Origin and Distribution of Gourami

acceptable. The native home of the gourami is the fresh waters of the Malaccan islands Java, Madura, Sumatra, and Bor- neo; and from the inhabitants of those islands we derive the name as well as the fish itself. J It has been attributed as a native to China, but erroneously. It has been intro- duced into China, however, as well as into Pinang, Ma- lacca, Mauritius, Reunion or Bourbon, Martinique, and Cayenne. The gourami attains a very large size, and, reaches, it is said, five or even six feet in length, and a * From Agricultural Report, 1866. By Theodore Gill, M. D. f This species is also known as the Osphromenus olfax, but the prior name is that here adopted. J The proper pi-enunciation would be best indicated by gurahmee. P APPENDIX. 251 weight of more than 110 pounds. It may be readily understood, however, that it attains these large dimensions only under very favorable circumstances, and fish of 20 pounds' weight are not very common. The gourami belongs to a family of fishes which has always provoked interest by the singular adaptations for holding supplies of water in peculiar reservoirs or organs developed from the first of the gill arches, and which has obtained for the family the name of fishes with labyrinthi- forrn " pharyngeals," or Lcibyrinthiei. Like other bony fishes, the gourami and its kindred have four cartilaginous arches, and each of these bears on the external or convex edge a gill which is double, or composed of two leaflets ; behind these arches are two somewhat flattened bones, con- tiguous at their internal edges, and bearing minute teeth, called the lower pharyngeal bones, and above, connected with the ends of the posterior gill arches, are other flat teeth-bearing bones, known as the upper pharyngeals these, too, are shared with most fishes ; but, in addition to these, a peculiar superbranchial organ is developed from the third or terminal portion, or articulation of the first branchial or gill arch; this organ is composed of thin, more or less expanded laminae, or leaflets, which form more or less complicated chambers or cavities. These chambers receive and contain a supply of water which furnishes sufficient to moisten the gills and enable them to perform their functions of aerating the blood long after the fish has been isolated from the water ; this structure is also asso- ciated with contracted branchial apertures or gill-holes, while the gill-covers are closely appressed to the shoulders, and the fish is thus enabled still better to eke out its sup- ply of water. As a consequence of this beneficent provision, we find that the fishes of this family are enabled, in an extraordinary degree, to sustain deprivation of water, 252 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. and that some at least can leave the waters, or the places now dried up which they have inhabited, and travel on land for some distance, to seek more favorable resorts. It is to this family that the celebrated climbing fish of the East Indies (Anabas scandens) belongs ; and to this same family equally belongs the Pla Kat of Siam (Betta pugnax), which is raised by the Siamese for game purposes, individuals of the species being pitted against each other, and fighting with as much vim and animosity as their warm-blooded rivals, the game-cocks. Still another species (the Macropodus viridi auratus) is said to be reared for ornamental purposes by the Chinese, like the goldfish, and its beauty is sufficient to entitle it to such a distinction. In form these fishes somewhat resemble the Cenfcrachids, or sunfishes, of our streams and ponds. They differ ex- tremely among themselves in the development of the fins ; this is especially the case with respect to the dorsal or back fin, for in some it occupies the whole length of the back, while in others, as the Pla Kat, it is confined to a short space near the middle 4 ; the anal and ventral fins are little less variable, but it would lead us too far to detail such modifications. Characteristics. The gourami may be said, in general terms, to somewhat resemble a rock-bass or sunfish, but having a smaller head and a still smaller mouth compara- tively, a very long anal fin reaching from the breast nearly to the base of the caudal fin, and the ventral fins inserted nearly on a line with the pectoral, the first soft ray being very long, lash-like, and almost or quite equalling the whole length of the fish. There are from eleven to thirteen spines, and an equal number of soft, jointed rays in the dorsal fin, while the anal has from nine to twelve spines, and from nineteen to twenty-one soft rays ; the ventral fin has a spine and five rays, the first of which is the APPENDIX. 253 elongated one already referred to ; the others are short and small. The color of the old is a nearly uniform dark olive green or brown, but the young is ornamented by seven to nine slightly oblique blackish bands crossing the body; at the base of the pectoral fin there is a distinct black spot, and another roundish spot exists on the side of the caudal peduncle in front of the fin and above the lateral line. The jaws are armed with a band of fine teeth; the roof of the mouth is smooth. The gourami, in its native country, has always been esteemed for the delicacy of its flesh, and Commerson, the traveller, to whom we are indebted for our first precise de- scription of the fish, has in rapture exclaimed that he never tasted, among either salt or fresh water fishes, one more exquisite in flavor than the gourami " nihil inter pisces turn marinos turn fluviatiles exquisitius unquam degustavi." In such esteem is it held, that the Dutch colonists at Batavia are said to keep them in very large earthen jars, removing the water daily, and feeding it with aquatic plants or herbs, and especially the one called Pistia natans, a species be- longing to the Aracese or Arum family. In a state of freedom, the gourami lives, by preference, in warm, still, or stagnant and somewhat muddy waters. It it very sensitive to changes of temperature, and even in the island of Bourbon retreats in the winter toward the bottom of the ponds where the water is warmest, and burying itself in the mud, if present, seems to remain in a torpid state while the cold lasts. The greatest heat apparently does not incommode it, and in summer it ascends to the surface of the water, basking in the sun, and, often protruding its mouth above the water, swallows the atmo- spheric air. While the gourami is essentially a vegetarian, and its diet is indicated, by the extremely elongated intestinal 22 254 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. canal, which is many times folded on itself, it does not confine itself to any special plants, nor, indeed, to the vege- table kingdom, for its supply of food, and on account of its miscellaneous feeding has obtained from the French the epithet of water pig, or Pore des rivieres. Besides the leaves of the Pistia, already mentioned, and all other species of aracese which it seeks with avidity, it will eat cabbage, radish, carrot, turnip and beet leaves, lettuce, and most of the wild plants which grow in the water, nor does it refuse earth-worms, frogs, or even cooked meats. In its movements, the gourami is usually slow, swimming leisurely and majestically along, and takes its time in mak- ing its meal ; it is, however, capable of rapid movements, and when frightened or disturbed, will dart away with great swiftness ; when first confined in narrow quarters, it will also attempt to escape by leaping out of the water. It will take the hook baited with worms. In its sexual relations, and the care which it takes of its eggs, it somewhat resembles the sunfishes of temperate North America and the Cichlids of the warmer portions of the continent and of Africa. In spawning-time, the males and females pair, and each pair select a suitable place and construct a rude nest. " Like all intelligent animals, it will only propagate when it is insured a suitable temperature for its eggs and young a fit retreat wherein to build its nest, with vegetation and mud to make it, and the aquatic plants suitable for the food of the young. The bottom must be muddy, and the depth variable; in one place at least a yard, or metre, and convenient to it, several metres deep. It prefers to make its nest in tufts of the grass called Panicum Jumentorum, which grow on the surface of the water, and whose floating roots, which rise and fall with the tide, form natural galleries, under which the fish may conceal itself." In one of the corners of the APPENDIX. 255 ponds, among the plants which grow there, the gourami attaches a spherical nest, composed of plants and mud, and resembling in form those of certain birds. Each nest is about fourteen centimetres, or between five and six inches in length ; the male and female labor assidously in its construction, and continue their toils till it is completed. In five or six days, or a week at furthest, it is finished. This aptitude of the gourami to make a nest is facilitated, when the pairing-season has arrived, by placing in the water, almost at the surface, a large branch of bamboo (Bambusa arundinacea, Wild.), to which are attached bundles of fine dog's-tooth grass. The gourami takes this grass and forms with it its nest in the branches of the submerged bamboo, in the same way that the silkworm avails itself of the branch which is presented for it to make its nest on. Toward the end of the months of September and of March, in the island of Bourbon, propagation takes place. The nest made, the female deposits its eggs, of which there from about 800 to 1000. After the eggs have been deposited, and while they are becoming matured, the parents remain near the nest, prepared to drive away intruders. The eggs are soon hatched, and the young then find in their nest " a refuge where they are free from a thousand dangers which would threaten them for the first days of their life. Besides, they find in the macerated vegetable matter, which partly composes their nest, their earliest food, and which is most suitable for their delicate condition. Soon afterwards they make short excursions from the nest under the guidance of the mother fish, who is prepared to give them aid in case of need. They do not disperse, but keep together in bands. The young still retain the yelk-bags, which trail behind like two long appendages 256 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. from below the anterior, portion of the belly, and seem to assist them in maintaining their equilibrium." The rate of growth is not rapid, and at the age of three years, the fish is only about nine inches, or twenty-two centimetres, long ; but at that age it is said to be able to propagate its race. Those kept in vases or small ponds are still slower in their growth, which is even arrested at a comparatively small size. The small fishes are most esteemed as food. Their flesh, it may be added, is firm, and of a pale straw or yellowish color. Attempts to acclimatize the gourami. In such esteem has this fish been held that none, save the goldfish, has been the subject of more exertions to acclimatize in different countries, and if we literally accept the word exertion, even the goldfish cannot be excepted, for, although it is true that that species has been more generally introduced into foreign waters, little or no exertion seems to have been necessary to effect that object. The history of the attempts and success in the acclimatization of the gourami may not only be useful with reference to eventual efforts to introduce it into the United States, but the experience A gained may be of advantage in the treatment of others. somewhat extended narrative, compiled from the writings of Cuvier, Rufz de Lavison, Auguste Vinson, and others, is therefore submitted. As already remarked, the gourami is now found in south- ern China, but has been probably introduced into that country, although the date and circumstances of its accli- matization are unknown to us. It has likewise been intro- duced into some of the islands of the same archipelago and near those of which it is a native. But the history of its introduction into the dominions of the French in different quarters of the world is better known and of greater in- terest. APPENDIX. 257 The first effort on the part of the French of which we have knowledge was made in 1761, when several naval offi- cers chief of whom were Captains De Surville, Joannis ; and De Magny took some fishes to the Isle of France or Mauritius, but, it is said, rather for the gratification of the sight and for exhibition in vases than with reference to its eventual naturalization in the island. M. De Cre, who has been accredited with the introduction of the goldfish into France, and who was at the time mentioned com- mander of the French troops in the island, also interested himself in the introduction of the species. Individual fish placed in ponds propagated ; some escaped into the con- tiguous streams, and the species had become already doniiciliated in the island when Coinrnerson, the naturalist traveller, visited it in 1770. The gourami was next introduced into the neighboring island of Bourbon or Reunion in 1795, at first through the efforts of M. Desmauieres, a resident of the island, and who imported specimens from Mauritius ; but his example was soon followed by others. His experience has been given by Mr. Vinson, and, on account of its important bearing on the subject of its acclimatization in other lands, is repeated in his own words. M. Desrnanie'res had, " on his estate of Bellevue, situated on the upland of the quarter Sainte-Suzanne, a magnificent natural body of water with two islets abounding in aquatic plants. Everything ap- peared to be propitious for the raising of the gourami, but the low temperature of this part of the island had not been taken into consideration. The fishes lived, but did not propagate. M. Desmanieres at first thought that the large size of the pond might be the cause of this, and he had made two vivaria, which may yet be seen, and which were supplied by the large pond. In these vivaria the gouramis were placed, but the result was no more fortunate. He 22* R 258 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. received from the Isle of France additional fishes, but still had no success. Finally, having transferred his fishes into a vivarium near the seashore, he succeeded in inducing propagation. This experiment had, however, taken thirty years, and during this time, success in propagating the species in the island had become despaired of. As has been seen, acclimatization often depends on causes very simple in appearance, but which are only discovered after a long time. Since the period named, the fish has been widely spread through the island," and is now abundant. The next earnest attempt to introduce the species into a distant country was made at the instance of M. Moreau de Jonnes, who, in 1818, induced the "minister of marine" of France to order the transportation of specimens to the French possessions in the West Indies. Accordingly, in April, 1819, a hundred small fishes were intrusted to the care of M. De Mackau, captain of a store-ship Le Grolo and the interest and zealous care manifested by that officer were rewarded by the comparatively slight loss of only twenty-three fishes during the entire voyage to the West Indies ; and when it is recalled that a slight blow, an abra- sion of the sides, or loss of a scale may cause death, and the difficulty of adjusting the supply of fresh water, &c., to their necessities is taken into consideration, the small per- centage of the lost must be considered as remarkable. Of the seventy-seven which remained alive, twenty-six were distributed to the islands of Martinique and Guade- loupe severally, and twenty-five to the colony of Cayenne. The fortunes of the strangers in their new places of abode were various. Cuvier and Valenciennes, in the seventh volume of their " Histoire Naturelle des Poissons," pub- lished in 1831, acknowledge the reception of one of the fishes originally taken from Isle-de-France to Cayenne. The belief that their acclimatization in America had sue- APPENDIX. 259 ceeded has even found utterance in the statement as a fact which has obtained currency in several publications. Al- though the fishes introduced continued to live, none seemed to be fruitful in their new quarters, and there is no pub- lished evidence that any individuals of the species are now We living in America. have the fullest and most authen- tic details concerning its fate in Martinique. The little fishes, on their arrival at Martinique, were placed in a large basin of fresh water ; the largest of them was only about three French inches long. Some months after, they were transferred to a small pond in the botanic garden of Saint Pierre ; all were still alive and healthy, and had attained a length of from ten to twelve inches. Their subsequent increase was, however, much less rapid, and nearly six years were required to little more than double that length, for in 1827 the largest had only gained a length of from twenty-four to twenty-seven inches. The subsequent rate of increase was still less rapid, as might naturally be supposed ; and the last survivor of the original twenty-six, which was served on the table in 1846, twenty- seven years after its arrival at Martinique, measured about a metre or somewhat more than thirty-nine inches in length. None of these fishes had been able to propagate their race in the island during all this time. Five years after their introduction, a formal announcement was, in- deed, made that numerous young gourami had made their appearance in two broods, at intervals of only six months, but it was soon discovered that the supposed young gourami were native fishes that had gained entrance into .the preserves of the gourami. The sudden revulsion from ^u hope and high expectations to which the apparent su. cu.ss had given rise, to chagrin and despair, unhappily reacted on the poor fishes, and was doubtless enhanced by the ridi- cule which the exposure of the nature of the discovery 260 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. entailed on the historian of that discovery, and which engendered a proverbial expression in the island. The prospect of propagating the gourami appearing hopeless, one after another was caught and served up on the table of the governor when a distinguished guest was to be entertained, and thus was the last disposed of in 1846. Although equally full details have not been published concerning those introduced into Guadeloupe and Cayenne, no greater success appears to have rewarded the attempts to propagate the species. As to the latter, it has recently been stated that the fish known as connani is the same as the gourami, and occurs abundantly in the rivers of Guiana, but the connani is evidently an entirely different fish, and even a member of a very distinct family. Repeated attempts have been made in recent years to introduce the gourami into France, Algiers, and Egypt, but the fishes have either died on their way to their respective destinations, or have survived for but a short time their introduction into the new waters a sudden diminu- ; tion of the temperature has proved disastrous in its results to them, and the greatest care and precaution are necessary to protect them from the changes of the weather. The last attempt to introduce the gourami into France which has come to the knowledge of the compiler was made in the spring of 1865. Nineteen young fishes, in a glass vase, were consigned to the steamer running between Mauritius and Suez, which left the former place on the 20th of March. All survived the perils of the voyage as far as Alexandria; but on the route from that place to Marseilles, where a comparatively low and unequal temperature prevailed, eight of them died. Of the eleven that arrived in safety, one other died the following night ; but the fate of the rest has not been recorded in the French periodicals yet received at Washington. APPENDIX. 261 Eleven young gouramis were also safely transported, in the autumn of 1864, from the island of Mauritius to Al- geria, but their fate is likewise unknown. Attempts have been made to introduce the species into Egypt; but the results, so far as known, have not proved favorable. The interest excited in the gourami, and the attempts to acclimatize it, have not been confined to the French. The English settlers of Australia and Tasmania have endeavored to introduce the species into their waters, and individuals have survived the voyage to those distant countries. At Victoria, Melbourne, and Hobartstown, there are acclima- tization societies which have undertaken the introduction, into their respective districts, of desirable plants and ani- mals ; and of the fishes, the gourami has been one of the most sought for. Individuals of that species were secured for Victoria, through the exertions of a merchant of the town, but the history of the undertaking is unknown. At Melbourne, after unsuccessful efforts, the Society of Accli- matization finally received, from Mauritius, eighteen living fish, out of a total of thirty that were embarked for that place. No accessible record exists of its introduction into Tasmania. The impracticability of naturalizing it in cold countries. Such is the history of the more prominent attempts to introduce the gourami into foreign waters. The narrative will readily demonstrate that its acclimatization in even warm temperate countries is by no means easy ; and the natural inference, resulting from a study of the fate of those efforts, is that it will be useless to attempt its domiciliation in countries where the temperature in winter is sufficiently low to allow ice to form on the streams. If, therefore, it is desired to introduce the fish in the American waters, the attempt must be made in the Southern States, and in warm or protected pools or ponds. It will 262 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. be doubtful whether it can be propagated even there at first, and the habits of the species must be still more closely studied in order to ascertain why it should have proven sterile in the West Indian islands and Cayenne. It cannot have been on account of want of sufficient heat, for the mean temperature is not very different from that of Mauri- tius nor can it be due to the difference in time of the seaj sons, for the species has been successfully acclimatized in China, which is north of the tropics, as well as in Mauri- tius and Reunion. The cause of sterility is, therefore, at present inexplicable ; but when it is known, it may perhaps be counteracted. It would appear to be extremely doubt- ful whether the species can be introduced and reared in France ; but yet it must be remembered that so eminently experienced and scientific a man as M. Coste, the acade- mician, has pronounced the opinion that it can be effected, and he has published instructions to guide those to whom carriage of specimens may be intrusted. Possibly by per- sistence of effort, and by selection of hardy individuals for stock, success may eventually be attained ; and if such can be had for France, there seems to be no reason why like fortune should not be expected in the United States, as far north as the latitude of Virginia. Doubtless, the fish would be a very valuable acquisition if it could be reared, and the more so as it is herbivorous, while the most es- teemed fishes, found in the more temperate regions of the United States, are more or less carnivorous. Rules for transportation and introduction. As to the introduction, it would, probably, be more readily effected by the transportation of nests with the ova, than by that of the fishes themselves, and such a course would at least re- quire less care and attention, and would have the additional advantage of furnishing so many more individuals to select APPENDIX. 263 from. If, for any reasons, it is preferred to experiment with the young, the smallest should be chosen, and they should be placed in wooden or earthenware vessels ; the latter would be preferable, and those having a capacity of from ten to fifteen gallons would perhaps be best, but tubs or casks, when perfectly clean, may be used. The recep- tacle, whatever it may be, should be suspended, in order to avoid the disturbance of its contents by the incessant roll- ing of the vessel, such motion being prejudicial to the welfare of the fishes. The fishes should also be fed, and a supply of suitable plants should, therefore, accompany them. I may conclude with a translation of the specific instructions of M. Coste, from whom, indeed, I have de- rived the hints above offered : " 1. Very young fishes should be selected. " 2. These fishes should be distributed among several receptacles. " 3. Care should be taken not to crowd too many together in one receptacle. " 4. The water should be renewed partially or entirely whenever it becomes necessary " 5. It should also be aerated from time to time. " 6. The fishes should be fed whenever they shall seem to require it. " 7. The remains from the food which has been given to the fishes should be carefully taken up from the bottom of the receptacle, and removed within eight hours after feeding; the dejections and other impurities which would in- jure the water should also be removed. " 8. Finally, the several receptacles should be kept in different places, and under various conditions." 264 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. VII. COLD SPRING TROUT-PONDS. The following account of these ponds, and matters connected with them, has been written out by the proprietor. Rev. Livingston Stone, at my own request, for this book. It was not until I had completed the chapters on troutbreeding, that I received any communication from Mr. Stone. Having occasion to write him in regard to the salmon ova placed under his charge by the New Hampshire Fish Commission, I found from his letters in reply, that his establishment was more extensive, and embraced the cultivation of a greater variety, than I had supposed. It will be seen that he fully endorses in its many bearings, all that I have said as to the importance of fish culture. His remarks on the necessity, when one rears them in large numbers, of having young trout in a defined space where they can be fed and attended to, in substance, correspond with the directions I have given. Though neither of us was aware of the other having engaged in this line of business, we have from similar experience and experiments, arrived at the same conclusions on the most important points connected with it. Mr. Stone's rearing-box, a model of which he sent me a few weeks since, is the most complete contrivance of the kind I have seen, and is particularly adapted to the wants of those who wish to raise a few thousand young trout. With the accompanying directions, the proper requisites, and with ordinary care, one can scarcely go wrong. APPENDIX. 265 The Cold Spring Trout Ponds are situated in Charlestown, N. H., which is a town on the Connecticut river, about 40 miles north of the Massachusetts line. The ponds and hatching-works are built on two streams, the smaller of which, with a hatching capacity of about five millions, is used chiefly for hatching purposes. On the larger stream are the spawning-beds and the ponds for the breeding trout. The hatching-houses are located at the head of the smaller stream, just where the springs issue from the ground. The springs are peculiarly well adapted to their purpose, being very large and of even temperature, standing at about 47 Fahrenheit from the first of December to the first of May. As is the case with other springs running at a considerable depth below the surface, they are a trifle warmer on the first of December than on the first of May. The success which has been met with in these hatching-works is of the most encouraging kind. In some of the most favorably situated boxes, containing trout spawn, the loss was almost nothing, hardly three per cent., while in the salmon beds it was even less, being under one per cent. The whole amount hatched this season was between one hundred and fifty thousand, and two hundred thousand trout, and ninety -nine per cent, of the impregnated salmon eggs deposited here by the New Hampshire Commission- ers. The water, however, on this stream is rather too cold for growing trout well, so after they are hatched and begin to feed, they are taken down to the larger stream, also fed by perennial springs, but warmer in the summer, where they are kept in rearing-boxes until winter. There is now a large stock of breeders on this stream, which will be increased by the next spawning season to thirty thousand, some of them varying from a half a pound in weight, to a 23 266 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. pound and upwards. It is expected that a very large supply of spawn will be taken from them this fall. There is connected with the Cold Spring Ponds, a farm of five hundred or six hundred acres, situate on a spur of Monadnock Mountain, sixteen hundred feet above the level of the sea. Through this farm, runs one of the finest streams for growing trout that can be found in New England. It is the outlet of Monadnock Lake famous for the extra; ordinary clearness of its waters, and the superior size and quality of its trout, and not being exposed to freshets, but supplied wholly by springs, it never rises nor falls the year round. This last circumstance makes the stream a safe one for trout growing, while its great size makes it capable of sustaining an almost unlimited stock of fish. The object of having this place connected with the Cold Spring Ponds at Charlestown, is to try the experiment on a large scale of raising trout as an article of food. All the conditions here are favorable to the experiment, and no pains will be spared to give it a fair trial. If trout cannot be raised here successfully on a large scale, it seems safe to say that they cannot be raised anywhere successfully. There is a small stock of fifty thousand trout on the stream at present, which it is hoped will be increased by an addition each spring of a quarter of a million and upwards. They will be kept till the first of December in rearingboxes, when they will be transferred to ponds built for them. More than usual interest is felt in this branch of the establishment, from the fact that no attempt to raise trout in large numbers from the eggs, has ever yet succeeded. Here let us say a word about the use of a rearingbox in growing trout. It is the firm conviction of the writer, that a rearing-box is indispensable to the culture of trout in large numbers. As all know, who have had any experience in raising trout when the young fry are APPENDIX. 2fi7 thrown promiscuously into a pond, there is an inexplicable but constant waste going on all the time, and the greater the number of fish, compared with the size of the pond, the greater the waste becomes. Then, again, the streams which are generally used for growing trout are too small to supply natural food to any large number of fish, while at the same time the ponds built on them, are too large to allow of systematic artificial feeding. The consequence is that the young trout above a certain numerical limit die of starvation. It is therefore very desirable indispensable we may say to confine them where the waste just mentioned may be prevented or at least observed and accounted for, and where they can be held well in hand, for the purposes of artificial feeding. It is with these objects in view that the rearing-box is constructed, and it is thought that it will revolutionize the system of trout raising, as from 60 to 80 per cent, of young fry can now be raised, even when millions are experimented with, while by the old method of pond growing, it was difficult to rear any considerable percentage in so limited a number even as ten thousand. The rearing-box now in use at the Cold Spring Ponds, seems to combine all the requisite points, and is recommended to all, who prefer to adopt this method of rearing trout or salmon. Another branch of the Cold Spring Ponds is the black bass department. The stock of black bass breeders at the ponds is not extensive, but large numbers of this fish have been caught, and are now confined in ponds in the state of New York, and in the northern part of Vermont, for use during the spawning season, which contrary to the usual statements in books, is for that latitude, during the month of June, instead of April and May.* From these * In the chapter on naturalization, I mentioned the size of bass at a year old in a pond near Newburgh, and remarked also that I 268 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. spawners a large number of ova will be taken, and transferred to the beds at Charlestown to be hatched but as ; bass hatching has not yet been reduced to a science like trout and salmon hatching, no such results are expected as have been obtained with these latter named fish. The hatching-beds for the bass are built on the lower stream of the Cold Spring Ponds, the other being too cold in the summer to answer the purpose. There is still another branch of this fish-breeding estab- lishment, and without doubt the most important one, viz. ; the salmon breeding ponds on the Miramichi river in New Brunswick. Here a salmon fishery has been secured, and everything put under way, for carrying on large salmon- breeding works, on the same principle but on a larger scale A as the trout-breeding ponds at Charlestown. large quantity of salmon ova and young salmon will be taken here this fall, and it is hoped that those who are interested in restocking the American rivers with salmon, will not be slow to avail themselves of this opportunity of obtaining the ova or young fish. It is very gratifying to see the daily increasing interest in the community, in having our barren and profitless streams and ponds replenished with fish. People seem to be waking up to a sense of the value of water, as a food- producing agent, and all are beginning to understand, that in our lakes and rivers are to be found a source of revenue, too promising to be neglected. Indeed a fish-raising fever saw numerous fry of this season near the margin of the pond. These young fish were not less than an inch long on the 12th of June, and consequently must have come from spawn deposited the latter part of April or in May. I do not mention this fact in opposition to the above remark, that bass spawn in June in New Hampshire ; a few degrees of latitude will make a great difference in the time of tish that spawn in the spring or early summer. T. N. APPENDIX. 269 is springing up in this country, and people are as eager to procure fish to rear, as ever they were to obtain fancy stock in sheep, or horses, or poultry. This fever will have its rise, culmination and decline without doubt like others similar, but unless the signs of the present are very delusive, its results will be of a vastly more important and sub- stantial. Suppose for instance that the original conditions favorable to the existence of salmon and shad, were restored in a river like the Hudson. Who can estimate the immense value which that river would assume in three or four years ? Millions of dollars would hardly buy the millions of fish that could be taken from its waters. There is nothing to prevent these original conditions being restored in many at least of our rivers. The food of the salmon and shad is found in the sea. Here they get their growth and vigor, and until the illimitable stores of the sea begin to fail in their supply of food, there will exist no necessary obstacles to the restoration of their former fruitf'ulness to our great rivers. It is the same in our lakes and ponds. Where a mere bagatelle of sunfish, and pouts,* and small perch are now caught, thousands of dollars worth of black bass might be reared. It is hoped that all who have the time and opportunity will spare no pains to do their part in replenishing the waters which lie within their reach. The fish-raising fever may have a similar run to many others, but it is one which every one should encour- age, inasmuch as in its consequences, it will react in the most beneficial manner upon all members of the community, both rich and poor, but especially upon the poor. The great desideratum which is now sought, is, to bring fish culture out of the province of mere fancy work, where 23* * Catfish. 270 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. it is only the amusement and recreation of a few wealthy men, and to make it an every-day practical thing with every one who has the water facilities for engaging in it. What we want, is, to have poor men earn their living or a part of their living hy fish culture. If this end can be reached, then the new fish-raising movement, is worthy the attention and encouragement of every public-spirited man. All that is needed to effect this end, in the opinion of the writer, is, care, study, and perseverance in the work. Nature supplies, in the countless numbers of ova in fish, boundless resources to start from. All that man has to do, is to provide the conditions requisite to avail himself of nature's vast supplies. It seems as if he might do this, as yet no insuperable obstacle has presented itself. Everything conspires to confirm the most ardent faith in favora- ble results. Let every one who is interested in this movement give what time and effort he can spare, and in less time than we suppose, a complete revolution may be effected in our American waters, and our barren rivers and profitless ponds be made the repositories of great wealth. The Salmon for the Connecticut River. The salmon spawn sent to the Cold Spring Trout Ponds by the N. II. Commissioners in the fall of 18G7 to be hatched for the Connecticut river, arrived at their destination on the even- ing of the 22d of November. They were taken in the Miramichi river, on the 10th, 18th and 22d of October, by Dr. Fletcher, of Concord, N. H., by whom they were carefully packed in wet moss, enclosed in champagne baskets. On their arrival at Charlestown they were unpacked as speedily as possible, and after being thoroughly separated from the moss, were deposited in the hatching-beds prepared for them. Large, round, plump, and of a beautiful salmon color, they looked very prettily resting on the clean gravel, in the clear running water. But a -more gratifying APPENDIX. 271 sight still, was the egg by itself, when held up to the light and examined ; for there within the thin transparent shell, could be seen the curled body of the young embryo, and the two distinct black specks which were to be its eyes. It turned out, however, that only about twenty-five per cent, of the ova were impregnated. This, however, experience has shown to be as large a percentage as could be expected from fish caught with a spear, as Dr. Fletcher was obliged to take them. The un impregnated eggs gradually became opaque and were removed from the beds, although some remained unturned long after the good eggs were hatched, and could be clearly seen then, as all along previously, to be perfectly empty. The impregnated eggs did remarkably well; almost all of thiem lived, and hatched considerably over ninety-nine per cent. The newly hatched salmon were very lively, and the loss by death, while the yolk sac remained, was very small, even less than when in the egg state. After the sac disappeared there was a slight mortality among the young fish for a few days. Since then they have been very healthy, and are now doing finely. They were transferred, a short time after becoming fully formed fish, from the hatching-beds to the rearing-box of the Cold Spring Ponds, where they are still kept. It is the plan of the commissioners to have them retained and reared artificially, until they are ready to go to the sea, which will be next spring for one-half of them, and the succeeding spring for the other half. The number which was obtained this year for the Con- necticut river, is wholly inadequate to the requirements of a river of such magnitude, and the movement made this year for stocking it with salmon, is to be regarded as experimental merely. The few thousand smolts that come from this batch of eggs will hardly be heard from again in so large a river, but it is hoped that hereafter when the 272 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. plans for the purpose become more matured, the young salmon will be put in the river by the hundred thousand instead of by the thousand. Then we shall without doubt have returns, which well correspond in some more adequate measure to the great opportunities which are presented to VIII. CLOVE SPRINO TROUT PONDS. Mr. Christie takes his supply from two springs of unvarying temperature, discharging seven hundred gallons a minute. They are situated on the brow of a pretty hill, shaded by fine old oaks and wide-spreading sugar maples, about twenty-five feet above the level of the meadow below. Although flowing through strata of limestone, the water is of the kind termed " soft." Before the door of the dwell- ing-house he is erecting in the grove, and on the slope of the hill, stretch the two larger ponds parallel with each other, and divided by embankments ten feet wMe. The upper, which he calls pond No. 2, is about two hundred and twenty-five feet long by twenty wide, the depth averaging something over four feet. The lower, which is pond No. 3, is of the same length, thirty feet wide, and varying in depth from five to twelve feet. Each pond has an outlet in the bottom to draw it off, should it be necessary to do so at any future time. A * short time after the salmon began to be hatched at the Cold Spring Ponds, they received a visit from Theodore Lyman, Esq., the secretary of the New England commissioners, who carried spe- cimens of the embryos of both eggs and young fry to Prof. Agassiz, by whom very accurate drawings were taken of the embryos in dif- ferent stages of development. The eggs and young fish themselves were preserved in alcohol, and can now be seen on the shelves of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge. APPENDIX. 273 The smaller of the two springs which is five feet higher up the hill than the larger, is led off to one side to supply the hatching-house and nursery. After which the water unites with that from the large spring, and flows through two rearing-races into pond No. 1, and then through spawning-races into ponds No. 2 and No. 3. The young trout are kept from the time they leave the nursery and rearingraces until they are about twenty-one months old in pond No. 1. After this age they are to occupy pond No. 2 for a year, and then pond No. 3, from which they are to be taken for market. The hatching-house, forty-four feet long and sixteen feet wide, occupies, in part, an excavation made in the side of the hill, and extends out on a sloping lawn. The fall from the upper spring is sufficient to allow of the hatching-troughs being elevated three feet above the level of the floor. Thereby saving a great deal of laborious stooping during the hatching-season. The nurseries or rearing-troughs are also elevated, and discharge by miniature fish-ways into the rearing-races supplying pond No. 1, which extends on the lawn between the hatching-house and No. 2. The hatching-house is planned for eight troughs, each thirty-two feet long, in case he should require as many. Each trough being divided into twenty nests, and each nest holding four or five thousand eggs, he will be able, if he should find sale for them, to lay down from six to eight hundred thousand eggs every season. In the meadow below and in full view from his dwellinghouse. Mr. Christie will have a pond or miniature lake of six or eight acres, into which he will discharge all his trout from pond No. 3 that may be unsold at the end of each season, as well as the young fish he may not find sale for. Here, by the time the pond is stocked there will be a great deal of natural food. He will introduce chub, shiners, s 274 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. killies and other harmless species, to increase the amount of food. This pond he will keep as a preserve for angling. The hatching-house and ponds are in accordance with plans furnished by the writer ; the former having been enlarged and improved in some of its details by the owner. Mr. Christie commenced his ponds in the summer of 1867 ; not being completed in time, he erected a temporary hatching-house last fall, and succeeded, with the assistance of the writer, beyond his anticipations ; having no place for his young fish, he sold them in the neighborhood, and supplied persons at a distance with eggs. Out of eight thousand sold to Mr. Comfort, on the Norristown railroad, only seven or eight imperfect eggs were found on delivery. He has a goodly supply at present, and by the spawning- season, has a fair prospect of increasing his number of brood- trout to three thousand. He has offers from persons in his neighborhood, who have facility for rearing trout, but none for hatching them, to take his surplus fry and grow them for market, each party to participate in the profits. His address is P. H. Christie, Clove, Dutchess county, New York. IX. CULTIVATION OP FUR-BEARING ANIMALS. Since fish culture has been introduced in this country, many persons have become convinced that the high price which the finer furs command, will justify the domestica- A tion of animals from which they are taken. fine mink skin, for instance, will bring from six to ten dollars when sold to the furrier. As this newer branch of industry is attracting some attention, I may appropriately give the following from a Montreal paper. APPENDIX. 275 BREEDING THE MINK. CASADAGA, Chantauqua Co., N. Y., Jan. 21. " I have just availed myself of an opportunity to fulfil your desire that I should visit the ' Minkery' at this place, concerning which a few brief paragraphs have floated through the newspapers, and give to the readers of the " Express" some description of the very novel and interests ing experiment undertaken by Messrs. Phillips & Wood- cock, in breeding and domesticating the Mink. I found their ' peculiar institution' as curious as I had been led to expect, and as well worth an examination. It possesses not only the interest which naturalists would find in it, from the remarkable opportunity it affords for studying the habits of a singular and little known animal, but it represents one of the beginnings of a new branch of animal propagation and domestic culture, which is destined, I have no doubt at all, to assume great importance hereafter. When we consider, on the one hand, how constantly a demand for the finer furs is increasing from year to year, while the supply still more rapidly diminishes, as the ani- mals furnishing such furs are exterminated in their wild state by the encroachment of civilization upon their haunts, we can see very well that the question whether these fur- bearing animals are capable of domestic propagation or not is a serious one, and that to determine by experiment that they are, is to found a description of business which can hardly fail to grow extensive and important. If the wealthy society of northern climates has no recourse but to the trapper for its furs, it will soon have to dispense with that elegant luxury ; for the wild domain of nature is being so rapidly narrowed on both continents, that the trapper will, at no distant day, have his hunting field limited to the polar circle. " But here, at this juncture, when the prospect of an 276 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. exhausted fur trade begins to be made pressing by enormous prices, comes up the idea of these gentlemen in this region of country who have undertaken, with thoroughly Yankee shrewdness, to propagate one of the most valuable of the fur-bearing animals, the mink, in a state of semi- domestica- tion or confinement ; and the fact that their experiment is so far promising nothing but successful results, is a fact to be announced as one of public interest and importance. " Messrs. Phillips & Woodcock, whose ' Minkery' I have visited, are not, I believe, the pioneers of the business, but entered upon it with some guidance from the experience of others who, during late years, have been testing the domestication of the mink. They commenced their under- taking in December, 1866, with seven pairs of spring ' kittens,' as they call them, from which they expected no increase the following spring last year. They were agreeably disappointed, however, by obtaining young from six of the females, altogether to the number of twenty-six. The product was from one to seven each, showing a remark- able variation. It is said by those experienced that the prolificness of the mink at the age at which this increase was obtained, may be considered as its minimum, as it is common for them in later periods to bear from six to nine annually ; so that the seven original pairs may be expected to largely increase their progeny next spring, while the young ' kittens' of last spring will at the same time become fruitful. Another year, therefore, is likely to multiply the present stock of the breeders several times. " The ' Minkery/ designed to accommodate one hundred minks for breeding, consists, first, of an enclosure about forty feet square, made by digging a trench one foot deep, laying a plank at the bottom, and from the outer edge starting the wall, which consists of boards four feet high, with a board to cap the top, projecting inward eight or ten inches to . APPENDIX. 277 prevent their climbing over. Within this enclosure is a building fourteen by twenty-four, supplied with running water, from which the mink catch living fish, that are often furnished, with the greatest delight. The building is constructed with an alley three feet wide around its entire circumference. Within, are two rows of cells four feet deep, and from two and two and a half wide, each having a door ventilated at the top and bottom with wire screens, as is also the outer wall opposite the cell. There is also at the front entrance what the proprietors call the ante-rooms, four by four feet, which must be fastened within every time the building is entered to prevent the escape of the impri- soned animals. On entering the main hall, which the minks have access to (when not rearing their young), they present a very playful group. The person feeding them is often mounted for their food, and their tenacity of hold is so strong that they may be drawn about or lifted without releasing their hold upon the food. The nest of the female is very peculiarly constructed of grass, leaves, or straw, with a lining of her own fur so firmly compacted together as to be with difficulty torn in pieces. The aperture leading to the nest is a round opening just sufficient to admit the dam, and is provided with a deflected curtain, which covers the entrance and effectually secures her against all invasion when she is within. About the middle of March the females are separated from the males until the young are reared. The necessity of this arises from the fact that the male seems inclined to brood the young almost as much as the dam, when both are permitted to remain together. " The expense of feeding the animals is almost nominal, being supplied pretty much entirely from the usual offal of the farm-yard, with occasional woodchucks and game in general. They eat this food with equal avidity after 24 278 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. decomposition has taken place, devouring every particle of flesh, cartilages, and the softer bones. The flesh and bones entire of the woodchuck are consumed often at a single meal. While the expense of" keeping is thus trivial, the profitable yield of the animal is immense, it being consi- dered a moderate estimate to claim that one mink with her increase will equal the avails of a cow. Should this calcu- lation hold good when the propagation of the mink is carried to a large scale, the business will become one of the most profitable in the world. " So far, the experience of these gentlemen with the undomesticated mink has not been satisfactory, as their shyness cannot be overcome, and they have never obtained any increase from the animals in their wild state. They had to be taken when young and domesticated. " Casadaga, the scene of this novel experiment, is a pretty village very pleasantly situated upon the shore of Casadaga Lake, which is three miles long, abounding with fish, and its waters supplied entirely by springs. It is the very dividing ridge of waters between the great courses of the north and south. The town will be reached one year hence, probably, by the Dunkirk, Warren, and Pittsburgh Railroad, now distant ten miles from Dunkirk. It has a population of a few hundred, does some manufacturing, has two dry- goods stores, two groceries, and good fishing, as many a Buffalonian can attest." X. AMERICAN FISH FOR ENGLISH WATERS. In a chapter on the naturalization of fishes, I have alluded to a suggestion which I made to Mr. Francis, concerning the advantages of acclimating the smaller species of catfish APPENDIX. 279 in the waste waters of England. As it may be a matter of interest to some persons to know what other fishes are recommended, I give my letter as published in " The Field" with some few corrections, as well as Mr. Francis's very sensible remarks prefacing it. I also give some extracts from Mr. Francis's letter in reply to mine, which I regret to say, does not show that the acclimation of fresh water species is making the progress we had hoped for. SIR, The accompanying letter from a gentleman in the United States contains so much which cannot fail to be exceedingly interesting to a large portion of the readers of " The Field," that I have no hesitation in making it public, merely suppressing the name of the writer. The question of whether salmon can propagate when cut off from the sea receives here a very valuable reply ; for although we can- not of course be certain that the fish noted by T. N. really were true salmon originally, there is 'a great air of proba- bility in the surmise ; and it seems difficult to understand what particular effect upon the constitution or organs of generation of fishes the salt water can have, that any par- ticular fish which breeds in fresh water should be inca- pacitated from procreation by the want of a trip to the sea. My own theory is, that it is simply the want of that profuse nourishment which the sea affords which is felt by the fish ; and until the experiment suggested by me some time since, of confining some kelts* and feeding them abundantly, is tried with a view to see how far the fish can be restored to condition without a visit to the salt water, we can form but a mere conjectural opinion on the subject, which is of little value. No doubt the fish noted by T. N. here, are the * This term is applied to salmon which have recently spawned. T. N. 280 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. same as those mentioned a few weeks since by your corres- A " pondent Wandering Naturalist," who speaks of a fish which he calls " the silvery salmon trout" of the Schoodic Lakes and the St. Croix. As regards the introduction of American fish, there are undoubtedly many which would be of great value to us ; and, if we had any piscatorial society in this country, immense benefits might be conferred upon our rivers and lakes by means of it. One or two attempts have been made to introduce American fish, but they have failed, for the want of the commonest care. Here is an account, from another correspondent of mine in the States, of the failure of an attempt to bring over the bass : " met with a misfortune before he left here. He got a letter of introduction to a person in who , had black bass for sale, and he employed mechanics, who constructed a water tank* for transporting his fish in, and started after the bass. The gentleman who owns the bass ponds entertained him hospitably, made his men draw a pond for bass, and presented the bass to who started , with them for this city. After three hours' travel by rail the fish appeared sound and healthy ; and, being then on board a steamer which would reach here the next morning, he did not think it neces- sary to change the water, add more, or vivify it by an air pump. The result was, that when he arrived here the next morning his fish were all dead, and his water tank, which cost forty dollars, a dead My . loss. chagrin or regret hardly prevented me from character- izing the affair as it deserved. But, 's faux pas notwithstand- ing, I can send back bass to England." Comment upon such a wretched failure is scarcely necessary. The worst of these failures is, that they deter others from attempting again a thing which, after all, with the * Fish with sharp spines should have twice as much room in transporting them as soft finned fish, as they are apt to wound each other if too closely confined. T. N. APPENDIX. 281 commonest care, may be comparatively easy. The stocking of the Potomac with salmon bass is an instance, on the other side, of what a little shrewdness and readiness in resource may do. Many of these American fishes, as the bass, shad, &c., would be particularly valuable to us as estuary fish, and there are very few of our rivers which they would not suit; and, after being naturalized in one or two, they would spread to others of their own accord. Unfortunately, however, if they get on but slowly in the progress of pisciculture in the United States, we do not get on at all. In fact, if we are doing anything, we are going back. This is most unfortunate, as there really is a splendid field of operations in this country, if there were any means of directing, assisting, and encouraging those operations. FRANCIS FRANCIS. Dear Sir, In the second edition of your valuable work on fish culture, page 21, you speak of a species of salmon above the Falls of Niagara, in the great lakes, visiting the vicinity of Salt Springs, &c. I refer you to the passage. In accordance with the wish you express, I would say there are no salmon above the falls alluded to ; that they were never known there. The only species of salmo attaining the size of the salmon are Salmo naymacush, and another lately detected by Professor Agassiz I forget the scientific name just now, but previously it was confounded with S. naymacush. Both of these species grow to the weight of 801b., and have been known larger. They are inferior fish, both in beauty and flavor, compared with the anadromous salmon. In habits, and in fact in appearance, they are very like your Salmo ferox of Scotland. Now as to a salmon we have, which does not go to sea. It is found in the Schoodic Lakes, which are drained by 24* 282 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. and connect with the St. Croix, which river divides the state of Maine from the British province of New Bruns- wich. Agassiz says there is no doubt of there being landlocked salmon, having all the specific characteristics of Salmo solar. It is supposed that in past centuries, perhaps ages ago, some obstruction was interposed, and, not being able to go to sea, they eventually propagated their species, and remained, producing dwarf salmon ; and, though having free access to the ocean since, have been so modified as to lose their anadromous instinct, and do not attempt to migrate. They are much like grilse in the sport they afford, leap often and high when hooked, and not less plucky for their size, which averages about Ijlb., though some- times they attain 41b. or 51b., and in rare cases 71b. Great catches are made every summer by anglers on both sides of the border. Capt. C., R. A., stationed at Fredericktown, N. B., is very successful in taking them. The sport is only with the fly, of course, large trout flies being generally used. This fish would do splendidly in your Scottish rivers and lakes, particularly where the latter are connected by the former. In reading your account of the introduction of Silurus glanis into England, the thought occurred to me that the smaller species of our catfish, of which there are two, the white and yellow, would be a great acquisition to your slug- gish and fat waters. They are exceeding fine pan fish, the heads being taken off" when so cooked, and they make an excellent stew with the heads on. In the former case they are skinned as eels ; in the latter only scraped and cleansed, the skin and head remaining, contributing to the gluten, which adds to the richness of the stew. There are some gigantic species of this fish in streams of the Mississippi valley, but they are coarse, tough, and distasteful. They are exceedingly hardy, and occupy such habitat as eels APPENDIX. 283 generally do. They can hardly be called predacious, but herbiverous, as carp are, and therefore not destructive to the fry of finer species. Although fond of muddy streams and still waters, they will thrive in any water, and would perhaps improve on the condition of the Thames below London, which is so detrimental to other fish. They are found all spring, summer, and autumn, in our Philadelphia market, tied in bunches, unhided and decapitated, and hawked about the streets by fish women. The texture of the meat is something like trout, and they are next to that fish in excellence for the pan. Another fish I have for some time thought of bringing to your notice you have made slight allusion to it the black bass. There are two species : Gri/stes nigricans, the lake bass ; and Grystes salmoides, the bass of the western and southern waters (by west I mean west of the Allegheny mountains). They are predacious rascals, though, and would play havoc with salmon fry, and therefore should not be introduced into such streams ; the G. nigricans, however, would seldom if ever go out of the lakes, especially into such water as salmon^ spawn in, though the other species might. Both of these species are very easily naturalized in any new habitat. Many of our lakelets, ponds, and millponds have become productive of G. nigricans. The other fish, G. salmoides, has been introduced into the Potomac, and become abundant there. Three rods have made a catch in a day of 3261b. This fish was unknown in the Potomac until about fourteen years since, when an engineer on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, as he was about starting eastward, put twenty of them into a bag-net and soused them into the water tank of the locomotive. When he arrived at Cumberland, a town on the eastern side of the mountains, he let the fish loose into the Potomac, a diminutive 284 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. stream there, and the consequence is they have multiplied in all the tributaries of that river (and now afford fine sport, as they rise beautifully at the fly, and are excellent eating) as far down as the Great Falls, about twenty-five miles above Washington. Not being anadroinous, they show no disposition to shoot the falls and make their escape to tide water. I would say further of the catfish, that any mercantile . house at Philadelphia or Baltimore, in connection with London or Liverpool, could easily procure a few score of them and send them over. They are so hardy that the steward of a steamer or sailing vessel, for a small fee, would take charge of them, and land them with little or no loss in numbers. In conclusion of this letter, I must thank you for the instruction I have derived from your book on fish culture, as well as that on angling ; and, further, would ask the favor of your sending me any further information in a printed form that has appeared on the stocking of salmon rivers in Great Britain, the progress of the Thames Angling A^ Preservation Society, &c. are making but slow pro- gress in pisciculture here, but are beginning to open our eyes to its advantages in bringing back salmon and shad to the rivers from which we have banished them, and are doing something at least to this end. By the way, if you could introduce our shad into your rivers, it would be a great acquisition; its average size is S^lbs. to 41bs., and it grows to Tibs. All of your country- men who have eaten of it here can testify as to its juicy, delicate flavor. It also smokes and salts down well. Fur- ther in its favor, it is a sea fish, paying only one annual visit to our rivers, and that for the purpose of spawning ; deriving all its growth from its feeding-grounds at sea, like the salmon, but, unlike that fish, increasing in fresh water, APPENDIX. 285 up to the time of its spawning, in both flesh and flavor. No food, however, has been at any time found in its stomach after entering our rivers. There may be one obstacle, however, to its introduction into European rivers ; this is, that its spawn hatches out in the incredibly short time of fifty-two hours. It was so proved on the Connecti- cut river last summer, when forty millions of young shad were produced by artificial impregnation and incubation, and turned loose in that river. The young shad migrates to sea the first summer. T. N. Francis Francis, Esq., Twickenham. The following is Mr. Francis's letter on receipt of the author's. THE FURS, Twickenham, Middlesex. DEAR SIR, Very many thanks for your most interesting letter, which was so interesting to me that I took the liberty of publishing it in " The Field," and herewith I send you a copy of the paper with a few remarks of my own introductory. I hope you will not think I have taken an undue liberty ; but T thought as I did not publish the name, that I might do so. Singularly enough, the publication of it with my remarks has turned up a prospect of something useful resulting. For the Earl of Breadalbane, who is an old acquaintance of mine, wrote to me this morning upon the subject, and said if I would start a piscicultural society he would make a commencement, and put his name down for 100 and a yearly subscription of 10 or 20 as. the case might require. Since the acclimatization society broke up my fish cultural establishment, we have been at a ********* standstill. Indeed, we have been going back, and nothing practical has been done in pisciculture or even attempted. A great fuss has been made about stocking the Thames with salmon. Hundreds of pounds have been spent, and 286 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. hundreds of thousands of fry have been wasted. For in its present state no salmon fry can pass through the London filth to the sea. I told them that it was impossible from the first. Mr. Ffennel, our late inspector, and every person really acquainted with the salmon, said the same thing. Yet, have they gone on with this insane experiment for six or seven years in succession, and never a single grilse has been seen above London, nor will any be seen until the sewerage, which is terribly poisoned with gas, refuse, and many other matters fatal to fish, can be disposed of, when the thing may be practicable. As regards the young trout put into the river, they are picked up by the perch and pike to a large extent, and those that are left, as they rise freely to the fly, are caught in a considerable number before they get to a pound weight, so that very few ever increase to benefit in any way the stock of the river. I greatly fear that the whole thing is little better than a complete failure. Last season almost the whole of the fry were stolen by one of the men about them, and sold surreptitiously, as they are worth money. There is really no piscicultural news at all boyond this. I wish there was and such being the state of things, I am sorely tempted to try my hand again by Lord Breadalbane's offer, if it were not for the immense amount of trouble and expense which such work entails without any prospect of paying even in the long run. Lord B. was much struck with your remarks on the catfish,* &c., * ]jt will be seen on page 216 how these fish can be transported in wet cloths ; last spring a few of them were quite lively when shaken from a blanket after the wagon had returned to the city, when they had been out of water for twelve hours. I have no doubt that with some care they could be Rent to England by steamer in the same way. Keeping the cloths saturated with water not over ten degrees above freezing point, and a daily examination to take out any that might die, I think would insure the transportation of at least half of them. The experiment would cost but a trifle. APPENDIX. 287 so probably I may have to trouble you again for further information. XT. DR. J. H. SLACK'S TROUT-BREEDING ESTABLISHMENT. The three illustrations, "Trout Dale Spring," "Trout Dale Hatching-house," and "Trout Dale Fish Ponds," appeared originally in the June number of " Harper's Weekly." The publishers of this book purchased the plates, which, with some little alteration have been made to contribute to the ornate appearance of this appendix. This establishment is in Warren county, New Jersey, near the Musconetcong creek, about a mile and a half from Valley station, on the Central Railroad of New Jersey. It is nine miles east of the town of Easton, Pennsylvania, and sixty-five miles west of New York. It was commenced by the writer in May 1866, and sold in an uncompleted condition to Dr. J. H. Slack, in September 1867. The spring discharges something over a thousand gallons per minute; which is about one-third the flow of the Ingham spring, where the writer is about to construct another trout factory. The water is uniformly at 50 winter and summer. The hatching-house is in accordance with the plan in the third chapter of this book. So, also, are the ponds (which lay parallel to each other in front of the hatching- house) such in their proportions, as I have recommended. Dr. Slack's success, as well as that of others who engage in the business, will depend much on that careful attention to details which I have so strongly urged. 288 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. XII. STEPHEN H. AINSWORTH'S NEW HATCHING-RACE, FOR NATURAL PROPAGATION. On a preceding page I have alluded to the loss of ova which the trout culturist sustains by fish spawning in the race at night, or between the stated times of driving them down into the trap for the purpose of manipulating them. Persons who are not thoroughly acquainted with the indications of ripeness of trout, also take many immature eggs, and from lack of experience do not fecundate all they obtain. To obviate such loss, Mr. Ainsworth has invented the hatching-race described below. It is unnecessary to any that he would submit no plan without giving it much deliberate thought; that he is thoroughly practical, as can be judged from his success in matters belonging to his several avocations : i. e. nurseryman, farmer, and stockraiser. The description of the hatching-race are his own words. " First build the race three or four feet wide, the sides of plank, and bottom of plank or stone nicely paved, so as to have the bottom perfectly clean at all times. Cover the whole bottom of the race with wire screens of zinc or of iron painted, about ten or twelve wires to the inch, so as to hold all the spawn that falls on them. Place these screens on half inch strips of wood so as to hold them and the spawn half an inch above the pavement. Nail these screens on to a one inch frame, and place them side by side the whole length of the race ; which may be from ten to fifty feet long, according to the number of spawning trout. APPENDIX. 289 " Then make another set of wire screens, of about three wires to the inch, so that the spawn will fall through with ease, and nail these on to a frame one by two inches. Have handles on all of them, so as to take them up easily. Place these over the fine ones, which will give a space of one inch between the top and bottom screens. Now sift gravel through a sieve of two wires to the inch, so as to be sure to get out all the gravel that would pass through the upper screen. Wash this coarse gravel clean, and put it about two inches thick on the upper screens. Then make small nests, within every foot or eighteen inches of each other, by digging nearly down to the wire of the upper screen. " The female trout will whip the gravel in these nests clear down to the wire and deposit their spawn, which will mostly fall through to the lower screen, and be plainly in sight. The male will eject his milt as usual upon them, with the whip of his tail to agitate the water, and thus impregnate them all. The female will now cover them up, and likely sift all the spawn that has lodged in the gravel, through the upper screen on to the lower one, and thus in time deposit all her spawn in perfection and perfectly impreg- nated. " The water should be from ten to twelve inches deep over the gravel in the race, with a gentle current. Should any spawn remain in the gravel, they will be very likely to fall down by raising the upper screens up and down a few times in the water, or with a little sifting at most, so that nearly all will find their way on to the under screen. I would take out all the screens in from one to six days, and place the spawn in my form of hatching box. " Firstly, this method will always ensure perfect impreg- nation ; " Secondly' , it will save three-fourths of the time at least; 25 T 290 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. " Thirdly, it will save all the parent trout in health, whereas, in artificial impregnation it kills some by constant handling ; " Fourthly, the young will be more perfect, stronger, and healthier, from the perfectly mature spawn ; " Fifthly, the trout cannot get at the spawn to eat them ; " Sixthly, it saves a world of care and watching. " These screens can be placed in any stream, and the spawn is taken in perfection. They will handle best the width of the wire cloth, and the length the width of the race, with handles at the ends." XIII. CRUSTACEA. The following extracts from " The Harvest of the Sea," will give some idea of the immense number of Crustacea consumed by the people of London, as well as an insight of the natural history of some of the members of this class of animals. I am not aware of any statistical information having been furnished of the amount of this kind of food, in the United States, but the number of lobsters consumed east of New-York must be immense. Crabs are more commonly eaten south of that city along the whole extent of our coast, and are generally considered a delicacy, soft crabs particularly so. Crabs are found in immense numbers in the shoal waters of the southern seaboard states. In some of the creeks on the Chesapeake Bay, I have seen them so numerous that some thousands might have been counted on the area of a single rod of the APPENDIX. 291 bottom. There is no doubt, that where they are so abundant, enclosures might be made of hurdles, and hard crabs collected and kept until the time of shedding. Soft crabs, as they would then be, command a high price in our city markets, varying from seventy-five cents to a dollar and a half per dozen. Shell-fish is the popular name bestowed by unscientific persons on the Crustacea and mollusca, and no other desig- nation could so well cover the multitudinous variety of forms which are embraced in these extensive divisions of the animal kingdom. Fanciful disquisitions on shell-fish and on marine zoology have been intruded on the public of late till they have become somewhat tiresome ; but as* our knowledge of the natural history of all kinds of sea animals, and particularly of oysters, lobsters, crabs, etc., is decidedly on the increase, there is yet room for all that I have to say on the subject of these dainties ; and there are still unexplored wonders of animal life in the fathomless sea that deserve the deepest study. The economic and productive phases of our shell-fish my fisheries have never yet, in opinion, been sufficiently discussed, and when I state that the power of multiplica- tion possessed by all kinds of Crustacea and mollusca is even greater, if that be possible, than that possessed by finned fishes, it will be obvious that there is much in their natural history that must prove interesting even to the most general reader. Each oyster, as we have seen, gives birth to almost incredible quantities of young. Lobsters also have an amazing fecundity, and yield an immense number of eggs each female producing from twelve to twenty thousand in a season ; and the crab is likewise most prolific. I lately purchased a crab weighing within an ounce of two pounds, 292 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. and it contained a mass of minute eggs equal in size to a man's hand ; these were so minute that a very small por- tion of them, picked off with the point of a pin, when placed on a bit of glass, and counted by the aid of a power- ful microscope, numbered over sixty, each appearing of the size of a red currant, and not at all unlike that fruit : so far as I could guess the eggs were not nearly ripe. I also examined about the same time a quantity of shrimp eggs ; and it is curious that, while there are the cock and hen lobster, I never saw any difference in the sex of the shrimps : all that I handled, amounting to hundreds, were females, and all of them were laden with spawn, the eggs being so minute as to resemble grains of the finest sand. Although the crustacean family counts its varieties by thousands, and contains members of all sizes, from minute aniinalculae to gigantic American crabs and lobsters, and ranges from the simplest to the most complex forms, yet the edible varieties are not at all numerous. The largest of these are the lobster (Astacus marinus) and the crab ( Cancer pagurus) ; and river and sea cray-fish may also be seen in considerable quantities in London shell-fish shops ; and as for common shrimps (Crane/on vulgaris) and prawns (Palsemon serratis), they are eaten in myriads. The violet or marching crab of the West Indies, and the robber crab common to the islands of the Pacific, are also esteemed as great delicacies of the table, but are unknown in this country except by reputation. Mr. Cancer pagurus is watched as he bustles out for his evening promenade, and, on being deftly pitched upon his back by means of a pole, he indignantly seizes upon it with all his might, and the stick being shaken a little has the desirable effect of causing Mr. Crab to cling thereto with great tenacity, which is, of course, the very thing desired APPENDIX. 293 by the grinning "human" at the other end, as whenever he feels his prey secure he dexterously hauls him on board, unhooks the crusty gentleman with a jerk, and adds him to the accumulating heap at the bottom of the old boat. The monkeys in the West Indies are, however, still more ingenious than the "fisher loons" of Arran or Skye. Those wise animals, when they take a notion of dining on a crab, proceed to the rocks, and slyly insinuating their tail into one of the holes where the Crustacea take refuge, that appendage is at once seized upon by the crab, who is thereby ********* drawn from his hiding-place, and, being speedily dashed to pieces on the hard stone, affords a fine feast to his captor. The west and north-west coasts of Ireland abound with fine lobsters, and welled vessels bring thence supplies for the London market, and it is said that a supply of 10,000 a week can easily be obtained. Immense quantities are also A procured on the west coast of Scotland. year or two ago I saw on board the Islesman steamboat at Greenock a cargo of 30,000 lobsters, obtained chiefly on the coasts of Lewis and Skye. The value of these to the captors would be upwards of 1000, and in the English fishmarkets the lot would bring at least four times that sum.* As showing how enormous the food wealth of the sea still is, notwithstanding the quantity taken out of it, I may cite here a few brief particulars of a little experiment of a charitable nature which was tried by a gentleman who took a warm interest in the Highland fishermen, and the results of which he himself lately made public. Commiserating the wretched- ness which he had witnessed among many, who, although anxious to labor, were unable to procure work, and at the same time feeling that the usual method of assisting them was based on a mistaken principle, this gentleman under- took the establishment of a fishery upon a small scale at 25* 294 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. his own expense. He therefore expended a sum of 600, with which he procured eight boats, completely equipped, and a small smack of sixteen tons. The crews, consisting of thirty men, he furnished with all the necessary fishing materials, paying the men weekly wages ranging from nine to thirteen shillings, part of the sum being in meal. The result of this experiment was, that these eight boats sent to the London market in a few months as many lobsters as reimbursed the original cost of the fishing plant. The men and their families were thus rescued from a state of semi- starvation, and are now living in comfort, with plenty surrounding their dwellings ; and have, besides, the satisfaction of knowing that their present independent condition has been achieved principally by means of their own well-sus- tained industry. A very large share of our lobsters is derived from Nor- way, as many as 30,000 sometimes arriving from the fjords in a single day. The Norway lobsters are much esteemed, and we pay the Norwegians something like 20,000 a year for this one article of commerce. They are brought over in welled steam-vessels, and are kept in the wooden reservoirs already alluded to, some of which may be seen at Hole Haven, on the Essex side of the Thames. Once upon a time, some forty years ago, one of these wooden lobsterstores was run into by a Russian frigate, whereby some 20,000 lobsters were set adrift to sprawl in the muddy waters of the Thames. In order that the great mass of animals confined in these places may be kept upon their best beha- vior, a species of cruelty has to be perpetrated to prevent their tearing each other to pieces : the great claw is, therefore, rendered paralytic by means of a wooden peg being driven into a lower joint. I have no intention of describing the whole members of the Crustacea; they are much too numerous to admit of APPENDIX. 295 that, ranging as they do from the comparatively giant-like crab and lobster down to the millions of minute insects which at some places confer a phosphorescent appearance My on the waters of the sea. limits will necessarily confine me to a few of the principal members of the family the edible Crustacea, in fact; and these I shall endeavor to speak about in such plain language as I think my readers will understand, leaving out as much of the fashionable " scientific slang" as I possibly can. The more we study the varied Crustacea of the British shores, the more we are struck with their wonderful forma- tion, and the peculiar habits of their members. I once heard a clergyman at a lecture describe a lobster in brief but fitting terms as a standing romance of the sea an animal whose clothing is a shell, which it casts away once a year in order that it may put on a larger suit an animal whose flesh is in its tail and legs, and whose hair is in the inside of its breast, whose stomach is in its head, and which is changed every year for a new one, and which new one begins its life by devouring the old ! an animal which car- ries its eggs within its body till they become fruitful, and then carries them outwardly under its tail ; an animal which can throw off its legs when they become troublesome, and can in a brief time replace them with others ; and lastly, an animal with very sharp eyes placed in movable horns. The picture is not at all overdrawn. It is a wondrous crea- ture this lobster, and I may be allowed a brief space in which to describe the curious provision of nature which allows for an increase of growth, or provides for the renewal of a broken limb, and which applies generally to the edible Crustacea. The habits of the principal Crustacea are now pretty well understood, and their mode of growth is so peculiar as to render a close inspection of their habits a most interesting 296 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. study. As has been stated, a good-sized lobster will yield about 20,000 eggs, and these arc hatched, being so nearly ripe before they are abandoned by the mother, with great rapidity it is said in forty-eight hours and grow quickly, although the young lobster passes through many changes before it is fit to be presented at table. During the early periods of growth it casts its shell frequently. This won- derful provision for an increase of size in the lobster has been minutely studied during its period of moulting. Mr. Jonathan Couch says the additional size which is gained at each period of exuviation is perfectly surprising, and it is wonderful to see the complete covering of the animal cast off like a suit of old clothes, while it hides, naked and soft, in a convenient hole, awaiting the growth of its new crust. In fact, it is difficult to believe that the great soft animal ever inhabited the cast-off habitation which is lying beside it, because the lobster looks, and really is, so much larger. The lobster, crab, etc., change their shells about every six weeks during the first year of their age, every two months during the second year, and then the changing of the shell becomes less frequent, being reduced to four times a year. It is supposed that this animal becomes reproductive at the age of five years. When the female Crustacea retire in order to undergo their exuviation they are watched, or rather guarded, by the males j and if one male be taken away, in a short time another will be found to have taken his place. I do not think there is any particular season for moulting; the period differs in different places, according to the tempera- ture of the water and other circumstances, so that we might have shell-fish (and white-fish too) all the year round were a little attention paid to the different seasons of exuvia- tion and egg-laying. APPENDIX. 297 The mode in which a hen lobster lays her eggs is curious : she lodges a quantity of them under her tail, and bears them about for a considerable period ; indeed, till they are so nearly hatched as only to require a very brief time to mature them.* When the eggs are first exuded from the ovary they are very small, but before they are committed to the sand or water they increase considerably in size, and become as large as good sized shot. Lobsters may be found with eggs, or " in berry" as it is called, all the year round ; and when the hen is in process of depositing her eggs she is not good for food, the flesh being poor, watery, and desti- tute of flavor. XIV. SALMON HATCHING ESTABLISHMENT ON THE MIRAMICHI. Just before going to press, I have received the following additional information from Rev. Livingston Stone concerning this project. It will be seen from his remarks, that all the difficulties which have heretofore existed in the transportation of salmon ova to the United States, are soon to be surmounted. All of the Atlantic states north of the Chesapeake bay may therefore have an opportunity, at but small expense, of restoring exhausted rivers, and trying the experiment of naturalizing salmon in those which were not its natural habitat. " The salmon breeding establishment on the Miramichi was started by myself, and is owned nominally by myself, * Lobsters collect in large numbers through the summer in shallow water along the sandy shores of the bay of Chaleurs, to deposit their eggs. Such a place is called by the habitans "a lobster camp." 298 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. although others will be interested in it to some extent. The object of it is, to supply salmon spawn and young sal- mon for stocking the American rivers. The present plan is to collect just before the spawning season, as many live salmon as possible, in a large enclosure provided with artificial spawning-beds, and to take the spawn from the parent fish, after the manner that trout spawn are taken. " The eggs will be kept at the Miramichi until old enough for transportation, when they will be brought to headquarters at Charlestown, and placed in the hatching- beds, there to be hatched. "There are at present thirty-two troughs, each twenty feet in length, prepared to receive the salmon ova, with provision for more if needed. These hatching-troughs are in a building made for the purpose, sixty feet by twentyseven wide. The troughs will be able to receive 2000 ova to the foot. The spawn will be ready to transport from the Miramichi about twenty days after being taken, and will be ready for the second transportation any time after that." INDEX. PAGE ....... Alewife 176 Great haul of . . . . . . .177 .... American fish for English waters 278 ........ Appendix 231 ....... Bass, Striped 203 ...... Black bass of the Lakes 205 Naturalization of ..... By Cuttyhunk Club 207 ...... Prof. Agnel 206 ..... Samuel T. Tisdale 209 .... Introduction into the Hudson 206 .... Black bass of the South and West 211 .... Introduction into the Potomac 211 .... Catch of, in summer of 1865 212 Brook trout Naturalization of . . . . .184 Carp Culture of . ........ Catfish ..... Transportation of Clove Spring Trout Ponds ..... Cold Spring Trout Ponds ....... Comacchio ....... Crappie ...... Culture of the shad salmon ...... eels Cuttyhunk Club . . ....... Cyprinidae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 .244 213 215 . 272 264 219 205 141 .102 219 185, 206 217 .............. Eel culture 219 Esocidse 218 (299) 300 INDEX. ............... Filterers PAGE 49 Fish culture 13 What it is . . . . . .14 Its advantage over natural propagation .16 Object of . . . Its antiquity . . . . ...... Of the Chinese ...... Of the Romans . . . . 14, 15 16, 17 16 17 Practised by Dom Pinchon . by Jacob! . by Young . . . . ... . . . . .17 . 18 .19 by Shaw by Hogg ..... in Norway in France ; 19 19 19 . . . . .19 .... by Joseph Remy 20 ...... A new science 20 ...... Importance of Its utility in stocking rivers . 25 . . .15 ..... Food, allowance for a given number of trout For adult trout . . . For young trout . . . . 76 .73 68 Natural Frozen salmon spawn . . Fur-bearing animals, cultivation of ....76, 231 . . . 108 274 Gourami . . . . . . . 250 ............ Adaptations for living out of water Habitat . . . Characteristics A fighting fish . . . . . . 251 250 252 252 Grayling . . . . . .196 New species of . . . . . 196 ...... Hatching, time of ..... Time occupied in Effect of temperature on Spring water necessary for ..... Apparatus, French . ..... American ..... In-door ..... Hatching-house, plan for ...... Hatching-troughs ....... Herring Huningue, account of . . . . . . . . . . 15 16 .29 . 29 42 43 45 46, 47, 48 49 176 .85 Hybrids, remarks on . . . . . 183 INDEX. 301 ........ Incubation ..... Instruments used in .... Time of, with salmon spawn Time of, with trout spawn at different temperature of water ...... Introductory remarks PAGE 42 50 107 C4 13 Jacobi, discovery of artificial propagation . . . ....... Lake Fusaro Lake trout . ... . . . . ..........*.. Lucrine Lake 245 227 186 227 Maggot factory Maggots as trout food . . . ..... Manipulation of salmon ...... of trout .... Manner of feeding young trout .... Martin & Gillone's establishment ..... Mink Cultivation of ..... Naturalization of fishes .... of brook trout ..... of lake trout 75 *. 74 109, 122 52 69 241 275 178 184 ISfi of Schoodic and Sebago salmon . . 188 of sea trout of Canada . . . 193 of grayling of whitefish of Oswego bass . .... . . . . . . . 196 .197 200 .......... of smelt . . of rockfish, or striped bass of white perch of crappie . . . . .200 . 203 204 205 Osmerus Otsego bass of black bass of the Lakes . . . 205 " of catfish ..... of carp .................... of pike " West . . .. . 211 . . .213 217 218 200 200 ... Ova Consequence if all of them produced fish . . Of whom the, can be procured . . . Packing and transportation of Placing them in troughs . . . . 16 .41 58 .56 ... .60 Manner of removing them from troughs for transportation 60 How to examine them . . . . Appearance of during incubation 61 26 302 INDEX. PAGE Oyster culture . . . . . . . 225 ..... An hermaphrodite 225 ...... Fecundity of 225 ..... Manner of incubating 225 Growth of . . . . . .226 .... Chief object in culture of 227 ..... Culture at Fusaro ..... at Isle of Ree at Bay of St. Bruic 227, 229 228 . . . .228 .... English and French 229 .... Decrease of in Eastern States 230 ..... Value of in Virginia 230 ....... Percidaj 203 ........ Pike 218 Ponds Their shape . . ... . .41 Series of . Method of shading . . . . . . . . . .31 . 33, 34 Depth and size of . . . . . . Transfer of trout from one to another . . ..... Of Jeremiah Comfort Of Peter Christie . . . . . ..... Of Dr. J. H. Slack Of Rev. L. Stone . . . . 37 .35 37 .272 287 .264 ' Seth Green's . . . . . . Stephen H. Ainsworth's . . . . .... Protection of from muskrats Stocking of . . . . . ..... Profits of trout-breeding 96 .91 32 .39 79 .....'.. Replenishing Western waters . . . . . 179 Rockfish 203 Salmon Culture of . . ... . .102 ....... Instinct 102, 103 ...... Of different rivers 104 ..... Former abundance of 105 Inward migration of . . . . . . 105 ....... Marking 106 Long time of incubation in American waters . . 108 Growth of fry of . Of the Danube ' . . . . . . . . . . 110 .113 .......... Naturalization of in rivers of Middle States Fishways for . . . . Early fecundity of males Statistics . . 115 . .120 Ill 137, 138, 139 Hatching of the ova oh the Mirainichi . 4 . 195 INDEX. 303 PAGE Salmon culture in the United States . . . .113 .......... Worthy of government patronage . . . 116 Salmon fishing on the Goodbout . . . .117 on the Nipissiguit 118 Salmon rivers of Maine 118 Salmon breeding at Stormo-ntfield . . at Tongueland on the Dee . . . . 121 .124 on the Galway at Ballisodare . . . ' . . . . . 124 .127 .... on the Doohulla 132 ..... in Australia 135 on the Miramichi, N. B. . . . 195 ....... Salmonidso 184 ..... Salmo Canadensis . 193 ....... Schoodic salmon 184 ...... Sebago salmon 188 Sea trout . . . . . . . .193 ..... Great abundance of 194 ...... Sea trout of Canada 193 ...... Shad Culture of 141 ....... Instinct 144 ..... Analogous to salmon 142 ..... Former abundance of 143 ..... Incubation of its ova 153 Introduction of into Gulf of Mexico . . . 150 Ascent over dam of Susquehanna Canal Co. . . 172 ............. Reports of Colonel Worrall on fishways for . 164, 172 Two varieties of . . . . . 141 Migrations of 142 Food of 142 Advantages of artificial propagation of . Growth of . . . . . ..... Hatching of at Holyoke ...... Fecundity of ..... Size and expansion of ova Embryonic development of . . ...... Hatching-box for ....... Siluridae ........ Smelt ....... Striped bass ....... Taking spawn Taking trout from spawning-race . . ....... Thymallus ....... Trout The ..... Its adaptability to t'ulture ..... Its season of spawning . . . . . 146 . 162, 148 153 158 157 . 158 154 213 200 203 51 , 52 196 26 26 26 304 INDEX. Trout PAGE Appearance of sexes at time of spawning . . .28 ....... Habits 27 Subsequent recuperation . . . ..... Transportation of ....... Growth of . 28 39 83 ...... Enemies of 85 ..... Natural food of 231 ..... Trout fry Treatment of Feeding of . . . . . 67 .68 ..... Disposition to escape Transferring them to nurseries . . . 70 .71 ..... Transportation of 72 Naturalization of . . . . . .184 ...... Trout-breeding 26 ..... A branch of farming 72 ...... Will it pay 82, 79 ...... Importance of 100 ....... Trout Dale Spring Hatching-House and Ponds . . 287 White perch 204 Whitefish . 197 THE END. ERRATA. The plate facing page 141, is taken from the first Report of the Massachusetts Fish Commissioners, and represents the successive growth of the young shad from the age of two or three weeks, until the time of migration to sea late in the summer, or in early autumn. Page 48, line 17, for "beyond to the middle," read "beyond the middle." 304 INDEX. Trout PAGE Appearance of sexes at time of spawning . . .28 ....... Habits 27 Subsequent recuperation . . . . 28 ..... Transportation of 31' ....... Growth of 83 ...... Enemies of 85 ..... Natural food of 231 ..... Trout fry Treatment of Feeding of . . . . . 67 .68 - . : ' ^^M ~