same locality, one number may be used for all. Any blank book will do for a catalogue, ruling clear across the sheet, thus:

Disks of different-colored paper, quarter of an inch in diameter, or less, may be used to represent States or localities, and the catalogue number may be written upon these. They are easily made with a common harness punch. To produce greater variation, labels of two colors may be employed.

It is desirable to have both sexes represented in every species, and when they are taken together, if not pinned upon one pin, the fact should be noted on small labels, and placed upon each pin.

Specimens of natural history are liable to the attacks of a small beetle, Anthrenus destructor, which consumes the interior of dried specimens of insects, leaving the shells to fall to pieces when the case is opened, or slightly jarred. Their presence may be detected by fine dust in the bottom of the box, or by the shed skins of the larva which do the injury. Boxes should be kept tight, and it would be well to keep a piece of gum camphor in each, though it is not advisable to rely upon it alone. The insect is oval, grayish, marked or mottled with black; larva thickened in the center, tapering at each end, and covered with short, bristly hairs. The cabinet should be examined every few weeks, and, if the least dust is discovered under any insect, thoroughly treated with benzine and left tightly closed for several days. Poisonous solutions, as a general thing, do more injury to the insects than good, by gumming them up and spoiling their appearance. As cheap benzine is apt to have the same effect, only that which is most free from oil should be used. The interior of the bodies of large moths, particularly females with eggs, should be removed, and the space filled with cotton. This not only makes them much lighter, but prevents them from becoming greasy. Mold may be destroyed by brushing the insect with benzine to which a little creosote has been added. When dampness has caused the wings of butterflies or moths to droop, the insect may be relaxed by placing it on damp sand for a few hours, when it may easily be reset. Light should always be excluded, even when glass is used for covers.

Therefore, after a collection has been made, the greatest care must be taken to keep it in order, to guard it from injury and to preserve it in its original beauty, or it soon shows neglect, and is speedily ruined.

RECENT PROGRESS IN FISH CULTURE.

The artificial propagation of edible fishes, which is shown by experi ments in every quarter to be practicable, and also in a high degree economical of the material of reproduction, is assuming national importance. Admitting that it may never become one of the great producing interests of the nation, it must be acknowledged that, while it furnishes instructive popular experiments in natural history, and gratifies and educates a natural taste for rural pursuits, it undoubtedly adds to the luxuries of generous tables, and increases in some degree the food supplies of the people. That public fisheries can be improved by artificial means, at small expense, may be established by undoubted proof; and that he who accomplishes such a result is a public benefactor, will be readily admitted. If, as science asserts, a fish diet is a fortifier of the brain, who needs it more than the restless, rushing, irrepressible American?

FISH CULTURE NO NOVELTY.

The Chinese, who keep a constant supply of fish in their rivers and canals, notwithstanding the unexampled density of their population, have practiced fish-hatching successfully for centuries. Fish are there so cheap that a penny will buy enough for a breakfast for a small family. An ingenious method of artificial hatching has been adopted, which is worthy of mention, at least as a novelty. The business of collecting and hatching the spawn for the supply of owners of private ponds is extensive. When the season for hatching arrives, the operators empty hens' eggs by means of small openings, sucking out the natural contents and substituting the ova. The eggs are placed for a few days under a hen. Removing the eggs, the contents are placed in water warmed by the heat of the sun, the eggs soon burst, and the young are shortly able to be removed to waters intended for rearing them.

The Romans were adepts at fish culture. Sergius Orata, who is reported as the originator of artificial oyster beds, grew them by millions in great reservoirs at Baiæ, on the Lucrine Sea, and built a palace near for convenience in serving his famous oyster suppers. Lucullus is said to have sold his stock of fish at £35,000. Some epicures nourished pet breeds of fish, as cattle breeders perfect particular strains of blood.

WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED IN EUROPE.

France, England, Scotland, and Ireland, among other European states, are enjoying a manifest increase of fish supplies from artificial propagation. Many curious facts have demonstrated the feasibility of restocking the salmon rivers. Loch Shin, a lake of the Sutherland Mountains, in Scotland, having as an outlet the salmon river Shin, is fed by four rivers, the Terry, Fiack, Garvie, and Curry, which, prior to 1836, contained no salmon. In that year fish of the outlet river were conveyed in their spawning season to these streams, and ever since their progeny have passed through the lake to their native waters.

The Tay of Scotland, in which salmon, formerly abundant, became nearly extinct, has now a plentiful supply, through the efforts of the

pisciculturists Buist and Brown, at their propagating establishment at Stormontfield. The cost has been trifling. The Robe River, in Ireland, by means of a fishway two miles in length, five rods wide, with a fall of thirty feet, has assumed importance as a salmon stream. A fall in the Claregalway has been artificially surmounted, and one of the best fisheries in Great Britain is the result.

In the larger streams of France a good beginning has been made. Basins have been dug along the shores of some of them, furnished with canals for ingress and egress of the water, which have proved safe harbors for fecundated ova and the young that are too small to risk the dangers of the stream. The parent fishes voluntarily seek these artificial spawning beds and deposit their roe, where a much larger than the usual proportion of eggs will be hatched. The damage to fish spawn from city sewers is avoided by these works, wherever constructed. Two years ago there were eighty such basins distributed through thirty-five departments of France, at a cost of only $5,000—about $60 each. As early as in 1861 six millions of fish had been turned out of these basins. Protection is accorded to all fish in the spawning season; none can lawfully be taken except for fish breeding. From the celebrated piscicultural laboratory at Huningue, near Bâle, on the Rhine, supported by the government of France, millions of eggs of the Danube salmon, (Ombre chevalier,) and other valuable kinds, are annually distributed to the chief rivers of the country. They are packed in wet moss and inclosed in wooden boxes. People are employed to procure these eggs from the rivers and lakes of Switzerland, and from the Rhine and Danube, and are paid 18. 8d. per thousand. The spawn of a fish weighing twenty pounds often yields to the pisciculturist a sum equivalent to eight dollars in our currency. A considerable trade has arisen in fish eggs.

It is claimed that the artificial breeding of oysters in France pays an average profit of a thousand per cent. Results have been equally satis factory in England.

The variety essayed in operations of French pisciculture is wonderful. Even the muscle is grown artificially. Nor is this a new thing; for a muscle farm near Rochelle has been cultivated, it is claimed, for hundreds of years. The muscles are grown on frames of basket work, called bouchots, and are larger than those grown naturally, and of superior flavor.

The information concerning fish-breeding experiments, with details of accomplished results, was quite full and satisfactory, as reported from all parts of France, at the International Exposition of Fisheries, recently held at Arcachon, in that country. Many rivers, almost destitute of fish a year or two previous, had been restocked to a wonderful degree.

At Concarneau, in Lower Brittany, are large viviers or tanks, hewn out of solid rock to the depth of ten feet-one containing only lobsters, another turbot and rock fish, and others still the nurseries of fish of various kinds. This establishment is under government management, and is self-supporting, the sale of fish more than paying the expenses.

Lake trout and salmon are bred in the Lake of Geneva, in Switzerland, by the efforts of Professor Chavannes, who receives a stipend of eight hundred francs from the government and the right of fishing in a small stream near Granson, at the south end of Lake Neufchatel.

At Cortaillod, south of Neufchatel, Dr. C. Vauga also receives eight hundred francs per annum for efforts toward increasing the lake trout in the Lake of Neufchatel. In the second year of his operations he turned out eighty thousand. He has adopted a novel method of fructifying the roe. Instead of letting the roe fall into the water, he allows