THE CALIFORNIAN SALMON. 
37 
on scientific grounds, brougTit before the Academy of 
Sciences at Paris, the subject of the artificial impregna- 
tion of fish oya; and in a paper read before that body, 
asserted the possibility by the artificial fecundation of the 
ova of fishes, of propagating them to any extent that might 
be desired. His statement was at first discredited, but the 
publication of his paper brought out the fact, that the 
process which he had advocated on theoretical grounds, had 
actually been reduced to practice by a poor fisherman of 
Bresse. The Academy appointed a committee to enquire 
into the matter, which found the facts to be as stated. 
In 1843 Eemy had addressed a letter to the Prefect of 
the Vosges, a portion of which the following is a transla- 
tion, and is taken from a paper by Professor C. A. Joy, on 
fish culture : — 
Joseph Remy, fisherman, of the Bresse, to M. the Prefect of 
the Vosges. 
Sir, — I have the honor to inform you, that in consequence of the 
numerous experiments which I have made, I have succeeded after 
much care and trouble, in hatching an immense quantity of trout eggs, 
the young of which, healthy and well- formed, will be suitable for re- 
stocking the rivers. I deem it to be my duty to make known to you 
the means by which I have arrived at this fortunate result. . . 
At the season of spawning, in November, when the eggs appear at the 
vent of the trout, by passing the thumb and pressing gently against 
the vent of the female without doing her any injury, I cause the eggs 
to fall into a basin of water ; after this I seize the male, and by 
operating in the same manner cause the milt to flow upon the eggs 
until they have become opaque. As soon as this operation is completed 
and the eggs have become clear, I dispose them between coarse grains 
of sand in the bottom of an iron box, pierced with a thousand holes. I 
placed one of these boxes in a spring of fresh water, the other in the 
River Bresse, in a spot where the current was only slight. Towards 
the middle of February the eggs in the spring commenced to hatch, 
while those in the river did not change until the 20th of March. 
. . . . In hatching the young, the tails of which first appear, are 
white, elongated, lean, with large heads. They move immediately. 
