The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-20 00:00:00

ROYAL INSTITUTION.

An interesting and very animated lecture was
delivered at the Royal Institution on Friday even-
ing by Mr. F. Buckland, " On the Culture of Fish,"
on which occasion the Duke of Northumberland
was in the chair. Mr. Bucklaud vary enthusiasti-
cally urged the importance of the subject of pisci-
culture, which, he contended, deserves to be can-
sidered as a science rather than as an art ; and he
entered into the matter so thoroughly con amore,
and used so much action and freedom of expression,
that he carried his audience completely along with
him, and they seemed to be highly amused as well
as interested. Fish are among the most prolific of
living creatures, the number of eggs that each one
contains being so great that if they were all to be
developed, the rivers and the sea would soon swarm
with them. In a turbot weighing eight pounds
upwards 485,000 eggs have been counted, each one
of which, as Mr. Buckland said, if properly taken
care of, would become a turbot that now sells for
10s. Such a fish would, therefore, be more profit-
able than the mythical goose that laid golden eggs,
and the practical advantages of attending to the
culture of fish was plainly manifest. He described
the manner in which salmon and trout, especially,
deposit their eggs in the beds of rivers, and the
many dangers the spawn usually encounter, which
so far diminish the number that it is estimated that
not more than one egg in a thousand becomes a
matured fish. It is a mistaken notion to suppose
that the birds that skim along the surface of
rivers are destructive to fish—they only
eat the insects that would destroy the spawn,
and are therefore useful ; but the most destructive
aquatic poacher is the swan, which dives its long
neck to the bottom and shovels up hundreds of the
eggs in its broad beak. The plan to be adopted in
the culture of the fish is very simple, and the ap-
paratus required may be easily provided. The spawn
is collected and transferred to boxes containing
gravel that has been boiled, to kill the insects it con-
tains, and through the boxes a stream of water not
deeper than liin. is kept constantly flowing, at a
temperature of about 40 or 45 degrees. All that is
then required is the practice of the sometimes very
difficult act, as Mr. Buckland observed, of letting
things alone for about 35 days, when the little fish
will come out of the eggs. In that first stage of
development they have no mouths, but each one is
provided by nature with a bag attached to the gills
which supplies it with nutriment until further ad-
vanced in growth. With the aid of the electric
lamp several eggs were exhibited just before they
were hatched, with the fish visible inside and mov-
ing about; and the embryo fish, on first bursting
from the eggs, with their bags of nutriment at
tached, were also exhibited swimming in water.
Though they had no mouths they were provided
with large eyes, and their hearts could be seen
beating rapidly, When further developed they are
placed in ponds and fed. In England the food
given them is liver ground very fine, but in France
they are :characteristically fed with frogs. When
sufficiently advanced to provide their own food the
fish are introduced into the rivers to -take care of
themselves, and to repay when afterwards caught
for the pains bestowed on them in their infancy. In
this manner 40,000 fish, comprising salmon, trout,
greylings, and chad, were put into the Thames last
year; and as the cost of rearing them is not much
more than a farthing each, if only a small propor-
tion grow up and come back to be caught, they wig
repay the expense. In France the rivers have been
stocked with as many as six millions of fish of
various kinds. One of the problems which the pis-
cioulturists are now engaged in solving is the in-
troduction of salmon into the rivers of Australia;
and it is confidently expected to be accomplished by
packing the eggs in ice. Mr. Buckland showed
some eggs of salmon that had been kept alive in ice
long enough to perform the voyage to Australia,
and he had no doubt that in a few years the rivers
of Australia would be stocked with salmon from this
country. He explained the manner in which the
eggs and embryo fish are sent from one part of
Europe to another, and he showed a bottle full of
minute Swedish salmon which he had received
within the week, some of which were caught and
exhibited great activity when displayed on a screen
with the electric lamp. In noticing the great
wariness of trout, Mr. Buckland said there is a
well-known trout in the river at Hampton,
which anglers have for a long time vainly at
tempted to catch, and they report it to be so
sagacious as to know the name of every maker
of tackle that is used in the Thames. It has been
observed during the culture of fish that not un-
frequently two fish are contained in a single
egg, and they are joined together near the
middle, like the Siamese twins. A specimen of
this kind Mr. Buckland had been so fortunate as to
procure alive for exhibition in the lecture room,
each fish being distinct in every part but at the point
of junction. At the conclusion of the lecture, Mr.
Buckland made a feeling allusion to his father, the
late Dr. Buckland, and there was a burst of ap-
plause unusual with the audience at the Royal
Institution.