BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 213 
basin and to watch the absorption of the umbilical bag ; some of them 
may even be kept for some time on more or less expensive artificial 
food ; but when it comes to pisciculture on a large scale, when the 
object in view is to stock large sheets of water, these means are insuf- 
ficient. 
I well remember a long conversation I had with Oarbonnier. He 
told me in a firm and convincing manner that, as I had on my prop- 
erty at Piedra a water-course, which was always cool and limpid, and 
which had a considerable fall, I should abandon the Coste and all sim- 
ilar apparatus, and use the Jacobi box, placing it to half its height in 
the water (natural method), and, as I had large quantities of small 
shrimps, to give my fish small shrimps (natural food), and not think of 
any other food. I followed his advice, and my season of 1871-72 was 
so remarkable that the Acclimatization Society rewarded me with' the 
large gold medal at the public session of April, 1873. 
Prom 1872 to 1874 I lived in France— two years lost to my piscicult- 
ure. On my return I had to begin over again ; but as I felt sure of 
my method, I again set to work, and my establishment soon reached 
the high state of perfection which it had occupied prior to my visit 
to France. 
The stone basin (mentioned already in my report for July, 1872) 
proved a great success. It produces on an average 1,200 trout every 
year, and the open-air basins contain young fish by the thousand, more 
or less, according to the zeal and the efforts of the various fishermen 
in whose charge they are. The food is always the same during the first 
two months, small shrimps assorted, furnished two or three times a 
day 5 later, small shrimps such as are gathered with small purse-net 
attached to the end of a stick, at the sources of brooks, and in the large 
basins; for these crustaceans multiply wherever the water of the Devil 
Kock Brook is found. 
Although trout placed in rivers consume an enormous quantity of 
these small shrimps, a great many remain attached to cresses and other 
aquatic plants. The positively prodigious quantity of small shrimps in 
the lake, the sources of the brook, and the large basins has so far not 
allowed me to think of raising these crustaceans in the rivers, and saves 
the trouble of transferring the trout alternately from an exhausted river 
to one still containing many of these small shrimps. 
Our young fish remain in one place from March till September, and 
they are fed two or three times a day, as their needs seem to require it; 
and it is a curious spectacle to see them in dense masses pursuing their 
living prey. The quantity of small shrimps given to the fish two or 
three times daily weighs 5 kilograms (about 11 pounds). Having care- 
fully counted the number of shrimps contained in 5 grams (about one- 
sixth ounce), and found this number to be 672, the total quantity of 
shrim ps fed to the fish in a single day is not less than 672,000, or 4,704,000 
j per week. 
