PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
139 
mens of the Siskin (Carduelis spinus), which were shot in the county Wicklow. Mr. 
Andrews said that there were several other donations which he hoped to record on 
the next night of meeting. 
Mr. Ffennell, Inspecting Commissioner of Fisheries, was then called on for his 
paper 
ON THE ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF THE OVA OF THE SALMON, AND THE 
PROGRESS OF THE EXPERIMENTS NOW CARRYING ON. 
Mr. Ffennell said that he had received the notice of his paper being on the list 
for this evening. At the last monthly meeting of the Society he was unavoidably 
absent on public duty, and he had now but very recently returned from London, 
where he had been hastily summoned. He was, therefore, not so fully prepared 
as he could have desired on the subject, and he regretted much that he had not 
been able to collect, so far, sufficient material, to render any paper of the kind of 
importance; in fact, the experiments were not yet forward enough to give the full 
statistics he had from time to time been collecting, from the parties who were 
in different parts of the country, employed in such operations, and he would, as the 
season advanced, submit to the Society the progress made by them in those experi¬ 
ments. In whatever light this subject may be considered, it was one of vast im¬ 
portance, in a national point of view, and in the great value of its commercial 
tendency, and, therefore, valuable as to its economy, and its practical utility to 
man. In Ireland, these experiments were new and novel, and no knowledge had 
yet been obtained as to the results of their practical usefulness. He felt the neces¬ 
sity of bringing those inquiries before the Society, as those who were engaged in 
the experiments were practical men, without scientific knowledge, and who, there¬ 
fore, laboured under the difficulty of not being able to solve any new features that 
presented, that a knowledge of the natural history of the animal, and the aid of 
science might explain, and, consequently, enable them to take advantage of. He 
(Mr. Ffennell) did not understand the subject of the fisheries scientifically, but he 
had been practically engaged for many years. He was a practical man, but he 
was fully sensible of the importance of the study of natural history; and that 
science must promote practical knowledge. The aid of those who made practical 
science their study would be of great value in carrying out the work of public or 
official bodies. Without such knowledge, in the infancy of such undertakings, 
failures must be expected. The great interest created in the progressive growth of 
the salmon fry, which were daily seen by the public in the Exhibition, and of the 
explanation of their artificial development from the ova, induced a Doctor Merron, 
Professor of Anatomy in one of the London colleges, to come over to witness, and 
to learn the system that had been pursued throughout, as he was much interested 
in the proceedings of a company that had been formed for the object of conveying 
the ova, and stocking the waters of New Zealand, where, although a climate almost 
similar to that of England, salmon were not found in its rivers. The Messrs. 
Ashworth were the first to introduce the artificial propagation of the ova of the 
salmon in this country, and there were now several parties that had taken 
up the subject, and were carrying on such operations—Mr. Doherty, at Bush¬ 
mills ; Mr. Cooper, of Markree, at Ballina, in Mayo; at Galway, by the Ash¬ 
worths ; and at Lismore, in the Blackwater, by the Board of Conservators of the 
Fisheries. When the results of all their experiments (of which he regularly 
received reports) were perfected, he would feel most happy in submitting them fully, 
and in detail to the Society. The Messrs. Ashworth had not been so fortunate 
this year in obtaining the quantity of impregnated ova as in the first year. The 
habits of the fish must be more studied to insure certain success. On the grounds 
in the Cong river, where the salmon were in the habit of spawning, the Messrs. 
Ashworth, at the latter end of November last, at the time they considered the fish 
to be in a fully-developed state for spawning, took a quantity of fish for the pur¬ 
pose of obtaining the ova for artificial impregnation, and they were surprised to 
find that all the fish taken were male salmon. Mr. Foley, at Lismore, who has 
charge of the salmon fishery in the Blackwater, experienced a similar result, on 
the 1st of February last. He was anxious to obtain the fish for a similar purpose, 
but not a single male fish was captured—they were all females, and full of ova. 
