62 CHINESE FISH CULTURE. 



in the present day, that fish are plentiful and cheap — so cheap 

 as to fonn a large portion of the food of the people j and nothing 

 so much surprises the Chinese who come here as the high price 

 paid for the fish of this country. A Chinese fisherman was 

 much astonished, some years ago, at the price he was charged 

 for a fish-breakfast at Toulon. This person had arrived in 

 France with four or five thousand young fish of the best kinds 

 produced in his country, for the purpose of their being placed in 

 the great marine aquarium in the Bois de Boulogne. Being 

 annoyed at the comparative scarcity of fish in France, the young 

 Chinaman wrote a brief memoir, showing that, with the com- 

 mand of a small pond, any quantity of fish might be raised at a 

 trifling expense. All that is necessary, he stated in the memoir 

 alluded to, is to watch the period of spawning, and throw yolks 

 of eggs into the water from time to time, by which means an 

 incredible quantity of young fry are saved from destruction. 

 For, according to the information conveyed by this very intelli- 

 gent yonth,thousands of infantile fish annually die from starvation 

 — ^they are unable to seek their own food at so tender an age. 

 Many of the stories we hear about the Chinese mode of breeding 

 fish are evidently exaggerated ; but one particularly ingenious 

 method of artificial hatching which has been resorted to by the 

 people of China is worth noting as a piscicultural novelty. These 

 ingenious Celestials carry on a business in selling and hatching 

 fish-spawn, collecting the impregnated eggs from various rivers 

 and lakes, in order to seU to the proprietors of canals and private 

 ponds. When the proper season for hatching arrives, they 

 empty a hen's egg, by means of a small aperture, sucking out 

 the natural contents, and then, after substituting fish-spawn, 

 close up the opening. The egg thus manipulated is placed 

 for a few days "under a hen ! By and by the shell is broken, 

 and the contents are placed in a vessel of water, warmed by the 

 heat of the sun only ; the eggs speedily burst, and in a short 

 time the young fish are able to be transported to a lake or river 

 of ordinary temperature, where they are of course left to grow 

 to maturity without being further noticed than to have a little 

 food thrown to them. 



The luxurious Komans achieved great wonders in the art of 

 fish-breeding, and were able to perform curious experiments with 

 the piscine inhabitants of their aquariums ; they were also well 

 versed in the arts of acclimatisation. A classic friend, who is 

 well versed in ancient fish lore, tells me that the great Boman 



