86 Proceedings of the Newport Natural History Society. 
the fish and their spawn from all harmful influences, from 
their natural enemies, and particularly from capture at im¬ 
proper seasons or by immoderate methods: of aiding the 
whole work by the application of scientific principles so that 
it may be accomplished to the best advantage: and finally, 
of arriving at a thorough knowledge of the life-history of 
#very economically valuable fish, with histories of the ani¬ 
mals and plants upon which it feeds, and of applying this 
knowledge practically, so that every such fish shall be under 
our perfect control." These last words I quote from Dr. 
Brown-Goode, who also says: “the limitations of Fish-cul¬ 
ture are precisely those of Agriculture and the rearing of 
animals.” 
The fish in fresh-water lakes and rivers may easily be 
exterminated unless the waters be kept pure and the spawn 
and young fry be left undisturbed. In rivers running to 
the sea anadromous fish may easily be driven away if their 
passage be obstructed by insurmountable dams, or if over¬ 
fishing be not prevented. Similarly, sea-fish which approach 
the coast in order to spawn in bays or estuaries, or upon 
shoals, ma3^ be decimated by the too great use of nets. 
Migratory fish, such as the blue-fish, mackerel, or menha¬ 
den, are not so easily decimated, for in the first place they 
spawn, as far as is known, at a distance from the coast and 
secondly their fecundity is so immense as to be almost beyond 
calculation, and the small proportion which man can take 
seems to have little visible effect upon their numbers: yet the 
locality which they frequent may be so over-fished that their 
capture becomes at length unprofitable, and they may some¬ 
times be even entirely driven away from that locality • by 
the destruction by man of smaller fish upon which they 
feed. It is the province of Fish-culture to counteract these 
evils. 
The history of the growth and development of Fish- 
culture is extremely interesting. The art is by no means 
a modern one: it is more than four thousand years old! It has, 
in a primitive form, been in practice among the Chinese 
