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prolific can now be stocked with thousands of the finny tribe, 

 evidence those rivers of the old country which had been 

 destroyed by a vicious system of fishing, now teeming 

 with countless thousands of Salmon, propagated by the 

 artificial system. 



That the ancients understood and practiced largely the 

 plan of artificial propagation, — that experiments were 

 tried by certain French and Geiman savans, and by our 

 own countrymen, to propagate, and even to cross the breed 

 of fishes, — and fishes and other aqueous animals, we can- 

 not doubt. The successful results of such experiments have 

 been recorded, — but they were, almost, we may say mere- 

 ly experiments, and were never applied to any public 

 good. The French fishermen had never heard of the process, 

 their own simply recorded tale shews them to have been 

 ignorant of the artificial mode of procuring fish. They 

 were nature's scholars, and happily carried into practice 

 the lesson she taught. 



They observed, as you may do, reader, that in the fall of 

 the year the fish congregated in shoals, and experience 

 told them it was for the purpose of spawning. 



Let us also watch with them, — observe the fish, how still 

 they lie ! this pebbly shore must be their favorite haunt. 

 Now they are in action ! See them grovelling in the sandy 

 bed. What can they be about ? They are making ridges in 

 the sand ; Oh ! they are about to spawn, now comes the fe- 

 male and exudes her ova in the ridge they have prepared. 

 Will they let them remain so ? Wait a little, and ob- 

 serve, here comes the male fish, he it is who must give 

 vitality to the spawn, see how he follows in the same 

 track. Were our powers of vision stronger we would 



