Part 4

The profits of the International Fisheries Exhibition amount to fifteen thousand pounds. Two-thirds of this sum will be devoted to the benefit of the widows and orphans of fishermen, presumably through the instrumentality of some Society or Insurance Association to be formed for the purpose; three thousand pounds will go to form a Royal Fisheries Society for scientific work in connection with the harvest of the sea; whilst the balance remains in hand, at present unappropriated.

THE PROGRESS OF PISCICULTURE.

Of late years, no feature of fishery economy has excited more attention than the progress we have been making in what is called ‘Pisciculture.’ Fish-eggs are now a common article of commerce—the sales of which, and the prices at which they can be purchased, being as regularly advertised as any other kind of goods. This is a fact which, a century ago, might have been looked upon by our forefathers as something more than wonderful. Such commerce in all probability would have been stigmatised as impious, as a something ‘flying in the face of Providence.’

But in another country there was buying and selling of fish-eggs more than a thousand years ago. The ingenious Chinese people had discovered the philosophy which underlies fish-culture, as well as the best modes of increasing their supplies of fish, long before any European nation had dreamt of taking action in the matter. A few years ago, a party of fisher-folks from the Celestial Empire, on a visit to Europe, were exceedingly astonished at the prices they had to pay for the fish they were so fond of eating. They explained that in China any person might purchase for a very small sum as much as might serve a family for a week’s food. They also mentioned that some fishes which we reject, such as the octopus, were much esteemed by the Chinese, who cooked them carefully, and partook of them with great relish. The capture of the octopus, indeed, forms one of the chief fishing industries of China, these sea-monsters being taken in enormous numbers at some of the Chinese fishing stations, notably at Swatow. They are preserved by being dried in the sun; and then, after being packed in tubs, they are distributed to the consuming centres of the country. In the inland districts of China there are also to be found numerous fishponds, where supplies of the more popular sorts of fish are kept, and fed for the market. These are grown from ova generally bought from dealers, who procure supplies of eggs from some of the large rivers of the country. The infant fish, it may be mentioned, are as carefully tended and fed as if they were a flock of turkeys in the yard of a Norfolk farmer. In the opinion of the Chinese fishermen, who were interviewed by the industrious Frank Buckland, hundreds of thousands of fish annually die of starvation; and if means could be adopted for the feeding of tender fry, fish of all kinds would become more plentiful than at present, and we would obtain them at a cheaper rate. In China, the yolks of hens’ eggs are thrown into the rivers and ponds, that kind of food being greedily devoured by the young fish.

It has long been known to those interested in the economy of our fisheries, that only a very small percentage of the ova of our chief food-fishes comes to maturity, while of the fish actually hatched, a very small percentage reaches our tables for food-uses; hence the desire which has arisen to augment the supplies by means of pisciculture. In the case of a fish like the salmon, every individual of that species (_Salmo salar_) which can be brought to market is certain, even when prices are low, of a ready sale at something like a shilling per pound-weight; and it is not, therefore, to be wondered at that the proprietor of a stretch of salmon-water should be zealous about the increase of his stock of fish. A quarter of a century since, the salmon-fishery owners of the river Tay in Scotland, impressed with the possibilities of pisciculture, had a suite of salmon-nurseries constructed at Stormontfield, where they have annually hatched a very large number of eggs, and where they feed and protect the young fish till they are ready to migrate to the sea, able to fight their own battle of life. This may be said to be the earliest and longest sustained piscicultural effort of a commercial kind made in Great Britain, an example which was followed on other rivers. The chief salmon-fisheries of Scotland being held as private property, are, of course, more favourably situated, in regard to fish-culture, than salmon-fisheries which are open to the public, and which, in a sense, are the property of no person in particular. These latter must be left in the hands of mother Nature. The salmon, however, being an animal of great commercial value, is so coveted at all seasons of the year, both by persons who have a legal right to such property, and by persons who have no right, that such fisheries have a tendency to become barren of breeding-stock; for although each female yields on the average as many as twenty thousand eggs, extremely few of these ever reach maturity; hence, it has come about that many proprietors are resorting to the piscicultural process of increasing their supplies.

But the chief feature of the pisciculture of the period is that ‘fisheries’ are now being worked quite independently of any particular river. There is, for example, the Howietoun fishery, near Stirling, which has been ‘invented,’ as we may say, by that piscatorial giant, Sir James Gibson-Maitland. From this establishment, the eggs of fish, particularly trout, and more especially Loch Leven trout, are annually distributed in hundreds of thousands. From Howietoun, and from some other places as well, gentlemen can stock their ponds or other ornamental water with fecundated ova in a certain state of forwardness; or they can procure, for a definite sum of money, fish of all ages from tiny fry to active yearlings, or well grown two-year olds! Sporting-waters which have been overfished can be easily replenished by procuring a few thousand eggs or yearlings; while angling clubs which rent a loch or important stream can, at a very small cost, keep up the supplies, whether of trout or salmon. In the course of the last three summers, several Scottish lakes have had their fish-stores replenished by means of drafts on the piscicultural bank, which is always open at the Howietoun ‘fishery.’ The distance to which ova or tender young fish require to be transported offers no obstacle to this new development of fish-commerce; thousands of infantile fish were brought from Russia to Edinburgh with perfect safety on the occasion of the Fishery Exhibition held in that city. The loss in transit was not more, we believe, than two per cent.

It may prove interesting to state the prices which are charged usually for ova and young fish. A sample lot of eyed ova of the American brook trout, to the extent of one thousand, may be obtained for thirty shillings; and for ten shillings less, a thousand eggs of the Loch Leven trout, or the common trout of the country, may be purchased. For stock supplies, a box containing fifteen thousand partially eyed ova of _S. fontinalis_ (American) may be had for ten pounds. The other varieties mentioned are cheaper by fifty shillings for the same number. Fry of the same, in lots of not fewer than five thousand, range from seven pounds ten shillings to five pounds. Yearlings are of course dearer, and cost from fifteen and ten pounds respectively per thousand. Ten millions of trout ova are now hatched every year at the Howietoun fishery.

The fecundity of all kinds of fish is enormous. A very small trout will be found to contain one thousand eggs; a female salmon will yield on the average eight hundred ova for each pound of her weight; and if even a fifth part of the eggs of our food-fishes were destined to arrive at maturity, there would be no necessity for resorting to pisciculture in order to augment our fish commissariat. But even in America, where most kinds of fish were at one period almost over-abundant, artificial breeding is now necessary in order to keep up the supplies. In the United States, fish-culture has been resorted to on a gigantic scale, not only as regards the salmon, but also in connection with various sea-fishes, many hundred millions of eggs of which are annually collected and hatched; the young fry being forwarded to waters which require to be restocked. Apparatus of a proper description for the hatching of sea-fish has been constructed, and is found to work admirably. Some of these inventions were shown last year in the American department of the International Fishery Exhibition, where they were much admired by persons who feel interested in the proper development of our fishery resources. In the United States, the art of pisciculture has been studied with rare patience and industry, the fish-breeders thinking it no out-of-the-way feat to transplant three or four millions of young salmon in the course of a season. In dealing with the shad, the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries have been able to distribute the young of that fish by tens of millions per annum; the loss in the hatching of eggs and in the transmission of the animal being very small.

Some writers and lecturers on the natural and economic history of our food-fishes have asserted that no possible demand can lead to their extermination or to any permanent falling-off in the supplies; but the economy of the American fisheries tends to disprove that theory. In the seas which surround the United States, certain fishes would soon become very scarce, were the supplies not augmented each season by the aid of the pisciculturists. The fruitfulness of the cod is really wonderful, individuals of that family having been taken with from five to nine millions of eggs in their ovaries. The fecundity of the common herring, too, has often proved a theme of wonder. That an animal only weighing a few ounces should be able to perpetuate its kind at the rate of thirty thousand, is indeed remarkable. But fruitful in reproductive power as these and other fishes undoubtedly are, it has been prophesied by cautious writers, that by over-fishing, the supplies may in time become so exhausted as to require the aid of the pisciculturist. If so, we believe the mode of action which has been found to work so well in the American seas will be the best to follow. No plan of inclosed sea-ponds, however large they might be, will meet the case; the fish-eggs will require to be hatched in floating cylinders specially constructed for the purpose, so as to admit of the eggs being always under the influence of the sea-water, and at the same time exposed to the eye of skilled watchers. It is believed by persons well qualified to judge, that the eggs of our more valuable sea-fishes may in the way indicated be dealt with in almost incredible numbers. We have only to remember that twenty females of the cod family will yield at least one hundred millions of eggs, to see that the possibilities of pisciculture might extend far beyond anything indicated in the foregoing remarks.

In resuscitating their exhausted oyster-beds, the French people have during the last twenty years worked wonders; they have been able to reproduce that favourite shell-fish year after year in quantities that would appear fabulous if they could be enumerated in figures. Pisciculture was understood in France long before it was thought of as a means of aiding natural production in America; but our children of the States—to use a favourite phrase of their own—now ‘lick all creation’ in the ways and means of replenishing river and sea with their finny denizens.

A PLEA FOR THE WATER-OUSEL.

In a paper which appeared in this _Journal_, in June 1883, on the Salmon, a few words were said in defence of the water-ousel against a _fama_ which had found vent in newspaper correspondence, accusing that most interesting bird of destroying salmon spawn. An English gentleman, after reading those remarks, has written to us, giving a sad illustration of misdirected zeal, which had arisen from the reading of such newspaper letters.

During the previous winter, he was one of a party that spent a few days on the banks of a favourite salmon river in Wales. The party were all enthusiastic anglers; and, fired by the recent outcry against the ousel, they made a raid upon these birds, killing thirty in one day. Like the ‘Jeddart justices’ of old, the party then proceeded to convict the slain; when, lo! on examination by one of their number—a well-known English analyst—not a grain of salmon roe could be found in all the thirty crops examined, though it was then the height of the salmon spawning season. Like Llewelyn, after slaying Gelert, they had time to repent, ‘For now the truth was clear.’ They had slain the innocent, which feed upon insects that prey on salmon ova. They had therefore killed one of the salmon’s best protectors.

No better instance could be adduced of the caution with which popular theories in natural history should be received. But besides branding the innocent little ousel as a salmon-destroyer, some writers went so far as to assert that the bird had no song, and was not worth listening to. The best observers fortunately have defended the bird against the charge of being songless; and in respect to its alleged crime of eating salmon-roe, the evidence above given is surely conclusive in favour of its innocence.

The water-ousel is one of our most unique birds. It is a wader and a diver, and though not web-footed, by using its wings it can propel itself under water. Its habits are always a delightful study to the observer. The domed nest, with its snow-white eggs, is a wonderful structure; and there is a fascination in watching the bird tripping in and out of the water in pursuit of its food, popping overhead ever and again, and reappearing for a moment, only to dive and reappear elsewhere. When rivers are largely frozen over, it is interesting to see how boldly the little bird dives from the edge of an ice-sheet into a stream two feet or more in depth, how long it can remain under water, and how often it rises to breathe and dive again without leaving the stream. The singing of the water-ousel is low, but remarkably sweet, and long-continued in the winter-time of the year, when no other bird but the redbreast is heard; and when trilled out, as the notes frequently are in the clear frosty air, as the bird sits perched on a rocky projection, or takes its rapid flight up or down the stream, they sound clear and melodious.

THE WATER-OUSEL’S SONG.

Whitter! whitter! where the water Leaps among the rocks, And the din of the linn Swelling thunder mocks, Cheerily and merrily I sing my roundelay, Whitter! whitter! bright or bitter Be the winter day!

Whitter! whitter! down the water Speeding with the stream, Snow around wraps the ground In a silent dream! Wood and hill, all are still, Birds as mute as clay, Whitter! whitter! what is fitter For a winter day?

Whitter! whitter! in the water Busily I ply; Ice and snow come and go, Nought a care have I. Mountain waters flee their fetters, So I feed and play, Whitter! whitter! pitter! pitter! All the winter day.

Whitter! whitter! o’er the water Still and smooth and deep, Round the pool, clear and cool, Where the shadows sleep, Snowy breast, shadow-kissed, Whirring on its way, Whitter! whitter! titter! titter! Ho! the winter day!

Whitter! whitter! through the water, By the miller’s wheel, Where the strong water’s song Rings a merry peal; Wet or dry, what care I, Sporting in the spray? Whitter! whitter! twitter! twitter! Flies the winter day.

Whitter! whitter! with the water Where the burnies run, ’Mong the hills, where the rills Dance unto the sun, In the nooks, where the brooks Ripple on for aye, Whitter! whitter! bright or bitter Be the winter day!

J. H. P.

BOOK GOSSIP.

We have on more than one occasion drawn attention in these pages to the good work which Miss Ormerod is accomplishing by the dissemination of knowledge on the subject of insect life as it affects agriculture. She has now published a _Guide to Methods of Insect Life, and Prevention and Remedy of Insect Ravage_ (London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.), which cannot fail greatly to advance the object she has in view. The _Guide_ was written at the request of the Institute of Agriculture, and its chief purpose is to give some information on the habits, and means of prevention, of crop insects. The book is written in a style which will render it useful to agriculturists, gardeners, and others, even although they happen to have no scientific knowledge whatever of entomology. The various insects, their eggs and larvæ, are described in terms as free from scientific terminology as is possible; and such scientific terms as must occasionally be used are explained in a glossary at the end of the book. The illustrations are numerous; and between these and the verbal descriptions given, no difficulty should at any time be felt in identifying any particular insect pest, and applying to it the treatment which the author suggests. The methods of prevention are mainly taken from the reports which Miss Ormerod has been in the habit of receiving annually from a large number of agriculturists, so that the reader has here, in one little book, the united experience and observations of a large body of practical men.

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Last year we had the pleasure of publishing in this _Journal_ two papers on the subject of Shetland and its Industries, by Sheriff Rampini, of Lerwick. Since then, the same gentleman has delivered two lectures before the Philosophical Institution, Edinburgh, which lectures are now published in a neat little volume, under the title of _Shetland and the Shetlanders_ (Kirkwall: William Peace and Son). In the papers which appeared in our pages, the author confined himself to the industries of the island, its agriculture and fisheries; in these lectures, however, he gives himself greater scope, and treats of the history, traditions, and language of the people, introducing many anecdotes characteristic of them and of their habits.

OCCASIONAL NOTES.

AMERICAN LITERARY PIRACY.

In the _London Figaro_, the editor thus writes: Those literary men who are agitating for a copyright convention with the United States have doubtless suffered in the following way, which seems to me particularly hard on some of the authors of this country. I am, let it be assumed, then, the writer of a number of short stories, which, at anyrate, for the purposes of my statement, I will conclude to have been good enough to earn sufficient popularity to bring them within the purview of the American book pirates. Very well—my stories are taken as quickly as they appear and published in the States, not only in a book-form, but in all the principal newspapers which devote some of their columns to fiction.

For this honour I, of course, receive never a cent, and that is a distinct hardship, I take it. But that is not all. My stories having appeared in the States, slightly altered to suit American tastes, and without my name attached, are read and admired by the editors of English provincial journals, who straightway proceed to cut out the fictions in question, and alter them back again, to suit the idiosyncrasies of their British readers. Thus my handiwork appears a second time in this country; and in not one, but possibly a dozen or a score of provincial newspapers.

The result is this. When I go, a month or two after, and offer a collection of my short stories to a London publisher, he reads them, and replies in effect: ‘Yes, I like your stories very well; but what is the use of my publishing them, when they have appeared in half the country papers in the kingdom?’ It is in vain I explain. The injury has been done; and an apology from the country editors is but a slight and unsatisfactory atonement for an act which has kept me out of scores or hundreds of pounds.

Besides this, there are other publishers who, seeing that my fiction appears in the _Little Pedlington Mirror_ or the _Mudborough Gazette_, mentally determine that my calibre as a writer cannot be very great if I am reduced to dispose of my copy to such papers as these. And therefore, through no fault of my own, but, as a matter of fact, in actual consequence of my success, my reputation as a writer is positively injured in quarters in which it is most important to me it should be sustained. I have been describing incidents which have really occurred, I may add; and I think that the grievance is one that needs serious attention, with a view to its redress.

[The editor of _Figaro_ has our fullest sympathy. We, too, are the victims of American malpractices. Many of the short stories which appear in _Chambers’s Journal_ are copied into the American newspapers without leave, and _without acknowledgment of the source whence taken_. These papers reach Great Britain with the purloined material, which our provincial press in turn transfers to its pages. Expostulation is of no avail: the British journalist sees a story in an American newspaper which will suit his purpose, and at once takes possession of property, which of course he believes to be American (and therefore legitimate spoil), but which has in reality been paid for and previously published by ourselves. We thus doubtless lose many subscribers, who, finding our Tales and Stories given at full length in the penny papers, are pleased to have them at a slightly cheaper rate than the original.—_ED. Ch. Jl._]

SOWING AND HARVESTING.

Farmers, besides being subject to the risks incurred by all engaged in commercial enterprises, are in addition peculiarly dependent on the very variable weather of our climate. In 1877, Professor Tanner was deputed by the Science and Art Department to make an inquiry into the conditions regulating the growth of barley, wheat, and oats. He found that on a certain farm the portion of the barley-crop which was harvested in fine harvest-weather yielded per acre forty bushels, each of which weighed fifty-six pounds; while on the same farm the part harvested after some rain had fallen—in bad harvest-weather—also yielded forty bushels per acre; but in this case each bushel weighed only forty pounds—thus showing that there was a loss of six hundred and forty pounds of food on each acre. Barley is also peculiarly sensitive to the condition of its seed-bed. Two parts of the same field were sown with similar seed; but in one case the seed was got down in good spring-weather, and in the other, after heavy rain; and the result was that the former grew freely, and yielded per acre forty bushels, weighing fifty-eight and a half pounds each; while in the latter case the seed never grew freely, and yielded per acre only twenty-four bushels, weighing fifty-four pounds per bushel—thus showing a loss of one thousand and forty-four pounds of grain per acre.