, preserved for sale in 

 large jars, and is bought by persons who have ponds or other 

 pieces of water which they may wish to stock with gold or'other 

 fish. Another plan is to hatch fish-eggs in paddy fields, and in 

 these places the spawn speedily comes to life, and the flocks of 

 little fishes are herded from one field to another as the food 

 becomes exhausted. The trade in ova is so well managed, even 



