Year: 1869




Last summer, during tour through Lover
Brittany, we visited Concarneau, for the pur-
pose Of seeing the sardine.fshery. But though
the capture Of the sardine, and its preparation
for the market, is a sight in itself well worth
the trouble Of journey, still, the greatest at
traction nt COncarneau Is the establishment for
breeding and observing the habits OF fish The
rtrierS as these large aquaria are called, are
supported by govcrnment-that IL, they are
under the management Of g6tefnhent but
the official who has the charge Of them inform
ed us that the sale Of the fish more than sup
ported the cost Of the establishment The
ylylcrs are series of large tanks about ten
feet deep, cut out Of the solid rock. The depth
OF water in them varies from two IN three feet
The hoor of the tanks is of sea sand. and the
water is supplied by pump. The first tank
! which we visited were full Of HOLSTERS Of all
sizes Into this tank all the HOLSTERS are turn
ed rs soon they arc old enough and strong
enough 10 hold their own against their canni-
bal brethren. Our ubliging conductor inform
ed us that the lobster took five years in arriving
at maturity, and that tile female lobster then,
Tor the FIRST time, took upon herself the cares
I Of maternity. AS soon rs a female is observed
to have laid her spawn, she is placed in a sep
arate tank. This tank was partly, covered
oveT--most probably 10 protect TIE young
from the glare Of the sun. Here the egg are
matched, and The young Holsters have plenty
oi room to grow without running the ri:k Of
being deyOurcd. A pail was let down into this
tank, and when it was drawn up we could see
that the water was full of tiny Holsters who.
strange to saw instead Of being dark Llue I'm
color, like their parents were bright red, and
looked as if they had been boiled. Adjoining
the lobster tank is one devoted to the cutiva-
ton Of the crayfish and the whole surface Of
the water was brisiing with the antenna of
these fOrmidablc-looking crustaceansi In spite
nl It's very iorbidding appearance. the crayfish
NJ Il,
the lobster


The curator next showed us the t,lrbot tank


In which, he said, there were more than a
thousand turbOt of various kinds The bot
tom was literally paved with huge turbot, who,
lying with their dark sides underncst would
have escaped the notice Of the zharpest eve, so
exactly did their upper surfaces correspond in
color to the sandy bottom on which they lay


The great fat-fish came Tapping to the feast of
sardine heads till the corner of the tank below
us was struggling mass of turbot. The 1.-the
and active rock-fish darled in and out between
the unwicldy turbot, and often s1atched the
food out of their very jaws trusting to their
speed TO escape the snap of the il-treated
creatures.


The next tank contained some specimens of
the huge angcl-fish. These gentlemen were
very sleepy in their dispositions, and refused
TO move even when stirred with long pole


They spend most of theft time at the bottom
OF the sea, roofing and burrowing in the sand


and swallowing all the fish which th8y dig
out After tins we were conducted into a
building attached to the vviers. The room
which we entered was surrounded OH three
sides by glass aquaria; the fourth side was de-
voted to series of square glass basins, all of
which communicated with one another. 50
that constant stream of water could te passed
through them. In some of these basins a
series of curious experiments had been carried
on with turbots, soles, and other fiat fish.
hne ii al. IL
sand-black, white, gray, and yellow. The
} f1at-tsh kept in these compartments were
found, in course of time, to change in color


until their upper surfaces correspondent exactly
in hue and shade to the sand on which they
lay. SO exactly did they assimilate themselves
10 the various colored bottoms of their tanks,
that 1t was hard to distinguish them from the
sand, even in the shallow basins in which they
were kept. All these fish were quite tame, and
answered tc the whistle Of the curator coming
to the surface to feed from his hand So eager
were they 10 seize the food, that one of them
actually struggled out of his tank in the pur-
sut. In one small basin there was solitary
lobster of large size, who. upon being ad-
dressed by the curator as "Fifnc" rose to the
, surface, and looked out from between his for
midable claws, as if expecting some food. He
was presented with piece of sardine; but
this had TO be put into his mouth with great
caution, as the ungrateful creature snapped
=


hand that was feeding him. In some of the
tanks there were invalid lebsters, who had
lost one or both of their claws These were
kept separate, for the purpose of watching the
very wonderful process of reproduction; for
when a lobster loses limb he is not n hone
less cripple TO the end of his days, but in due
time grows new claw. This accounts for
the number of Holsters which are brought to
the market with claws of unequal size. The
lobster parts with his claws with great facility,
tor he is very quarrelsOme fellow, and fire.
quently loses one of these members in an en-
counter. Besides this anv sudden noise, such
, as the report Of n gun, will cause the lobster
to shake off his claws. As soon as the limb is
gone, he rctires into private life and in short
time new claw buds forth from the Joint, and
grows rapidly.


In a circular stone basin, in the center of tue
room, were kept number of cOnger-ees.
These creatures were supplied with several
enrthenware pipes, into which they crawled.
These pipes were supposed to replace, in some
degree the crannies and hotes in the rocks In
which the cOnger eel delights TO hide himself
but rs most OF the eels were lying with their
heads of out of one end of the pipes and their
tails out of the other, the concealment was
about as complete as that of the ostrich, who
is said to hide his head in the sand, and fancy
, that because he can't see the hunters there
fore the hunters can't see him" We were told
that but little is known of the habits of the
, | NOuSNi-SSi AlOIc )dl Ol llS lllnu6T oil
breeding, and that this tank was made espe-
cially with a view to Observing the manners
and customs of this species. One of the most
curious things that we saw was the egg Of the
deg-ish. The dog-tish, being kind Of shark,
would be dangerous neighb0r 10 other and
less voracious fish, a separate glass tank of
! considerable size, was assigned to a female
dog-hsh and her eggs This dog-fish appeared


quite blind by daylight for she took no no.


tice of piece of sardnc that was dropped in


front of her, until il was pushed under her
5 nOse when she deyOured it greedily.


. In another compartment were several of the


pretty little sea-hotses. The curator kindly
shook the weeds to which they had attached
themselves by their prehensibe tails, that we
r might have an opportunity of observing their
, very curious mode OF progression. The extra
ordinary attitudes assumed by this fish, both
when at rest and in motion, together with the
strong resemblance in its head to that of the
quadruped from which it takes its name, gives
it most quaint and unique appearance AT


ter showing us these and many other curious
things, the curator offered to conduct us to the
laboratories, which occupy an up-stair room.
= These laboratories are accessible to any stu