
184 
KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 

Within four months, MM. Berthot and Detzem 
will be able to effect their first despatch of fish, in 
order to try an experiment on a large scale. They 
will send 600,000 salmon and trout, which will be 
sufficiently developed to be able to people our rivers. 
The beginning will be made with the Rhone, a 
river which does not contain salmon ; and, if we 
succeed, will give a most striking example of the 
riches which are to be expected of this new and 
rising discovery. 
The necessity for propagating salmon and 
trout artificially, is shown by statistics. 
These evidence such a rapid decrease in their 
numbers as to lead to the belief that, without 
some such means, they must before long be 
annihilated. This is particularly the case in 
Scotland. On this point, M. Coste gives 
the following statement furnished by Earl 
Grey :— 
The river Tay, near Perth, a place which has 
been rendered celebrated by Sir Walter Scott, 
produced to Lord Grey, in 1830, a revenue of 
100,000 francs (£4,000); in 1840, it protuced no 
more than 75,000 francs (£3,000) ; and it has now 
decreased to 45,000 francs (£1,800). This decrease 
proves that the produce must cease entirely, if its 
causes cannot be counteracted. The fisheries which 
produced 100,000 francs consisted of 5,000 or 6,000 
salmon of a large size, and of 8,000 of a smaller size. 
Those quantities, compared to those we shall throw 
in the rivers of France, give a notion of the im- 
mense riches they will produce, for we shall not 
deal with six, eight, or even fifteen thousand, but 
with hundreds of thousands and millions. 
M. Coste thus speaks of the future pros- 
pects of his establishment, and its probable 
results :-— 
There is no doubt that this new branch of 
industry is destined to receive constantly a more 
powerful influence as soon as it shall be proved 
thatit will contribute to the sustentation of nations 
by re-stocking the seas. The sturgeon and the 
sterlet are two precious sorts of fishes. As well as 
the shad-fish and the salmon, they reside alternately 
in the seas and in the great rivers, and are now be- 
come very scarce. They are susceptible of a con- 
siderable size, and their eggs are so abundant that, 
in some countries, they are gathered in the months 
of March and April, and sold under the name of 
Cavier. At Astranham, more than a hundred tons 
of this are exported annually. This produce will 
suffice to stock the Mediterranean Sea by means 
of our establishment. 
The fishery legislation, which now prohibits 
fishing during the period of the laying of eggs, 
will be completely inverted as soon as the new 
system of hatching shall be generally introduced, 
and fishing will be allowed precisely at the time 
of laying of eggs. If, as I hope, the Government 
will continue to favor us with its patronage, I shall 
organise upon the coast of Provence an establish- 
ment for the propagation of sea-fish. M. Gerbe, 
a distinguished naturalist, who revises all the pro- 
cesses as they are practised in Italy, will super- 
intend that establishment; and, in the meanwhile 
T will betake myselfto the Wolga, with M. Detzen, 
and fetch there the sturgeons and sterlets, as well 




as their eggs, which we shall transport to our 
establishment. 
The problem we are about to solve is one of the 
most important of public economy. It opens to 
production a new domain, the more precious that 
its fruits do not require the labor necessary for the 
cultivation of the ground. It is a new boon con- 
ferred by science upon the working classes, and 
will prove to them that those who work and those 
who think are united by indissoluble ties. 
We do not attempt to apologise for the 
length to which this paper has extended. 
The subject is one of universal interest, and 
cannot fail to excite marked attention. It 
will be seen by the subjoined extract from a 
Perth paper, that in Scotland the subject is an 
all-engrossing topic :— 
We noticed pretty fully last week the proceed- 
ings of a meeting of the salmon-fishing proprietors 
in the river Tay, regarding the artificial propaga- 
tion of salmon. The resolution adopted by the 
meeting has been quickly followed up, and on 
Saturday week Mr. 'T. Ashworth, Dr. Esdaile, and 
Mr. R, Buist, made a survey of the Tay, between 
Perth and the bridge of Stanley. They, we under- 
stand, fixed on a site for a pond at Stamantfiel, on 
ground held by D. Spottiswoode, Esq., bleacher, 
there. A report was drawn up by Mr. Ashworth, 
and a plan of the pond has been prepared. We 
understand that the latter is in course of being 
lithographed for the purpose of being circulated 
among the proprietors in the Tay. The committee, 
we understand, are most anxious the experiment 
should be tried in the Tay for the propagation of 
salmon, which apears to have been so successfully 
conducted in the Solway. 
Who shall say that we are not a progressive 
people? Every day brings with it abundant 
proofs that Nature cannot remain inactive. 
May we make good use of all these gifts, 
and not be unmindful of the source whence 
they flow ! 
PERILOUS ENCOUNTER WITH A SHARK. 
On THE 20th or APRIL LAST, saysacorrespondent, 
whilst five young soldiers stationed at Corfu were 
sailing along at a rapid rate, the boat in which 
they were received a sudden shock, as if it had run 
upon a rock, which nearly capsized her. One of 
the soldiers, having looked over the side, perceived 
a large shark swimming close to the boat, but it 
disappeared on his throwing a bottle at it. A 
number of porpoises were also about, and one of 
these was harpooned by a soldier named Flowers, 
son of Mr. Flowers, chimney-sweeper, Theatre 
Street, Warwick. 
On being struck, the porpoise immediately dived; 
and the line being entangled round the arm of a 
soldier, named Hanson, he was dragged into the 
water. Flowers seeing Hanson about thirty yards 
fromthe boat making for a rock, turned the boat in 
that direction and nearly overtook him; but when 
within about six yards of him, one of his com- 
panions cried out that there was a shark going 
towards Hanson. Flowers seized a knife which 
stuck in the side of the boat, plunged head first 

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