88 Proceedings of the Newport Natural History Society. 
hatched in small private ponds. Almost every farmer 
among this great ichthyophagous people has his little arti¬ 
ficial pond and “plants” it every year with a jar of spawn 
thus obtained, trusting to luck as to what kind of fish he 
may get. When the fry hatch out he feeds them upon 
boiled yolk of egg, lentils, etc. and regularly “grows” them 
like any other crop for home consumption. Fish-spawn is 
still an article of commerce in China and this method of 
fish-preserving is an economical way of keeping up the food- 
supply. This primitive culture has, very likely, changed 
but little during the past forty centuries. We have a relic 
of it in our ornamental gold-fish, which is said to have origi¬ 
nally been a Chinese carp, introduced into Europe not more 
than two or three hundred years ago. 
The ancient Egyptians practised a sort of Pisciculture, 
and had their vivaria , both sacred and profane, for their 
altars or for their tables, and mention of them may be found 
in the Old Testament. In the XIX Chapter of the Book 
of the Prophet Isaiah, the ioth verse, we read, in reference 
to the Confusion of Egypt:— 
And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make 
sluices and ponds for fish. 
The Nile contained many fish, and the ponds were stocked 
during the periodical inundations. Ichthyophagy formed 
a part of the Egyptian religion, though two or three kinds 
of fish, among which was the eel, were held sacred and 
were allowed to go untouched. The Egyptians probably 
did not trouble themselves about spawn, but simply filled 
their ponds with young fish for fattening. These vivaria 
had also their political side, for the Queens of Egypt had 
all the revenues from them as their peculiar perquisite. 
The Hebrews also practised Fish-culture, and the ancient 
Greeks had their fish-preserves, ^coypiia, mentioned by 
Homer. 
Among the Romans a primitive method of culture seems 
to have existed from the earliest times, .soon after the found¬ 
ing of the City, and to have resembled that of the Chinese. 
