426 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. V., No. 120. 



station at Fort Washington, and some of the Potomac 

 fishing-shores. Col. McDonald, in charge of the fish- 

 hatching station, displayed the apparatus for, and 

 explained the process of, hatching shad and herring 

 eggs at all the various stages. After the roe is taken 

 from the fish and cleaned, it is put into glass tanks, 

 through which the water is allowed to flow con- 

 stantly. About forty-eight hours are required to 

 hatch out the eggs. A shad a day old looks like a 

 hair with two black spots attached to the end. When 

 two days old, they measure about one-fourth of an 

 inch in length. In twelve days the whole body is 

 distinguishable. The spawn are not, as a rule, kept 

 at this hatching-station more than thirty-six hours; 

 at the end of which time, just previous to hatching, 

 the eggs are placed in crates, and brought to the prin- 

 cipal station at the armory building, near the national 

 museum, where the final stages of incubation occur. 

 The commission has this year hatched five million 

 shad-eggs. The herring yield has been much larger, 

 as the catch of this fish in the Potomac has been un- 

 usually abundant; nor are so many eggs of the her- 

 ring destroyed during the process of hatching as of 

 shad. The commission employs eighteen men at 

 Fort Washington, who are constantly kept busy pre- 

 paring the spawn and eggs for transportation. The 

 day before the party visited this station, sixty thou- 

 sand shad-eggs were taken. After the hatching pro- 

 cess had been explained to the visitors, they were 

 summoned to refreshments, which had been provided 

 in one of the frame buildings belonging to the com- 

 mission. The principal dish was ' planked ' shad. 

 By this process four fish are fastened to a board, and 

 held towards a hot fire. Whilst cooking, the fish are 

 constantly basted with a preparation made of butter, 

 salt, and other ingredients. At a meeting on board 

 the vessel, the commissioner of agriculture made some 

 remarks on fish-culture in the west, and Col. Marshall 

 McDonald offered an address on our fishing interests 

 in general, and the work of the society in particular. 

 The following officers were elected for the present 

 year. President, Col. Marshall McDonald, Washing- 

 ton. Vice-president, Dr. William M. Hudson, Hart- 

 ford, Conn. Treasurer, Eugene G. Blackford, New 

 York. Corresponding secretary, W. V. Cox, Ohio. 

 Recording secretary, Fred. Mather, New York. Ex- 

 ecutive committee, G. Brown Goode, Washington; 

 F. L. May, Fremont, Neb. ; Roland Redmond, New 

 York; J. A. Henshall, Cynthiana, Ky. ; Frank N. 

 Clark, Northville, Mich. ; S. G. Worth, Raleigh, N.C. ; 

 George Shepard Page, Stanley, N.J. 



INLAND NAVIGATION OF EUROPE.* 



The lower parts of the chief rivers of the United 

 Kingdom are mostly arms of the sea, navigable at 

 high water by ships of the largest burden. The prin- 

 cipal waterway, the Thames, is navigable for about 194 

 miles, and is united by means of a grand network of 

 canals with the Solent, the Severn, the Mersey, the 



1 From a lecture by Sir C. A. Hartley before the Institution 

 of civil engineers. 



Humber, and the Trent, being thus in direct com- 

 munication not only with the English and Irish 

 channels, but also with every inland town of impor- 

 tance south of the Tees. The estimated length of 

 inland waterways in the United Kingdom is 5,442 

 miles, which has been constructed at a cost of £19,- 

 145,866. 



Russia's principal highway is the Volga, the largest 

 river in Europe, which affords, with its tributaries, 

 7,200 miles of navigation. Hitherto no permanent 

 works have been undertaken to improve the navi- 

 gation of the Volga, but dredging has been resorted 

 to in the lower part of the stream; and recently a 

 system of scraping by iron harrows has been employed, 

 which has doubled the depth of water over certain 

 shoals in a few days. Other important water com- 

 munications in Russia are the Caspian ; the River Don, 

 980 miles in length; and the Dnieper, with a course 

 of 1,060 miles. Of secondary rivers, the Bug, the 

 Dniester, the Duna, and the Neva are all navigable. 

 In the case of the latter short but most important 

 means of communication, a maritime canal 18 miles in 

 length has recently been completed to unite Cronstadt 

 with St. Petersburg. About 900 miles of canal have 

 been constructed in European Russia. In most in- 

 stances they have been built to connect the head 

 waters of rivers which had their outlets at opposite 

 extremities of the continent. 



Sweden abounds with lakes; but none of the rivers 

 are navigable except those which have been made so 

 artificially, nearly all of them being obstructed by 

 cataracts and rapids. Nevertheless, Sweden possesses 

 remarkable facilities for internal navigation during 

 the seven months that the country is free from ice, 

 intercourse being carried on by means of a series of 

 lakes, rivers, and bays connected by more than 300 

 miles of canals. 



Germany owns parts of seven river-valleys, and 

 three large coast-streams. Of these, the Weser is 

 the only one which belongs wholly to Germany, 

 while of the Danube but one-fifth part runs through 

 her territory. The inland navigation of Germany is 

 of the most advanced character, an immense trade 

 being carried on by means of barges and rafts. In 

 the case of the Elbe, the system of towing by sub- 

 merged cable has taken a large development. As 

 early as 1866 chain-tugs were running on 200 miles of 

 its course; and in 1874 this mode of traction had been 

 so increased that there were then twenty-eight tugs 

 running regularly between Hamburg and Aussig. 

 These tugs are 138 to 150 feet long, 24 feet wide, with 

 18 inches draught. On the upper Elbe the average 

 tow is from four to eight large barges, and, taking 

 the ice into consideration, there are about three hun- 

 dred towing-days in the year. Although Germany 

 possesses a length of nearly 17,000 miles of navigable 

 rivers, or more than double the combined length of 

 the navigable streams of the United Kingdom and 

 France, it cannot be said to be rich in canals. In 

 South Germany the Regnitz and Ludwig canals, 

 from the Main at Bamberg to the Danube, were the 

 only ones of importance until the annexation of 

 Alsace-Lorraine. 



