impairing the efficiency of the water power. With the
poisonous and filthy mixtures sent by some manufactories down the
rivers, the case is far different, and where this is done the case
is hopeless. Salmon and Trout will rapidly disappear from such
rivers, never to be seen there again, so long as these noxious
contaminations are permitted to flow into them.

* * * * *

ARTIFICIAL BREEDING OF FISH.

CLITHEROE, _December 26th_, 1853.

To the Editor of the "Manchester Guardian."

SIR,--I have read with some interest the letter of your
correspondent, Salmo Salar, on the artificial breeding of fish;
and knowing, as I do, the great interest which the writer feels in
the preservation and increase of his namesakes, I shall be most
happy if my humble efforts in the same cause throw any more light
on the same subject, and in any degree contribute to the same end.

But Mr. Salmo Salar is quite wrong in saying that, with the
exceptions of the experiments made on the banks of the Hodder, by
Ramsbottom, no efforts have been made to increase the number of
Salmon by providing artificial breeding-places. Passing over my
own numerous experiments here for the last fourteen or fifteen
years (which you, Sir, are aware of, though the fishing world is
not), I may refer to the extensive experiments made by Mr. Fawkes,
of Farnley, in 1841 and 1842, and renewed again in 1848 and 1849;
and the whole of which (with the exception of a portion of these
in 1842) were successful. The experiments of Salmo Salar were not
made until 1851 and 1852, and were intended merely to test the
accuracy of an assumption that the impregnation of the ova takes
place long prior to their exclusion; which experiments terminated
in a complete failure. Salmo Salar says that the quantity of
Salmon fry in the river is enormous; and that he has caught five
pounds of them in a single pool in a single day. I have known
three times that quantity caught in the same way. But still this
proves nothing at all, for it is well known that almost all
migratory animals, however solitary their general habits may be,
are gregarious at the time of migration. Witness swallows,
fieldfares, and even woodcocks. Witness also the clouds of small
Eels ascending the rivers in May and June; and if we are to
believe the accounts of travellers, the enormous flocks of
antelopes in Africa, and of bisons in America, are proofs of the
same general law. No doubt Salmo Salar will find, as he say