it to fall upon the bottom of a clean, dry vessel, and, pouring water enough over it to cover it, he expresses a few drops of milt, so that the water, when stirred, becomes slightly colored. În about a minute he In pours off the water, replaces it with fresh water, and transfers the roe to the hatching-boxes. He obtains in this way sixty per cent., while at Huningue thirty to thirty-five per cent. only are hatched.

The fish-breeding works at Huningue, near Bâle, were built in 1852, upon a plan of Professor Coste, of Paris, at a cost of 30,000 francs, and have since been greatly enlarged. Water is conveyed from springs, by an underground canal two thousand feet long, into a building, in which it is divided into three parallel canals two feet wide, the bottoms covered with gravel, and gratings laid down on which to place the hatching-boxes, which are eighteen inches long and six broad, placed in rows of four through the length of the canal. These boxes contain each two thousand roe "corns," and seven millions are annually received into tthe establishment from Switzerland, North Austria, and other regions. In 1865, four millions of roe "corns" were distributed to private individuals, and three hundred to four hundred thousand small fry were hatched. For transportation of the latter, round, tin jars are used, ten inches high and nine inches in diameter. They are half filled with water, with which air is mixed through a perforated pipe fastened to the bottom. In such a vessel three thousand three months old can be conveyed, the water being changed once in three hours.

SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT IN AFRICA.

The following extract from a letter received from Hon. Amos Perry, United States consul at Tunis, in Algiers, gives information concerning a profitable and somewhat novel mode for raising fish for market:

"At Bizerta, a maritime city of seven thousand or eight thousand inhabitants, situated about fifty miles from here, is a contrivance for the production of fish, which may merit some attention.

"A small stream running into the sea is widened out just above the city into a shallow pond of some sixty or a hundred acres. The water in this pond is at no time much above the level of the sea, and at times the water flows profusely back from the sea into the pond. Most of the area of this pond has been from time immemorial divided into twelve apartments, separated by an upright cane fence, which allows the water to circulate through all the apartments, and at the same time prevents the fish in the different apartments from communicating with each other. Each of these apartments is said to contain a different kind of fish.

"These fishing grounds are under municipal control. No one is allowed to approach them except the officers of the government. The officers are said to take the fish from the same apartment for one entire month, and then to leave that ground unmolested for the next eleven months ensuing. "The fish are taken in nets at a fixed hour each day. When I witnessed the operation, several boatloads of fish were brought ashore and deposited in the government fish-house. There they were carefully sorted over. Persons from the city and from villages near by were on hand to get their daily supply, at an expense merely nominal. Most of the fish were put into baskets and sent off on camels and mules to supply the markets of Tunis and different points.

"I could not learn that any artificial means, other than those named, have ever been employed for breeding these fish. Our consular agent at Bizerta informs me that the profits realized by the government are from twelve thousand to fifteen thousand dollars a year.'

WHAT MAY BE DONE IN THIS COUNTRY.

It may be said that foreign rulers may amuse themselves, and possibly attempt to aid in feeding their hungry subjects, with increase of food supplies, by the practice of the art of pisciculture, but that the fertile fields and teeming waters of this continent require no supplementary resources of an art of so doubtful productive value. With a population of forty millions, to become eighty in twenty-five years, and no one knows how soon to equal that of Europe, it is unwise to contemn any source of production, and rank folly to allow so great a delicacy as the speckled brook trout (Salmo fontinalis) to become extinct, as has the sea-going salmon (Salmo salar) very nearly upon our eastern coast. The shad (Alosa præstabilis) is becoming comparatively scarce in all our waters. And why should not the lakes and ponds of the East, full of yellow perch and pickerel, be stocked with the superior black bass (Grystes fasciatus) and white fish (Coregonus alba) and other valuable kinds? It has been done successfully in a few cases; why may it not be done generally?

Legislative protection.-It is an internal improvement that governments may properly favor, not by enterprises in pisciculture, but by laws for its protection. The genius of our institutions favors the remitting to local legislation of such regulations as are necessary for the conservation and replenishing of this element of food supply; and the peculiar requirements of each section may be better met by laws framed to meet the specific want. While this is conceded to be true, it is evident that the general government may properly encourage in a variety of ways and with superior efficiency the practical development of this new branch of national economy. The Report of Agriculture may appropri ately show how valuable an adjunct to its store of food supply for family use the fish preserves of the farm may become. When farm labor is too valuable to be used in hunting very small game and fishing in preca rious waters for obtaining a needful variety of animal food, it is at least worth an inquiry whether a cheap and abundant occasional substitute for salt pork may not be found, when chickens or eggs are not always available and roasts of beef and legs of mutton are only possible at irreg ular intervals. Congress may appropriately direct experiments or investigations, which would promise practical results of general acceptance, if such tests should not otherwise be made as well or as promptly; or it may introduce valuable foreign species of food fishes, such as the gourami, described in the report of 1866, if such acclimation should be deemed necessary while our native supplies are so various and so valuable.

The Commissioner of Agriculture has been urged to ask the attention of Congress to this subject by many interested in fishing and fisheries, among them Messrs. Robert B. Roosevelt and Seth Green, of the New York Commission; Royal Phelps, president of the New York Sportsmau's Club; W. J. Hayes, secretary of the same organization; Francis E. Spinner, Treasurer of the United States; and many others-from whom the following petition has been received.

"The undersigned, having been impressed with the vast importance to the country of augmenting all its resources connected with the supply of food, and convinced, either from experiments made by themselves or by studying recorded facts and the experience of others, that the supply of fresh and salt-water fish can be greatly increased by a little care and attention devoted to their propagation, would suggest to you the propri ety of applying to Congress for a moderate appropriation to be expended under the direction of your Department in organizing operations for prop

agating shad in the rivers frequented at present by these valuable fish. As urgent grounds for this action, we would call your attention to the fact of the advancing price and rapid diminution in numbers yearly taken of these fish, as well as to the experiments made in the New England States during the last year, which conclusively show that shad can be readily and rapidly propagated, and that their numbers can be multiplied very largely at a small expense in time and trouble, and by means and appliances so simple that every one can understand them. Believing that this is a matter of vast national importance, and trusting that it will meet your favorable consideration,” etc.

Protection for the Pacific salmon rivers an urgent necessity.-It is of the utmost importance that combined federal and State action should at once be taken to prevent the despoiling of the salmon rivers of the Pacific coast. If the strong arm of law is not interposed, but few years will elapse before the efforts of fish breeders will be called into requisition to restore the salmon to those waters. The fisheries are now worth millions. If protected, they may continue to yield millions. annually; if neglected for a few seasons, they will shortly become worthless. Laws should be enacted at once, first, requiring fishways over every dam erected; second, limiting the time and mode of capture. The general government, at the next session of Congress, should enact such a law for the Territories, and the legislature of Oregon should lose no time in passing a similar enactment.

Recent State legislation.-The New York legislature amended their fishing laws, April 22, 1868, imposing upon the commissioners the additional duty of undertaking the artificial propagation of shad, white fish, and salmon in the waters of the State, and appropriating ten thousand dollars to defray the cost of the undertaking. The act prohibits the taking of shad in the Hudson, except between March 15 and June 15 in each year, under penalty of one hundred dollars and a forfeit of nets employed. It forbids fishing with any net or seine, between sunset on Saturday evening and sunrise Monday morning, and requires the opening for the free passage of fish, of all pounds, weirs, or nets during the same period. Meshes of nets or seines must measure four and a half inches in Lake Ontario, and five inches in all other waters, during the season of spring fishing.

Connecticut has a recent law restricting fishing from March 15 to June 15, and forbidding the use of meshes smaller than five inches, upon penalty of a fine of four hundred dollars; and the restriction as to the Thames River is made operative from May 1 to October 1. Salmon are not permitted to be taken until March, 1872. Three commissioners are authorized to be appointed by the governor for one year, and paid three dollars per day for actual services, and their expenses when on official duty.

The Massachusetts legislature, at its last session, enacted several im portant laws relating to fishing and fisheries. One prohibits the taking of shad in the Connecticut River at any other time than between March 15 and June 15, under forfeiture of one hundred dollars; and fifty dollars is the forfeit for taking salmon prior to March 15, 1872. All fishing after sunset Saturday evening and before sunrise Monday morning is prohibited, and weirs and pounds must be kept open during the same period, under penalty of a fine of four hundred dollars.

A general law, entitled "An act for encouraging the cultivation of useful fishes," was passed, the more important provisions of which are as follows: A board of three commissioners of inland fisheries is organized, each member to serve five years, and to be empowered to enforce alí

fishery laws, remove (summarily, if necessary) all illegal fishing gear and other obstructions to the passage of migratory fish, and build fishways whenever individuals or corporations refuse to do so, the expense recoverable in legal action against such proprietors. The commissioners are absolved from action of trespass. Exclusive control of fisheries in ponds of not more than twenty acres, or those created by artificial flowage, is granted to their proprietors; those of greater area are public; but the commissioners may lease any of them for the purpose of culti vating useful fishes. Any riparian proprietor may inclose within the limits of his own premises the waters of a stream not navigable, provided he furnishes a suitable passage for migratory fishes frequenting such waters; and cultivated fishes are made the absolute property of the person propagating or maintaining them. First violations of this provision are punished by fines of one to twenty dollars; repetitions, five to fifty dollars. No tidal stream shall be considered navigable above a point having a channel four feet deep during three hours nearest to high tide.

A fish cultivator may take fish in his own waters at any time, and sell them even during periods when fishing is prohibited, but not at such time for food purposes. Fishing with sweep-seine, hand or dip net, with meshes less than five inches in length, in certain rivers named, between April 15 and December 15, is punishable by a fine of twenty-five dollars; and the same penalty is prescribed for obstruction by such nets of more than two-thirds of the width of a stream, or hauling a seine within half a mile of a point so fished within an hour previous.

In all of the minor streams fishing for salmon or shad is allowed in its season, only on four days of each week-Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday-except by hook and line. Market superintendents and other officers are fined for neglect to inform upon illegal offering of fish for sale. The taking of trout and land-locked salmon by any other means than by hook and hand-line is prohibited, and heavy penalties are attached to taking or selling salmon from the 1st of August to the 1st of May, of land-locked salmon from September 20 to March 20, of black bass from December 1 to June 1, and of smelts or white bass from March 15 to June 1. All protection is withdrawn from pickerel and eels. This law was draughted and urged by Theodore Lyman, commissioner of Massachusetts fisheries, and is perhaps the most radical and protective upon the statute-books of any State.

Commissioners of fisheries.-The State governments of the eastern and middle States have already appointed commissions for the encour agement of fish culture. The following is a list of commissioners of fisheries of the several States which have taken official notice of this subject, so far as they have come in communication with this Depart

ment:

Maine: Charles G. Atkins, Augusta; Nathan W. Foster, East Machias. New Hampshire: W. A. Sanborn, Weirs; W. W. Fletcher, Concord; Thomas E. Hatch, Keene.

Vermont: A. D. Hager, Proctorsville; Charles Barrett, Grafton. Massachusetts: Theodore Lyman, Brookline; Alfred R. Field, Greenfield; G. A. Brackett, Winchester.

Connecticut: Henry Woodward, Middletown; James Rankin, Old Say brook; James A. Bill, Lyme.

Rhode Island: Alfred A. Reed, Apponaug; Newton Dexter, Provi

dence.

New York: Horatio Seymour, Ithica; Seth Green, Mumford; Robert B. Roosevelt, New York City.

Pennsylvania; James Worrall, Harrisburg.

At a recent convention of these commissioners held in New York City, the following resolutions were adopted, and may be taken as the views of these officers upon the practical aspects of this subject:

"Whereas both the marine and inland fisheries of the Atlantic States have much deteriorated, and a vast source of supply of food for the people has been greatly injured by causes entirely within the control or legislation; and whereas the present yield of fish from the salt and fresh waters could be largely increased by simple measures for their protection and propagation:

"Resolved, That every effort should be made, not only in the States represented in this convention but in all those which border on the Atlantic Ocean, to draw legislative attention to the subject, and to effect such modification of old laws and enactment of new ones as will conduce to the restoration, development, and protection of the public fisheries. "Resolved, That the subject is of vast importance to the people, and should, by every means possible, be placed before them in its true light, in order that they may understand fully the benefit which may be obtained by the community by proper care of this valuable branch of the public natural resources.

"Resolved, That laws in adjacent States should be concurrent and uniform, in order that there may be no conflict between the owners of different parts of a stream or coast, and that the same object may be kept in view by all.

"Resolved, That fish culture, both by the artificial impregnation of the ova and by the modifications of obstructions which have reduced the natural area of the spawning-grounds of the fish, although, as yet, comparatively in its infancy, has yielded most satisfactory results, and will furnish valuable assistance in stocking or replenishing public waters.

"Resolved, That the true interests of the fishermen accord absolutely with the advantage of the public, and that legislation should not be hostile to them, but tend to develop this conformity, improve the fisheries, and benefit the public."

The New York commissioners recommend immediate steps toward breeding shad in the Hudson on a scale to produce early and marked results. They would use four hundred boxes with a capacity of fourteen millions of young fry daily, or three hundred millions in the season, and would require the services of fifty men, and an expenditure of ten thousand dollars. They would prohibit fishing on the Hudson after June 15, and the use of nets with meshes smaller than five inches, and all Sunday fishing whatever.

Alfred D. Hager, commissioner for Vermont, in writing concerning the restoration of the shad and salmon fisheries, declares the Connecticut to have been once as good a salmon-producing stream as any in America, though that valuable fish has scarcely been known for years within its waters, and believes "that by constructing suitable fishways over the dams, and placing the young fry in our streams, the fish will again become abundant." Concerning recent operations, he says: "The legis lature of last year (1868) failed to make any appropriation for the purchase of young salmon now being raised by Mr. Stone, of Charlestown, New Hampshire, but the commissioners propose to place a few thousand in the Vermont rivers the ensuing spring. Many of the enterprising citizens of the State have commenced the culture of trout in artificial ponds, and, judging from the favorable results already attained, it is reasonable to suppose that within a few years the raising of fish for market will become one of the profitable industrial pursuits of the State."