NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 155 



About fifty years ago, a Mr. Jacobi of Hanover, in Germany, af(er preparing a trough 

 with gravel at the bottom, in a particular way, through which spring water was made to 

 flow, took a female trout, and pressed and rubbed its belly gently, by which means it 

 parted very easily with its spawn, without any prejudice to the fish, in a basin of clear 

 water; he then took a male fish, and rubbed and pressed its belly gently, in the same 

 manner, to let the melt, or soft roe, out, in the same basin where the female roe was in, 

 and then stirred them together. The same result would follow if the roe was cut out of 

 dead fishes and mixed together in the same way. He then spread the mixed spawn ia 

 the trough before the water was let id, and he then let in the water. A more particular 

 account of this process is inserted in the 34th volume of the Philosophical Magazine. 

 In this way he bred annually vast quantities of salmon, trout, and other fresh river fish. 



It is calculated that one third of the inhabitants of Switzerland are maintained by fish 

 from their fresh-water lakes. When we consider the number of lakes, ponds, and fresh- 

 water streams, in our country, and the facility with which they may be supplied with the 

 best kinds of fish, there can be no doubt but that, in course of time, this salubrious and 

 copious source of subsistence will be considered an object worthy of attention. 



NOTE D D. 



It has been doubted whether red foxes, mice, rats, the common black fly, the Hessian 

 fly, the honey bee, fleas, moths, bed bugs, and cock roaches, are indigenous to this 

 country. 



It appears that the unanimous testimony of the Indians is, that the red fox did not 

 make its appearance until after the Europeans had settled the country, and this was after 

 an extraordinary cold winter, when all the sea to the northward was frozen. Hence it 

 has been inferred, that it came over from the north of Europe or Asia, on the ice. 

 Another account is, that a gentleman of fortune, in New England, imported a number for 

 the sports of the field, at the first settlement of that country, and that from this stock, 

 was propogated the race. It is well understood, that our red fox is the same as that of 

 the old world. Kamschatka abounds with them ; and when Commodore Bering landed on 

 the western coast of America, he saw several ; and Lewis and Clarke also observed them 

 on the west side of the rocky mountains. A very severe winter may have driven vast 

 numbers from the regions of the north, into the lower country, about the time mentioned 



