Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

EARLY FISH PROTECTION AND BREEDING 291W. Yen dates the epoch as probably that of Tao Chu Kung,who hved in the fifth century b.c.iIn Rome considerable trade was done in the sale of youngfish for stocking waters. In China the commerce in fish eggswas on a vast scale and extremely lucrative. The Jesuitmissionary Du Halde writes, " Le gain va souvent au centuplede la depense, car le Peuple se nourrit en partie de Poissons."^The method, however, of both the Chinese and the Romanswas to gather eggs, already naturally fertilised, lying at thebottom of, or adhering to weeds in, the water. The Chinesewent farther by employing special traps of hurdles and matsto bar the rivers and catch the eggs deposited on these.During the long interval between the Roman Empire andthe eighteenth century, we note little or no progress in therearing of fish, although preserves became numerous in Italyand France. Kings and nobles were zealous and jealous inmaking and maintaining artificial ponds. Charlemagne theGreat personally ordered the repairing of old and digging ofnew ponds. By sales from their vivaria, and by heavy royaltiesfrom their fisheries the religious communities amassed largerevenues.Towards the end of the Middle Ages new methods tocounter the scarcity universally prevalent, despite the teachingin the thirteenth century of Peter of Vescenza, were eagerlysought. Dom Pinchon, a monk of the Abbey of Reome,seems the first to have conceived the idea of artificiallyfecundating the eggs of trout. He pressed out in turn themilt of a male and the eggs of a female into water, which hethen agitated with his finger. He placed the resulting eggsin a wooden box, with a layer of fine sand on the bottom,and a willow grating above and at the two ends. The boxtill the moment of hatching was immersed in water flowingwith a gentle stream.The process—described in a manuscript dated 1420, butnot published till about 1850—naturally led to no practicalresults. Consequently Pinchon's claim to be the father of' op. cit., 376, but see Chinese chapter.* History oj the Chinese Empire (Paris, 1735), vol. I. p. 36.