August 14, 1^75 
291 
In addition to these poisons from manufacturing estab- 
lishments, gasworks do their share of the work of de- 
struction. The water of the river is impregnated with 
their waste to such an extent that scarcely a stone can 
be picked up in the water on the east side of the river 
that does not leave the marks of coal tar on the hands. 
This we know from experience, and this matter, in con- 
nection ^ith coal ashes, etc., has formed quite a bar of 
cement, extending into the river for some distance at 
one point. We hope that the day is not far distant when 
laws will be enforced which will put an end to this 
wholesale poisoning of our rivers. It is refreshing to 
notice that one State at least has made a move in this 
direction. A recen,; copy of the Richmond (Va.) Whig 
informs us that officers of the gasworks of that city are 
under indictment for polluting the James River with 
deleterious matter, contrary to an act of the General As- 
sembly, passed at their last session, for the preservation 
of fish in the James River. This is in the right direction. 
A practical paper manufacturer, in conversation with 
the writer, recently, stated that as an experiment some 
years since he preserved the refuse of the chloride of 
lime vats of a small paper mill, and composted it with 
refuse vegetable and other matter, and applied it to two 
acres of very poor land, and that the second or third 
year (I forget which) he produced a crop of twenty 
bushels of wheat to the acre. One would naturally sup- 
pose that this fact alone would be sufficient to keep 
manufacturers from allowing such substances to be 
thrown into rivers to the destruction of fish and the de- 
pletion of their own pockets. 
The fishway at Holyoke is not, so far, a perfect suc- 
cess as far as shad are concerned. Some few have, how- 
ever, entered it, and many smaller fish are constantly as- 
cending it. Much has been said in condemnation of this 
fishway. There is this, however, to be said in its favor 
— shad have entered it, and probably passed up it. There 
has never been a fishway constructed yet of which shad 
have made a thoroughfare, and experiments are in prog- 
ress which it is hoped will lead to success at Holyoke. The 
difficulty at present appears to be at the entrance, and 
various plans are under consideration- to make it what 
it should be. 
As all the principal fish culturists are turning their 
attention to this matter, there can scarcely be a doubt 
that the problem will soon be solved satisfactorily. 
There is but little doubt that this fishway is all that will 
be required for salmon. 
English Fish Culturists. 
The Thames Angling Preservation Society held their 
annual dinner recently at Richmond, a famous pleasure 
resort near London. Englishmen always dine on 
every occasion, and a dinner at the Star and Garter, 
Richmond, is a thing to remember. On this occasion 
the menu was fishy in the extreme and perfect of its 
kind. The society has been at work for nearly forty 
years, and has done excellent service. It has not been 
supported by residents on the banks of the Thame.s, by 
friends of the working classes who frequent the river 
“ in their thousands,” or by anglers themselves in their 
individual capacity, or as represented by their Angling 
Clubs, as it has deserved to be. It is not too much to 
say that had it not been for the eSbrts of the society, 
there would by this time have been hardly a fish in the 
river the length of ons’s little finger; whereas now it 
contains the greatest variety of fish, from the tiny min- 
now to the lordly trout, of perhaps any river in the 
world; so that between Richmond and the City Stone 
at Staines (the limit of the society’s work upward) an- 
glers would have no difficulty in filling their creels were 
it not that the high education of Thames fish makes 
them very difficult of capture. Years ago, before the 
society got thoroughly to work, netting and poaching 
of all kinds went on day and night, and undersized fish 
of all descriptions were ruthlessly destroyed. Now all 
is changed; netting of all kinds, except for the purpo.se 
of catching bait with casting nets of specified diameter 
and mesh, is made illegal and punishable, as is also the 
possession, by anglers or others, of fi.sh under a certain 
weight or measurement; and to enforce these and other 
regulations a staff of river-keeper.s, armed with what 
may be called search and capture warrants, is main- 
tained by the society. But to carry out its operations 
still more efficiently, additional funds are required, and 
it may be hoped that, from what has recently trans- 
pired, and the attention which has been called to the 
matter, they will be forthcoming. It will be remem- 
bered that a few weeks ago Baroness Burdett Coutts, 
who has for many years been a most substantial sup- 
porter of the society, offered £25 on the condition that 
£75 was added by the public. This was at once raised; 
and a further appeal to bankers, merchants and others 
in the city, and liberal donations at the dinner on Fri- 
day have given the {society the command of a hand- 
some special fund this j'ear in addition to its annual 
income. The latter, however, needs an increase, and if 
only in the interests of the working classes of the me- 
tropolis, with whom the river is a most popular recrea- 
tion ground, the unselfish labors of the society are de- 
serving of support. We may add that those who render 
such support may rest assured that it is applied to the 
work of fish pre.servation, for the society expends but 
little in “office expenses,” at its headquarters in York 
buildings, Adelphi, and does not support a staff of 
officials to take undue toll of the donations of the chiu-- 
itable. 
The 'annual dinner of the society was, as we have 
said, very successful. One of the chief and most inter- 
esting features was a long speech by Mr. Frank Buck- 
land on pisciculture, the speaker being as enthusiastic 
and as pleasantly dogmatic as ever on a subject in refer- 
ence to which he has more right to be dogmatic than 
any other man in the kingdom. It is mainly to him we 
owe the revived art of pisciculture, which each year he 
exhibits to the public at his fish museum, under the 
auspices of the South Kensington authorities; and, as he 
remarked, he values one of his “speckled beauties” 
raised there more than the most valuable china teapot 
in their pottery collection. To him mainly Australia 
and New Zealand owe their imported and now accli- 
mated trout and salmon, and many a river and lake in 
the three kingdoms have been made richer by his ser- 
vices. The Thames seems to be the special object of 
Mr. Buckland’s pi.scicultural attentions and the scene of 
his most unwearied labor of love, though hitherto it 
has shown but little gratitude for the care lavished on 
it. In vain, or almost in vain, have thousands of young 
trout been raised in the ponds of Sunbury, and turned 
into its w'aters, for Thames trout onlyjiist hold their 
own, and show but little, if any, increase. We may, 
perhaps, be allowed to say that the disappearance of the 
young trout is mainly to be accounted for by the fact 
that not sufficient attention is given to placing large 
stones or cemented masses of brick in the rapid waters 
of the weirs and elsewhere, to act as “hovers” for them. 
In vain, too, have thousands of young salmon been 
turned in to make their way to the sea, in the hope that 
they would “return after many days.” Unfortunately, 
none have yet returned, according to the instincts of 
their nature, to their parent river, owing, probably, to 
their dislike to sewerage water, in which some “coarse” 
fish, such as roach and chub, seem to thrive so well. 
Occasionally a salmon has been captured in the Thames 
estuary, notably one of twenty-seven pounds in May 
last, off Leigh, but unfortunately he was put in the pot 
by a river-side rector, who purchased him before he 
could be identified by certain marks as one of Messrs. 
Buckland & Ponder’s children on his road up to visit 
his parents and nursery at Sunbury. Previous “alarms” 
of a genuine Thames salmon have been given, but they 
have turned out false. Mr. Buckland confesses himself 
disappointed, but not yet beaten. He is determined, if 
he lives long enough, to have salmon in the Thames. 
But he promises something more — he will have shad in 
the Thames. There were plenty, he says, in the river 
years ago, and, as a boy, he remembers seeing them 
caught. He will have them again in the waters of the 
Thames Angling Preservation Society. We shall hail 
the reappearance of this fresh water Clupean, and hope 
to have an opportunity of testing the truth of Aristotle’s 
assertion, that the shad no sooner catches the sound of 
music, or sees dancing, than, like Crabbe’s sailor, “who 
hears a fiddle, and who sees a lass,” he is irresistibly 
led to join the sport and to cut capers on the water. 
Though pisciculture may be said to be still in its infan- 
cy in England, it is making rapid strides, and, though 
it may not do much practical good in the way of ap- 
preciably augmenting the food supply as regards fresh- 
water fish, it should be practiced whenever possible to 
increase the angler’s legitimate sport. But, hand in 
hand with, and even without, pisciculture, fish preserva- 
tion should be adopted in all lakes, ponds and rivers, 
where it is practicable, after the fashion of the Thames. 
Netting, except under special circumstances, and the 
retention of unsizeable fish should he made illegal, and 
“fence” months — March, April and May, as proposed, 
or the two latter with June added — established. If this 
were the case, many miles and acres of now almost 
barren water would soon become valuable, and such 
grand fishing grounds as the Norfolk Broads with their 
5,0®0 acres be made available for the legitimate recrea- 
tion of the hundreds of thousands who form the angling 
community . — London Telegraph. 
The salmon ova shipped from Scotland by the 
Timaru to New' Zealand, which we noticed some weeks 
back, have failed. The voyage was 113 days. Some 
Char ova sent out at the same time, partially survived. 
The import of salmon to the city of London for one 
week ending July 2 amounted to 1,408 boxes of 150 lbs. 
each; total, 224,700 lbs. What might we not do in this 
country. 
Malformation of Fish Embryos. — Fish culturists, 
especially those who have to deal with the various 
species of the scUmonida:, are frequently struck w’ith the 
numerous cases of malformation in the embryos hatched 
out of them ; these sometimes constituting a marked 
percentage of the whole number, resulting, it is sup- 
posed, from too great rapidity of development, or some 
other at present unknown agency. In some instances 
the percentage is so large as materially to affect the 
number of salable fish produced, as they sooner or later 
succumb in the struggle for existence. Dr. Knoch, of 
Moscow, has lately been studying the nature of mal- 
formations in the trout, salmon and whitefish, and finds 
the most common monstrosities to consist in the pos- 
session: First, of two heads; Second, of a double ver- 
tebral column and cord ; Third, of malformations as re- 
gards divergence of the body from its axis of length ; 
Fourth, of defects of the organs of locomotion ; Fifth, 
of anomalies in the vegetative sphere ; Sixth, of defects 
in the organs of sense. It is possible that similar ma- 
formations occur in equal proportions in other fishes, 
but such of these as come under the cognizance of the 
student are usually so small as not to be appreciable. 
Malformations are, indeed, quite common in the gold- 
fish and carp, particularly the former; and the Chinese 
have already developed a number of special races bear- 
ing distinctive names, and characterized, among other 
features, by the possession of an extra number of tails. 
We have in our own investigations found that the defects 
mentioned under the third, fourth and fifth classes are 
most frequent in fishes the spawn of which have been 
transported long distances, or sometimes even after short 
trips when intrusted to the tender mercies of our express 
companies. Double-headed fishes are no longer ranked 
byfi.sh-breeders as curiosities, but rather as nuisances, as 
in every case which has fallen under our experience they 
have died before the absorption of the umbilical sac. 
We have seen a photograph of a double-headed trout 
which must have weighed over a pound, apparently 
taken from nature, but of its history w'e know nothing. 
wisTEBSlriisi ^ 
[BY OCR O^YN CORRESPONDENTS.] 
Chicago, Aug^7.— Well, the Gun Club has challenged 
the Prairie for a match at 15 single birds, 21 yards rise, 
15 members a side, to be shot next week; and I dare say 
the Gun Club is as much astonished itself as is any one 
else at the energy and spunk it managed to get up, 
though, to be sure, it has insisted upon fixing the day 
for the match, and by chance has hit upon a day that 
the Prairies can’t shoot, and so, as usual, there seems to 
be nothing in it but wind. Though it may be that the 
Prairies are a little doubtful about getting off as well 
this time as in their Kennicott match, and had sort of 
rather, you know, have something come in between. So 
they, Chicago-fashion, can flap Iheir wings and croiv and 
crow, and flap their wings over the one chance victory 
they have gained, until everybody got so tired hearing 
about “that time we beat the Keunicotts,” that they 
wish the match had never been shot. But John Klein- 
man is going to put ^up his Miles Johnson champion 
double-bird medal for a badge of city championship, and 
it is probable the club will all go in for it, and until 
some one club holds it the requisite number of times, 
it is to be hoped that the old-grannyish, technicality-lov- 
ing, blowhard spirit that, to a greater or less degree, 
pervades all our organizations, will he abandoned for 
one of generous rivals, that will cause all to remember 
the fact that in the blind endeavor to gain honor for a 
club, the club’s honor and reputation may be sacrificed 
in a wav hard to be repaired. 
The t’rairies had a practice shoot yesterday at Dexter 
Park, in which, though a very high wind was blowing, 
they made an average of about 80, most of the shooting, 
too, being done at 26 yards. And the regular quarterly 
shoot of the Gun Club, for the three silver grade cups, 
takes place on Tuesday; and, by the way, this prac- 
tice of grading a club so as to give the poor shots a 
chance, has been found to work admirably. An average 
of over 75 doubles and singles is required for the first 
grade, and all who can make such an average contend 
for one cup; those under 75 and over 60 for the second; 
and under 60 for the third. The cups are equal in value, 
and the encouragement to poor shooters to practice is 
very great, and the result in the case in question is very 
apparent from the fact that the Gun Club can turn out 
as a team at least twenty-five members with the first 
grade average. Prairie Chicken, on the sly, are now 
being served up at many of our restaurants, while the 
State Association sleeps, and the five local clubs consider 
such a vast amount of energy as to prosecute a violator 
of the game law would be too much to attempt. 
Plover are getting very plentiful on the prairies around 
the city. Pigeons not to be had in any quantity at any 
price, alive or dead. 
