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NATURALIZATION OF FISH.

If fish breathe indifferently in salt water or fresh, (such water as cattle will drink) for one week, or one month, and if in their new element they thrive, fatten, and breed, the trial of three weeks, or three months, is a proof that they will neither sicken nor die of fresh water; the experiment seems to be clearly proved by Dr. M'Culloch, in a space from four to six acres.

The Brill has grown to double its size in one year.

Sole twice as thick.

Plaice three times as thick.

The Turbot from eight inches to double its size, besides breeding.

The Basse has propagated.

The Red Mullet is living in good health.
The Whiting also increases in breadth and fat-

ness.

Grey Loach has bred considerably; besides various other fish, all improved in flavour.

Bacon originally speculated on the project of sea fish in fresh water. He remarks, "that fish

used to the salt water, do nevertheless delight
much more in the fresh; quoting the salmon and
the smelt, I doubt, he says, there hath not been
sufficient experiment made of putting sea fish
into fresh water ponds and pools; it is a thing of
great use, for so you have them new at a great
distance; besides, fish will eat the pleasanter,
and may fall to breed :" such was the prophetic
eye
of him who did not reject experiment. Why
is it rejected now? says Dr. M'Culloch.

· Mr. Arnold, of Guernsey, has in his lake, of about four acres, chiefly supplied with fresh water, many sea fish; all have improved in quality, and propagated. The lake, which before was worthless, only producing a few eels, now yields a large rent. The bottom of the lake is various—muddy, rocky, and gravelly, and since the introduction of sea fish the eels have multiplied a thousand fold; a cart load may be had of them.

List of fish introduced, (those marked + were forcibly naturalized):

1

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Dr. M'Culloch's Journal of Science, vol. xix.

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Fish Preservers-The far-famed Fish-pond of Logan.-This pond is unlike any thing I ever met with; it was formed in 1800, at an expense of several hundred pounds, and has furnished a wholesale article of food, fatter than can be found in the open ocean. The pond, according to Mr. Matheson, is thirty feet deep, and one hundred and sixty in circumference. There is at the top a wall of solid masonry, several feet high, encircling the rock on every side; it communicates with the tide with one of those fissures so common on bold and precipitous shores. It is the property of Colonel M'Dowal, of Logan. Attached to the pond, and forming its gateway, is a neat Gothic cottage for the fisherman; and the rock is surmounted by a stone-wall, grey with lichen, and beautifully festooned with honeysuckle, bin-wood, a nd other creeping plants. In every state of wind

and tide Colonel M'Dowal can command a limited supply of the finest fish, and studies at his leisure their instincts and habits. The fish are daily fed. From the back-door, a stair, neatly cut, conducts the visitor to the usual halting place; a large flat stone projects into the water, and commands a view of every part of the aquatic prison. Fishes hear as well as they see, and the moment the fisherman crosses his threshold and descends the steps, the pond is agitated by hundreds of fins, and otherwise thrown into the greatest commotion; darting from this, that, and other corners, they move as it were to the common centre, on the first view, to be menacing an attack on the poor fisherman, instead of the creel-full of limpets which he carries; the fish were actually so tame that they fed out of their benefactor's hand. The fisherman discoursed on their different tempers as a thing quite as palpable as their different sizes. One gigantic cod, the patriarch of the pond, which the fisherman asserted, answered to his name Tom, most beseechingly, when he turned up his snout, and most forcibly attracted my attention; when, from old age or disease, he became blind; from this cause he lost all chance of scramble with the other fish for food; the fisherman was very kind to him, patted his head, and fed him. The fish in this pond were chiefly cod, haddocks, flounders, blochin, glassin, salmon, and various other kinds.

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