k of
electricity transmitted through the meshes of the net, as well as from
the wires of the lamp circuit, stunned for a few minutes all life
within the enclosure. The fish then floated on the surface, the net
was drawn together, and they were collected and sorted; some which, as
I afterwards learned, were required for breeding, being carefully and
separately preserved in a smaller tank, those fit for food cast into
the larger one, those too small for the one purpose and not needed for
the other being thrown back into the water. I noted, however, that
many fish apparently valuable were among those thus rejected. I spoke
to one of the fishermen, who, regarding me with great surprise and
curiosity, at last answered briefly that a stringent law forbids the
catching of spawning fish except for breeding purposes. Those,
therefore, for which the season was close-time were invariably spared.

In sea-fishing a much larger net, sometimes enclosing more than 10,000
square yards, is employed. This fishing is conducted chiefly at night,
the electric lamp being then much more effective in attracting the
prey, and lowered only a few inches below the surface. Many large
destructive creatures, unfit for food, generally of a nature
intermediate between fish and reptiles, haunt the seas. It is held
unwise to exterminate them, since they do their part in keeping down
an immense variety of smaller creatures, noxious for one reason or
another, and also in clearing the water from carrion and masses of
seaweed which might otherwise taint the air of the sea-coasts,
especially near the mouths of large tropical rivers. But these
sea-monsters devour enormous quantities of fish, and the hunters
appointed to deal with them are instructed to limit their numbers to
the minimum required. Their average increase is to be destroyed each
year. If at any time it appear that, for whatever cause, the total
number left alive is falling off, the chief of this service suspends
it partially or wholly at his discretion.

We now came to the entrance of a vast enclosure bordering on the
river, the greatest fish-breeding establishment on this continent, or
indeed in this world. One of its managers courteously showed me over
it. It is not necessary minutely to describe its arrangements, from
the spawning ponds and the hatching tanks--the latter contained in a
huge building, whose temperature is preserved with the utmost care at
the rate found best suited to the ova