It would scarcely pay to breed the commoner fishes of the lakes and rivers, as pike, carp, and perch; the commonest fish bred at Huningue is the fera, whilst the most expensive is the beautiful ombre chevalier, the eggs of which cost about a penny each before they are in the water as fish. The general calculation, however, appertaining to the operations carried on at Huningue gives twelve living fish for a penny. The fera is very prolific, yielding its eggs in thousands; it is called the herring of the lakes; and the young, when first born, are so small as scarcely to be perceptible. The superintendent at Huningue told me that several of them had escaped by means of the canal into the Rhine, where they had never before been found. I inquired particularly as to the Danube salmon, but found that it was very difficult to hatch, especially at first, great numbers of the eggs, as many sometimes as 60 or 70 per cent, being destroyed; but now the manipulators are getting better acquainted with the modus operandi, and it is expected that by and by the assistants at Huningue will be as successful with this fish as they are with all others. Even allowing for a very considerable loss in the artificially-manipulated ova—and it is thought that two-thirds at least of the eggs of this fish are in some way lost—it is certain that the artificial system of protection is immensely more productive in fish than the natural one, for it has been said, in reference especially to the salmon of the river Tay, that hardly one in a thousand of the eggs ever reaches to maturity as a proper table-fish, such is the enormous destruction of eggs and young fry; and the percentage of destruction in Catholic countries is greatly larger, because during the fast-days enjoined by the church fish must be obtained.
Up to the season of 1863-64 the total number of fresh-water fish-eggs distributed from Huningue was far above 110,000,000, and nearly the half of these were of the finer kinds of fish, there being no less than 41,000,000 of eggs of salmon and trout.
I have complied a tabular statement, which I insert at this place, of the number of fish-eggs collected and distributed at Huningue for the two years previous to my visit:—
1860-61.
| Species | Time of Operations. | Ova provided. | Loss. | Quantity despatched from the Establishment. | Retained for Experiments at Huningue. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860-61. | |||||
| Common trout Salmon trout Great lake trout Rhine salmon Ombre chevalier | Oct. 20 to Mar. 17, 149 days. | 5,729,100 | 1,943,100, 34 per cent | 3,153,500 | 632,500 |
| Fera | Nov. 14 to Dec. 30, 46 days. | 8,997,000 | 22,000 | 5,573,000 | 3,402,000 |
| Total | 14,726,100 | 1,965,100 | 8,726,500 | 4,034,500 |
Destination of the Ova despatched from the Establishment.
278 demands for establishments in 70 departments of France, and 29 demands from establishments in Belgium, Switzerland, Bavaria, and Wurtemberg.
1861-62.
| Species | Time of Operations. | Ova provided. | Loss. | Quantity despatched from the Establishment. | Retained for Experiments at Huningue. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1861-62. | |||||
| Common trout Salmon trout Great lake trout Rhine salmon Ombre chevalier | Oct. 20 to Mar. 7, 135 days. | 6,382,900 | 2,602,400 | 3,360,000 | 420,500 |
| Fera | Nov. 16 to Dec. 25, 39 days. | 11,995,000 | 12,000 | 9,519,000 | 2,464,000 |
| Total | 18,377,900 | 2,614,400 | 12,879,000 | 2,884,500 |