FOREST AND STREAM. 



the river to Little Falls. I went ashore after some cider, 

 and while I was gone Fred dropped a grey squirrel from a 

 tree on the river bank. After disposing of the cider we 

 went ashore and caught a red squirrel alive. We placed 

 Mm for want of a better place, in my gun cover, and the 

 voting rascal gnawed several holes through the waterproof 

 cloth. As we could not keep him, we let him go. We 

 carried our canoe and baggage to the top of tu© high river 

 bank, and then ate a hearty dinner. Dinner over, we em- 

 barked on the Morris canal with a pull of twenty miles be- 

 fore us, including a portage around Stonehouse Plain. We 

 passed through Paterson at half past two. Ii was dark 

 when we got over Stonehouse Plain. On the canal I shot 

 a kingfisher and a bat to stuff. It was nearly eight o'clock, 

 and pitch dark, when we reached Sunfish pond, the end of 

 our trip by canoe, though we had a three mile tramp before 

 USi We reached home before nine o'clock, rather tired. 

 The next day we agreed in saying we should like to try it 

 again. Magca. 



FISH CULTURE 



IN CHINA. 



THE following interesting account of the Chinese mode 

 of collecting fish fry upon the Yang Tsze Kiang, 

 although a contribution to the columns of our contempo- 

 rary, Land and Water, is from the pen of a valued friend 

 of oar own, Mr. H. Kopsch, for many years pa3t an officer 

 of the Imperial Maritime Customs service of China. In 

 addition to a long residence in the empire— our own ac- 

 quaintance with him dating back to Uie first opening of 

 the Yang Tsze in 1862 or thereabouts — Mr. Kopsch pos- 

 sesses that rare accomplishment, an intimate acquaintance 

 with the Chinese language — an advantage which enables 

 him to acquire information not merely superficial, but of a 

 positive and valuable character. In fact, it is a "consum- 

 mation devoutly to be wished" that our knowledge regard- 

 ing all branches of industry in a country so remote, so an- 

 cient, and so strictly conservative as China, could always 

 be obtained through sources equally authentic. The Abbe 

 Hue, to whom Mr. Kopsch refers, although accepted as 

 authority upon matters relating to that portion of the 

 "Middle Kingdom" but recently opened to foreigners, has 

 been found repeatedly to be in error, to put it mildly, in 

 points wherein accuracy of statement was most to be de- 

 gired:— 



"Fish culture having attracted much attention of late 

 years in Europe and America, a few notes on the manner 

 in which it is conducted in this part of China, the prov- 

 ince of Kiang-si, may be of interest. 



It is well known that the Chinese have long bestowed 

 more attention on pisciculture than other nations, and with 

 hem it is truly a branch of economy tending to the in- 

 jrease of the supply of food and the national wealth— not 

 nerely as it seems to have been among the Romans, an ap- 

 >liance of the luxury of the great. 



Fry fishing commences here (Kiu-Kiang, on the Yang 

 'sze,) about the middle of May, and lasts from ten to fif- 

 iendays. The preliminaries for this kind of fishing are 

 ot numerous. The net, which is of course gauze, dyed 

 rown, is fixed on to its proper frame, and the whole cast 

 longside the river bank f where there is a moderate cur- 

 snt, sufficient, however, to keep the net in position, and 

 ) sweep the fry into the trap. 



A single frame as it floats upon the water represents our 



Iter V, and measures about fifteen feet long and eight 



iet across the mouth. The net attached to it is submerged 



)Out a foot, thus serving to collect the fry as they are 



■ifted by the current into the trap at the end of the frame. 



he bottom of this V-shaped frame is not closed together, 



little space being left to allow the spawn to pass through 



e throat of the net leading into the trap, which floats 



irpendicularly, and to prevent its collapsing is tied to 



lints run through the four corners of its frame. 



As many as four and six of these V-shaped frames are 



tacked to a long bamboo moored close to the river bank 



rows one above the other, at distances of from fifteen to 



enty feet apart, where they are left all night and day. 



But let us look into one of these traps. The net tender, 



10 lives in a mat hut on the river bank hard by, or in 



2 sampan (small boat) used to visit the nets, readily grati- 



s our curiosity. 



Taking an ordinary sized rice bowl he dips it into one of 

 3se cages, which it should be noted appear to require 

 iptying every hour, and hands us abcut a quart of muddy 

 er water, perfectly alive with wriggling transparent-look- 

 \ fry measuring from an eighth to two-eighths of an inch 

 length, with heads and eyes greatly out of proportion to 

 ; size of their bodies. Even in the muddy water there 

 s no difficulty in discerning them, as one would 

 led to suppose from Abbe Hue's statement, 'that it is 

 possible to distinguish the smallest animaleulse with the 

 ced eye.' Experts are said to be able to detect the dif- 

 ent kinds of fry as soon as they are caught, but as they 

 . aid be too small to handle their knowledge would be of 

 le practical value; in a week or so they become large 

 •ugh to distinguish one from the other. After the fry- 

 collected from the small traps they are put into a float- 

 reservoir made of net, where they are kept until pur- 

 sed for conveyance inland. 



'hose sold for breeding in the neighborhood are carried 

 the shoulders of coolies in water-tight baskets to the 

 ids and lakes, of which there are a great number in this 

 'uit. Along the Yang Tsze fry is sold by the jar or 

 disaccording to the quantity of fish it contains, and 

 n five to six hundred cash (equal to 50 to 60 cents,) ap- 

 rs to be the average price per jar, according to the state- 

 it of the boatmen. 



tost of the fry is conveyed inland by boats, which come 



u the interior for the especial purpose of loading with 



freight. These peculiar looking craft generally hail 



n Kan chow-f u, a large town to the south of the prov- 



', on the Khan River; also from Kuei-hsi-hsien, in 



uighsin department, to the east of the province; and 



,,>e that load here generally rendezvous at Kuanpai chra, 



iall village about a mile west of Kiukiang, on the south 



.■■■■k of the river. Tea boats are likewise used to cany 



but not so extensively as those from Kan-chow. For- 



/) residents on the Yang Tsze are too well acquainted 



! *m the craft to need any description. 



The Kan-chow boats or Yu-Miao-Chuan (spawn boats) 

 are of much larger carrying capacity, and measure about 

 seventy-eight feet long, fifteen feet beam, eleven feet from 

 bottom to top of mat cover, and draw when loaded from 

 three to four feet. They are built in water-tight compart- 

 ments, and are propelled by sails, tracking, or yuloeing— 

 that is, by long sculls rigged out about eighteen inches or 

 two feet from either side of the boat, on outriggers for- 

 ward of the mainmast, and worked parallel to the side of 

 the boat by four or six men at each scull. About twenty 

 men comprise the boat's crew, who also attend to the fish 

 in turns, their wages averaging two thousand cash (equal to 

 $2) per month, with food. The boats are worth from 450 

 to 500 te&Js* each ($600 to $660.) Their cargoes brought to 

 this port consist chiefly of timber (hewn as if for railway 

 sleepers) wood for making coffins, planks, water chestnut, 

 water chestnut flour, grass cloth, and sundry sweet-smell- 

 I ing flowers; probably small speculations of the crew, such 

 ] as Keui hua {01 ea fragrans,) Mo-li-hua {Jasminum,) Lan hua 

 | (Epidendrum,) and Tag-lai-hsiang {Stephanotis,) etc., which 

 fetch a good price here. 



But as several of these boats are nearly laden it will be 

 curious to see how they stow their freight. 



From the bottom boards of the boat to the level of the 

 gunwale would find the hold filled with red earthenware 

 jars (made of flower-pot clay) each measuring eighteen 

 inches in diameter and twelve inches deep, arranged in 

 tiers one above the other five high, and as we counted 

 eleven jars on the lop row amidships of the two tiers put 

 into a compartment, between which room is left for a man 

 to pass, we may roughly estimate one hundred jars in each 

 compartment, or five hundred jars in the five sections into 

 which the hold is divided. A stout plank about five inches 

 broad is laid across the wide mouthed jars to support the 

 upper ones, and to spread the weight more evenly, but the 

 plank is not so wide as to interfere with the bailing out of 

 the vessels. The jars are fastened to the sides of the com- 

 partment by a little splint of bamboo, made fast to an eye 

 in the bulkhead, and which is made to catch under the in- 

 turned rim of the jar, on the same principle that a small- 

 mouthed vessel is lifted by a piece of wood being put cross- 

 wise into the opening. To strengthen the rim it is some- 

 times bound round with a bamboo hoop. On the upper 

 row of jars another plank is laid to receive the water-tight 

 baskets,' which, beinar much lighter than the jars, are placed 

 on the top, and piled up from the level of the gunwale to 

 thereof of the b#at. The baskets are securely lashed to 

 poles braced athwart the boat to prevent their sliding out 

 of position, as at such a height a slight knock would cap- 

 size them, although they are placed in a wicker-stand to 

 steady them and ease the strain on the sides of the baskets. 

 As the number of these baskets appear to be about the 

 same as that of the jars we have a total of, say 1,000 jars 

 and baskets of fry in one boat. After all the internal ar- 

 rangements are completed the fry are poured into the jars 

 and baskets, and when all are full the boat proceeds on her 

 voyage. Kan-chowfu, as I have remarked, is the chief 

 market for spawn, but much of it finds its way into the 

 Cauton, Fu kien, and Chekiang provinces, when it has to 

 be carried across the boundary range of mountains, about 

 a day's journey, before gaining the water-ways of the neigh- 

 boring provinces. 



The water is changed day and night, and after the muddy 

 Yang Tsze and Po-yang Lake have been left the young fish 

 icquire feeding, chopped 3^olk of hard-boiled egg being 

 the food administered to them, with a certain amount of 

 bread paste. A cargo of fry is estimated to be worth from 

 400 to 500 teals ($533 to $666,) but on arrival at its destina- 

 tion realizes fully 1,000 teals, or $1,400, the fish being then 

 sold at so much apiece instead of by the jar. 



Reliable in formation as to the mortality en route could 

 not be ascertained, but all agreed that it was considerable, 

 though chiefly dependent on the 'good luck' accompanying 

 the boat. The distance by water to Kan-chow is 1,055 h\ cr 

 350 miles, and occupies from ten to fifteen days, accouling 

 to the weather; the navigation is against the stream all the 

 Avay after entering the Po-yaug Lake. During the journey 

 the fish are separated into different jars; the most impor- 

 tant thing to be observed is to keep the 'wild fish' {yay yu) 

 from the domestic fish {chia yu,) the former, said our in- 

 formant, being of a restless nature, will not live peaceably 

 in confinement, but commence to prey on the ethers. 



The Kan yu or pike appeared to be the 'wildest fish,' and 

 most to be dreaded. The fry caught here and conveyed 

 inland is chiefly that of the Pang iouyu, Kuei yu (perch,) 

 Lien yu (bream,) and Huenyii 



The Pang tou yu often attains a weight of 20 to 24 pounds, 

 and 4 feet in length. Its flesh is rather coarse and flavor- 

 less, which is the chief complaint of most Yang Tsze fish. 

 It is sold here at this season of the year (May,) for 40 cash, 

 equal to a pound and a third. This 

 (perch,) or 4 man- 

 om the fact of its 

 being the best fish to be found in the market almost at all 

 times of the year, grows to a large size, and is of excellent 

 flavor, and very firm if full sized. Those of average size 

 measure 23 inches in length, 18 inches round the body, and 

 weigh between 7 and 8 pounds. The price ranges from 40 

 to 60 cash, equal 4 to 6 cents per catty (1 1-3 pounds,) ac- 

 cording to season and tine of day, but even at the latter 

 price ^mandarin' fish would not be a very expensive lux- 

 ury, yet the lower classes seldom indulge in it. After the 

 Kuei yu the Lien yu ranks next, being a rich and firm fish. 

 It often grows three feet long and 20 pounds in weight. 

 The JLuen yu, though a coarse looking fish, has an excel- 

 lent flavor, and in the proper season is a very acceptable 

 change at one's table, after the everlasting perch with which 

 our cooks continunlly supply us. The fry of the SMh yu, 

 or shad, which ascends the river in May to spawn, does not 



11 IS SOIU UC1C ttt tui» ocmuu ui m^ j ^ai \i 



say 4 cents per catty, equal to a pound ai 

 is, of course, river-caught fish. Kueiyu 

 darin fish,' as our 'boys' often call it, froi 



about the middle of May to the third week in June. In 

 former years this fish used to be taken from Nanking to 

 Peking for the Emperor's table, but the labor of getting it 

 there fresh was so trying to the people engaged to carry it 

 that the Emperor was induced to forego this luxury, and 

 the practice was discontinued. 



The pike of these waters grow to a very large size, the 

 dimensions of one specimen being 49 inches long, 21 girth, 

 and weight 36 pounds. All attempts made by Europeans 

 at fishing with hooks appear to have failed, few even being 

 rewarded with as much as a bite, nor are Chinese often 

 seen angling with rod and line on the Yang Tsze. The 



* A tad of pyce° (diver) is equal to one and a third dollars (gold,) bear- 

 ing the same re lauon to i he dollar tkat the eatty weigkt dees to "war 

 pound, viz., cue -laird more, 



system of taking spawn by forcible parturition as practiced 

 in the United States — a long description of which was 

 given in Harped 's Magazine for June, 1874— does not appear 

 to be known along the Yang Tsze, and it is a question 

 which fish culturists can decide, whether the Chinese 

 method of spawn collecting, or that adopted in America 

 and Europe, is the most effective. 



It is said that at Canton fish are caught and their spawn 

 expelled, and afterward impregnated with the milt of the 

 male fish, as described in the magazine quoted, but the 

 statement has yet to be verified. H. Eofsch." 

 -m*-~ 



Artificial Hatching of Whitefish. — Mr. Wilmot, 

 who is not inaptly termed the father of, pisciculturists in 

 Canada, appears to be almost ubiquitous in the Dominion. 

 Now we hear of Shim at the newly erected hatchery of 

 Petite Cote, a few miles below Windsor, on the Detroit 

 River, superintending the hatching of whitefish in the 

 buildings which were erected at his suggestion. The 

 Windsor Record says that a good deal of difficulty, owing 

 to various causes, has so far been experienced in piocuring 

 female fish from which to take the eggs; but it is believed 

 that f r om this date they will be supplied as rapidly as 

 needed. The process is this: A female ready to spawn is 

 relieved of its eggs, which are placed in a vessel and im- 

 pregnated with melt taken from a male, after which the 

 eggs are spread evenly, one layer deep, in seives, contain- 

 ing each 10,000, and submerged in vats beneath river wa- 

 ter, which, by clever contrivances, is kept continually run- 

 ning in regular quantities over and between them. Once 

 in twenty-four hours the tray or seives are taken out and 

 the eggs carefully examined and the faulty ones removed, 

 in order that the most perfect cleanliness— an im perative 

 condition of success— may be observed. This routine U 

 continued until the month of April, when the delicate, 

 transparent Ashlings will burst their shells and emerge into 

 their future element, to be retained in a suitable tank only 

 long enough to acquire strengh with which to provide for 

 themselves, when they will be deposited in the river. la 

 three years they will attain full growth. 



The house will be capable of receiving and hatching 

 100,000,000 eggs, but it is questionable if more than half that 

 number ©an be put down this season. Eggs that are de- 

 posited in the rivers and creeks in the natural way suffer 

 dreadfully from natural enemies before hatching, only from 

 four to six per cent, escaping, whereas about 80 per cent, 

 of the artificially hatched eggs yield mature fishes. 



Away out in the river an induction pipe is laid, connect- 

 ing with a. large well under the building, by means of 

 which the well is filled with pure, filtered water up \o the 

 level of the river. From this well the supply required i% 

 pumped by a little upright 6team engine, built at the Wa- 

 terous Engine Works at Brantford, in'o reservoirs, raised 

 so that the bottom is slightly higher than the top of the 

 troughs or vats in'o which the egga are placed. A pipe 

 connect the reservoir with the vats, and a faucet enables 

 a greater or less flow to be let on. The headway allowed 

 is just sufficient to create a steady current and con- 

 stant change of water, just as would be the case naturally. 

 The vats are all connec ed by pipes, and the water enter- 

 ing at the upper end passes through the multitudinous 

 compartments into which the vats are divided, and emer- 

 ges into a tub at the low»,r end, from which it escapes back 

 to the river. Pure fresh water of a particular temperature, 

 plenty of light, and scrupu'ous cleanliness are all that is 

 necessary to make success a certainty; and the Petite Cote 

 establishment is as well designed and situated to ensure 

 these as could be desired. 



■ '■ — -»»» ' . 



PRIVATE AQUARIA. 



y 



Lixtus Falls, N. T, , Nov. 21, 187S. 

 Editor Forest and Stream:— 



A moat interesting, and but for accident a most auccessf ul experiment, 

 in domesticating various, members of the salmo family has lately come 

 to an untimely end in our village. Some six years ago Mr. James M. 

 Smith, druggist, arranged a commodious aquarium on one of his coun- 

 ters, which was fed by a stream of pure spring/ water, which was sup- 

 posed and hoped to be unfailing, and which in Summer or Winter varied 

 but little from a uniform temperature of 50 # Fahrenheit. The stock put 

 in consisted of nine small brook trout. The^e throve fine y, and the 

 largest from a five-inch troutling had become a noble trout of nearly two 

 pounds weight, and the others followed him up so. closely that the aqua- 

 rinin, ample at first in its accommodation, eeemed\ crowded. A broken 

 glass lost nearly all the water and bnt two, the 1 argent, survived the mis- 

 hap, and the aquarium was restocked with small trout, and the big ones, 

 which, well cared for and fed with minnows, did not molest them. 



Not long after the water stopped and the trout were shifted to a tank 

 in the cellar and kept there two weeks. The darkuess of the cellar, the 

 want of clean gravel, and perhaps the deleterious odors likely to occur in 

 the cellar of a drug store, sickened the fish, and when they were replaced 

 in the aquarium they were sickly and were affected with a blue mould, 

 and soon died. 



In January, 1875, Seth Green presented Mr. Sm!th with three Califor- 

 nia and two Kennebec salmon, all yearling*, and about five inches long* 

 These, with several brook trout of aoont the same size, were pot in the 

 aquarium which was again started. All throve well and kept healthy, 

 the brook trout outgrowing the others. In about two months one Ken- 

 nebec salmon jumped out and was found deal on the floor; three months 

 after the water was found in the morning to have stopped during the 

 night, and the remaining Kennebec salmon was dead; the others recov- 

 ered. Bnt a month ago, after several days low water, during which the 

 water wa* kept well iced, the supply gave out at night, and in the morn- 

 ing the whole lot were found dead. 



The experiment cad been so well carried out, and the fish had fur- 

 nished so much entertainment to all trout lovers, that it was felt to be 

 almost a calamity. Mr. S.'s facilities are good, and he is a thorough fish- 

 erman. I think a new supply, including: grayling, would be most advan- 

 tageously placed in his depopulated aquarium. Puibjco. 



-A/ Department op Inland Fisheries, J 



" WiNeaasTKB, Mass., Nov.. 27, 1875. J 



Editor Forest and Stream:— 



In the Bod and Gun *»f Nov. 13 is the following statement attributed 

 to Fred. Mather: "This expensive affair (the Holvoke flshway) seems 

 to be condemned by everybody except the inventor, who sticks to it and 

 growls at suggestions for its improvement wi'h 'Yes, I've thought of ail; * 

 you can suggest nothing but what I have considered. ' " Regarding Mr. 

 Mather as a gentleman and a maa of veracity, and knowing tht> above 

 statement so far as regards me to be utterly untrue, I feel bound to be- 

 lieve, until otherwise informed, that he has been misrepresented. 



The statement in regard to the fishway is equally incorrect. The plaa 

 was adopted by a unanimous vote of the Commissioners of the four 

 States interested, and I am not a* are that any of the Commissioner 

 have met with any one whose expetience in such maters entitled his 

 opinion to any consideration who aas found fauki-Mtb the r^hway 

 proper, which, alone constitutes its value as an invention, Tuat the sur« 

 1 fundings at the foot of the fl&away may be UaproYsd, the Ccauaissioa. 



