sters to a fresh water lake, the lake Biviere, for the purpose of improving their quality and condition.

This is an important circumstance in addition to the mere fact of domestication. The objectors all say that the fish would starve; and, when driven from this ground, that they would lose their flavour and fall off in quality; become, in short, fresh water fish. The ancient Romans were of a different opinion, or they would not have been at so much expense in keeping and feeding them. Wherever they are thus treated they are found to improve, instead of deteriorating. Invariably, they grow fatter and thicker, and become better in quality. The writer before us shows that the mullet, the sole, plaice, turbot, basse, and many more, are thus changed for the better; and that, what is singular, the flat fish become twice or three times as thick as in their ordinary state. It ought to be equally familiar that our oysters are never good till they have been transplanted from the sea to fresh water, which constitutes the improvement in the oysters of Colchester; the only naturally good ones, called natives, in the market, being those which are caught where fresh waters join the sea.

Thus it follows, not only that fishes can be kept for consumption in a domesticated state, but that they will propagate, and that they also are improved in quality. And thus also it appears that it is indifferent in what kind of water this is attempted; and hence, that those places which have not the convenience of sea water, may stock their lakes, canals, and ponds, if not their rivers.

We mentioned that the evidence was deduced, partly from the natural conduct of certain sea fishes, in resorting to fresh water or residing in it, and partly from direct experiment; and, as the writer has given a distinct list of each, we shall extract them for the information of our own readers, his papers being printed in a scientific journal of limited circulation.

The list of those which frequent, or reside in fresh waters, naturally, is the following:

Conger, torsk, sprat, shad, alose, great lamprey, lesser lamprey, stickleback, smelt, cottus quadricornis, mullet, flounder, red flounder, white whale, rockling, whiting-pout, mackerel, herring, cod, loach, red loach, sand eel, prawns, shrimps, and crabs.

Those which have been naturalized by force, not having yet been found naturally resorting to fresh waters, are the following: Plaice, basse, smelt (which also frequents rivers), atherine, rock fish, cuckoo fish, old wife fish, sole, pollack, turbot, horse mackerel, oysters, and muscles; besides which, many more, in addition to the smelt in the first list, such as the mullet, herring, mackerel, whiting-pout, and others, have also been thus introduced into confinement, so as to propagate.

In short, the experiment has never failed on any fish on which it has been fairly tried, and every kind that has had sufficient time has also propagated. And, what is important, it has equally an

swered where the water itself has been changeable, shifting from salt to brackish, and to fresh, and so on in rotation.

As yet, it has not been found necessary to feed the fishes thus domesticated. So far from that, they have multiplied to an enormous degree, finding or making their own food. And thus a pond of about five acres, which was almost worthless, has become a source of large revenue.

The improvement which the writer deduces from these facts, is somewhat multifarious in its bearings.

He has proposed, in the first place, to turn to account the great tracts of useless fresh water which we possess in this country, by stocking them with sea fish. He has shown that Scotland alone contains five hundred square miles of lake water; the whole not producing one shilling of rent, and scarcely furnishing even a fish to the surrounding inhabitants or the proprietors. In France and Germany, fresh waters, duly stocked and fished, even with fresh water fish, yield a rent equal to that of the land. Here is at once a large source of food and revenue, which might be materially extended by occupying the various fresh waters of Wales and England in the same manner.

His next proposal is to enclose a portion of the Thames for the purpose of establishing a living fish market for the metropolis. If the objects of joint stock companies had been utility instead of jobbing in shares, this project would not now remain to be executed. The advantages chiefly to be derived from it are stated to be the following:

Of all the fish brought to the market, the fishmongers know very well that a very small proportion is in good condition, and this appearing to arise from want of food. It is the fashion to say that the fish are out of season; but, except for a short time immediately after spawning, no fish is ever out of season except from lack of food. Among a hundred turbots brought to the London market there are seldom ten good; the other fish are starved; the difference, in the case of domestication, would be like that of killing and eating a fattened ox instead of a collection of Highland bones. Further, the present supply is very irregular. There is sometimes a glut in the market, and it is notorious that they are often destroyed to keep up the prices; while it often happens, from bad weather or other causes, that there is a want of fish, with, consequently, extravagant prices. Generally, the supply is short for the demand; and, with a greater and more regular supply, many more persons might afford and enjoy this luxury, or necessary.

But such a system of an enclosed market, being a living market also, the supply could be accurately regulated by the demand, and the trade would become steady instead of being precarious. The produce would also become cheaper to the public; not merely on account of the certainty and the equalization, but because the trade would be conducted by fewer hands, and by a smaller number of intermediate profits. The public would be always sure of fish, and it would be sure of them at moderate and steady prices. VOL. VII. No. 42.-Museum.

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If the fishes thus confined should not even propagate, or, rather, if some kinds should not, the whole object would not be defeated; because the enclosure would still be a repository of living fish, a place where they might be deposited when plenty, to be retaken when scarce. As far as they did propagate, the repository would be a warren, and thus a distinct source of profit. If they should not feed effectually, there would be no difficulty in feeding them, from the offal of such a city as London, copying the ancient Romans. Nor can there be any reason why we should not feed our fish as well as our pigs; or why, having naturalized carp and tench, and made them literally domestic animals, we should not extend the same principle to other fishes.

To carry this particular plan into execution, the writer proposes that the enclosure should be made by means of a palisade, in any place towards the mouth of the Thames, or the Medway, where there is room, and that a steam-boat should be established for the daily supply of London, to bring back food, if that should prove necessary. There is no difficulty in supplying such an enclosure with living fish by means of well-boats; since they are thus brought alive to Gravesend at present, and since the practice of Bermuda and Missolonghi proves that it is perfectly easy. Such is the author's proposal: it remains to be seen whether it will be adopted, for of the success, if it were, there can be no doubt.

This writer has also suggested that the turtle might be naturalized to our own country; a project which merits peculiarly the attention of the Court of Aldermen. We think his notion perfectly reasonable. The Captains say that the turtles die when they come into our latitudes; but if many did not live, whence all the turtle soup? It is well known, at any rate, that the Captain's turtle never dies. But whether they die or not, it is mentioned by this writer that a fine turtle was taken in the Tamar, and eaten at Saltash; and it is well known that no turtles had ever been imported into Plymouth. However, by whatever means it had arrived there, it chose the fresh water for its residence, and did not die, since it was in the most perfect condition.

But the principle is itself reasonable, and is perhaps among the most reasonable projects of naturalization that has ever been proposed. The peacock and the common domestic fowl are originally natives of the hottest parts of India, as the pintado belongs to the burning sands of Africa. These are all now inhabitants of much colder countries than our own, and experience no difficulty. And, in this case, the difference is infinitely greater than in that of an aquatic animal; because, while the difference of temperature in the air, of these remote climates, may amount to eighty degrees, there is not a difference of ten between their respective waters. In fact, there would scarcely be any change of climate; and considering that this tribe is hybernant, and particularly protected from cold by its covering, as it is also further protected by its extreme tena

city of life, we have not the least doubt that it might be naturalized to bear even our frosts. Why not: as well as its more delicate neighbour, the peacock, the native of heats far more intense.

In spite of the antipathy which every one shows to improvement, and which has been particularly shown towards the introduction of new animals, we have not the least doubt that, at some future day, we shall have turtle ponds as we have poultry yards; though the people will still go on denying the possibility of naturalizing a boa-constrictor for the purpose of making soup or fricassees. It is a very extraordinary propensity in the human mind, thus to oppose that by which it must gain, if successful; we might suppose that mankind expected injury from improvement. We might, at least, suppose that the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen would vote a thousand pounds for placing turtle in the Regent's Canal, or the New River; or, which is much more plausible and proper, that the West India Dock Monopolists would introduce them into their most commodious ponds, where they could not fail to feel quite at home, amid rum, sugar, mahogany, and black men. But the directors are, like the aldermen, content to eat the turtle in the old way; and the secretary has made up his mind that it "cannot possibly succeed." It was once argued that this dock itself would not succeed. Time has belied the opponents; and at some future day, the turtle will belie the directors and the secretary; other directors and another secretary. Perhaps, dividing ten per cent. they are too rich and proud to turn turtle breeders, or perhaps it would require a new Act of Parliament.

Among other antipathies to improvement and reform, the one that here concerns us principally, is the antipathy which it is especially the fashion to cultivate now against naturalization, not merely the naturalization of turtle, or of animals in general, but of plants. At some future day, we may perhaps show at more length, that this is one of the neglected improvements by which we might materially profit. It is sufficient to say now, that this bigotted and stupid obstinacy has prevented us from acquiring an endless number of ornamental plants for our gardens, and of useful ones for our agriculture. In spite of experience, of experience enough to prove that they were wrong, our gardeners have persisted in the same dull routine, cultivating from offsets and slips instead of from seed, and destroying by excessive heat and confinement, innumerable plants that might long since have been inured to our climate. Occasionally, some plant, more fortunate than its neighbours, finds means to escape, becoming a denizen of our gardens; but the demonstration is thrown away, and the routine goes on as before. Of so little use is what is called experience. Experience is nothing without observation; and be it a gardener, or be it an apothecary, it is the same. Forty years do no more for the latter than for the nurse, or even for his own pestle and mortar: he is the receptacle of powders and the issuer of pills, like the mortar; and at the end of time, to eternity itself, his head remains, and would re

main, confraternal of his brazen pestle. The pine-apple has been cultivated without fire for these five years: but even those who see it done, say that the pine-apples are not good, since they cannot deny that they are there: they eat them, and must admit they are good; but they consider it an exception, and that it cannot possibly "answer."

us.

To return to animals, which is the question particularly before We have shown that three at least of our common domestic fowls are natives of hot climates: they have been naturalized, or they would not be here. That which has once been done may be done again; and we might as easily naturalize the Indian florikan if we chose, or the secretary bird if we chose to eat him. Why not? Lord Hastings has already naturalized the Indian partridge: the bird of Paradise, which never could by any possibility have lived out of New Guinea, contrived to live at Kensington under the same care, and might have lived still, but for royal tenderness and attention. Had there been a dozen instead of one, we might now have been eating roasted Paradises.

Nothing will be done without trial: and, unquestionably, the way to prove that it cannot be done, or at least that it is not done, is carefully to avoid trying. The opposer of improvement will then not be mortified by unwilling conviction. We would gladly know how man himself, born under Ararat, or elsewhere, has become naturalized to Greenland, how he eats whale under the pole, and cocoa-nuts under the equator; happy in both, and, in all, cramming the population down the throat of the subsistence. Whence did the horse reach Norway from Arabia, if he was not naturalizable. Or the ass. Yet it remains impossible to naturalize a quagga or a zebra, or an elephant, or a hippopotamus. The keeper of Exeter Change wraps his boas in blankets, and keeps his chameleons in cages; and that is reasoning enough for the public.

The fox, the wolf, the hare, the sheep, the ox, these and more, like the horse, are found all over the world. They learn to accommodate their clothing to the season and the climate, and make no complaints. The goat of the snowy Himalya has lived in London, and would have bred there, had it been proper to cultivate shawl wool instead of importing it. The goat is as universal as the man himself that eats him. If his beard makes more bishops and chancellors in one latitude than another, that is all: his skin, at least, and that of his progeny, are the same, and are equally convertible into pocket books and chair bottoms, and into gloves and kid shoes for the fair.

It is the same with birds; except that, possessing powers which others do not, they can change their climates more extensively and rapidly. The snipe is found from Bengal to Baffin's Bay, he ranges from the Red Sea to Mr. Barrow's polar basin. The swallow follows the flies from Egypt to Lapland, from burning sands to frozen bogs. And so of a thousand others: we cannot afford to write a treatise on Natural History.