even yearly individual families of twenty and
thirty thousand cannot keep up the demand.
Men, therefore, wise in their generation, arc
now in the habit, not of bird-nesting, but fish-
nesting. Whereas, however, the fishes' nest is
difficult to be taken, the art of impregnating
the eggs artificially—the discovery of two
observant but humble fishermen in France named
Gehin and Rémy has now become a science;
by a simple and easy process the eggs are taken
from the mother, fecundated artificially with
nature as a guide, and placed in artificial nests,
which consist of boxes half filled with gravel,
and with a stream of water, managed by hatch-
ways, running perpetually over them. In time
the eggs develop themselves, and out comes the
little Master and Miss Fish. There is no kind
nurse to give them their proper soft food, but
Nature, the kindest of nurses, has packed their
food up all ready for them in a pretty little bag
which she has fastened on to the lower part of
their bodies. This forage-bag also acts another
part: the baby-fish is born in a rapid stream,
and is liable to be swept away into a hundred
feet of water at the instant of birth; his pap-bag,
however, serves as an anchor, and keeps his
transparent body down snugly under some
stone; at last the bag is absorbed, and away
goes the young fish, if hatched artificially, into a
nice pond, where he is as comfortable as our
own little ones are in a large nursery; if hatched
in the river, he soon finds out some quiet place
where he can grow at his leisure and become an
ornament to his family. Should the reader ever
visit Perth, he should obtain permission to visit
the salmon-breeding pools at Stormontfields,
where he will see the whole apparatus. I have
the pleasure of the friendship of Mr. Benst, of
Perth, who is one of the active managers of
the Stormontfields ponds, and in the Field, for
May 25, 1861, we learn that on May 18th the
ponds were visited by a party of gentlemen; for
eight days previous the helper had observed
strong indications of a desire for freedom (i.e.
to go to the sea), on a part of his finny wards.
The sluices were removed, and a considerable
number at once sought the river. The ova of
which the present fry is the produce was placed
in the boxes at various times, from 15th
November to 13th December, 1859. The whole
fry, amounting, it is estimated, to somewhat
approaching to two hundred thousand fish, is
the produce of nineteen male and thirty-one
female salmon. This is now the fifth crop from
the ponds, and the experiment, small as is the
scale upon which it has been conducted, has
succeeded well. It has proved that the eggs of
salmon may be as carefully hatched as those of
fowls, and with comparatively as small a loss,
while those spawned in the open river are
destroyed in millions by countless natural enemies,
as well as droughts, spates, and fluctuations of
the water.

The French government have seen the vast
importance of pisciculture, so they have
established at Huninguen, near Basle, a regular fish
manufactory, where they hatch salmon-trout,
fera, ombre-chevalier, and Danube salmon. A
single apparatus, of about nine feet in length
and three feet in width, is estimated to hatch
the ova of twenty thousand salmon, or twenty-
five thousand trout, or thirty thousand ombre-
chevalier. It is as difficult to transport baby-
fish as it is to carry about human babies, but
fishes' eggs are as easily sent about as fowls'
eggs. Millions of eggs of the five kinds of fish
above mentioned are collected, incubated, and
sent to stock various remote rivers all over
France.

What has been done in France may surely be
done in England. Many private gentlemen have
now seen the importance of pisciculture, and
have, at the cost of a few pounds, turned a
useless stream of clear running water into a
vivifier of thousands of fish. What we require
is a regular establishment, where the art should
be carried out and brought to perfection here in
our own favoured land.

The subject of our fisheries is now beginning
to assume considerable importance in the
national mind. Parliament has found out that it
is necessary to interfere to prevent the wholesale
slaughter of the salmon which is going on.
They wisely foresee the consequences of the
suicidal fishing that everywhere is prevailing.
They have determined to deal with the evil with
a strong hand, and to make a magna charta for
the inhabitants of our streams. This act is now
before us, and the laws and regulations are as
strict as those of Newgate prison. As it has
not yet passed, we will defer noticing it till the
fight which must ensue about it is over, and
then tell our readers what is to be done. It
will be an important fight—a regular iehthyomachia
—a battle between man and fish.

  The clouds have gods, and gods have eyes,
  Ye fish, ye fish, your great avengers rise.

NEW WORK
By SIR EDWARD BULWER LYTTON.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Will be concluded in the Number for Saturday, 3rd August,
And on SATURDAY, 10th AUGUST,
Will be commenced (to be compeleted in six months)
A STRANGE STORY,
BY THE
AUTHOR OF "MY NOVEL," "RIENZI," &c. &c.

MR DICKENS'S NEW WORK.
Now read, in 3 vols. post-8vo,
GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
BY CHARLES DICKENS.
CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.