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Microeconomics, 12e (Parkin)
Chapter 7 Global Markets in Action

1 How Global Markets Work

1) Which of the following is CORRECT?


A) Both imports and exports include goods and services.
B) Imports includes both goods and services but exports includes only goods.
C) Imports includes only goods but exports includes both goods and services.
D) Both exports and imports include goods and neither includes services.
Answer: A
Topic: International Trade Today
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Reflective thinking

2) International trade arises from


A) absolute advantage.
B) comparative advantage.
C) importation duties.
D) the advantage of execution.
Answer: B
Topic: Comparative Advantage
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Reflective thinking

3) The fundamental force that drives international trade is


A) absolute advantage.
B) importation duties and tariffs.
C) export licenses.
D) comparative advantage.
Answer: D
Topic: Comparative Advantage
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Reflective thinking

4) Comparative advantage implies that a country will


A) import those goods in which the country has a comparative advantage.
B) export those goods in which the country has a comparative advantage.
C) find it difficult to conclude free trade agreements with other nations.
D) export goods produced by domestic industries with low wages relative to its trading partners.
Answer: B
Topic: Comparative Advantage
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Reflective thinking

1
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
5) The United States has a comparative advantage in producing airplanes if
A) it can produce them at a lower opportunity cost than can other nations.
B) it can produce them at a lower dollar cost than can other nations.
C) it can produce a larger quantity than can other nations.
D) it has a larger quantity of skilled workers than do other nations.
Answer: A
Topic: Comparative Advantage
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Reflective thinking

6) Prior to international trade, the price of good X is lower in country A than in country B. This
means that we know that
A) country B has an absolute advantage in the production of product X.
B) country B has a comparative advantage in the production of product X.
C) country A has an absolute advantage in the production of product X.
D) country A has a comparative advantage in the production of product X.
Answer: D
Topic: Comparative Advantage
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Reflective thinking

7) When the principle of comparative advantage is used to guide trade, then a country specializes
in producing only
A) goods with the highest opportunity cost.
B) goods with the lowest opportunity costs.
C) goods for which production takes fewer worker-hour than another country.
D) goods for which production costs are more than average total costs.
Answer: B
Topic: Comparative Advantage
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Reflective thinking

8) With international trade, a country will export tires. Prior to international trade, the quantity
of tires produced in the country ________ the quantity of tires consumed in the country.
A) must be more than
B) must be less than
C) might be more than, less than, or equal to
D) must equal
Answer: D
Topic: Comparative Advantage
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Reflective thinking

2
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
9) Which of the following statements about U.S. international trade in 2013 is CORRECT?
A) The value of U.S. exports exceeded the value of U.S. imports.
B) The value of U.S. exports was about 33 percent of the value of total U.S. production.
C) The United States imported only goods.
D) The United States was the world's largest trader.
Answer: D
Topic: Study Guide Question, International Trade Today
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Reflective thinking

10) The United States has a comparative advantage in producing cotton if the U.S. price of
cotton before international trade is ________ the world price.
A) less than
B) equal to
C) greater than
D) not comparable to
Answer: A
Topic: Study Guide Question, Comparative Advantage
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Reflective thinking

11) Compared to the situation before international trade, after the United States exports a good
production in the United States ________ and consumption in the United States ________.
A) increases; increases
B) increases; decreases
C) decreases; increases
D) decreases; decreases
Answer: B
Topic: Study Guide Question, Comparative Advantage
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Analytical thinking

12) Compared to the situation before international trade, after the United States imports a good
production in the United States ________ and consumption in the United States ________.
A) increases; increases
B) increases; decreases
C) decreases; increases
D) decreases; decreases
Answer: C
Topic: Study Guide Question, Comparative Advantage
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Analytical thinking

3
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
2 Winners, Losers, and the Net Gain from Trade

1) The gains from trade that are possible when two countries have different opportunity costs for
wheat and coffee are realized when
A) trade occurs and resources are reallocated within the two countries.
B) the two countries continue to produce the same quantities of wheat and coffee.
C) each country has an absolute advantage in one of the two commodities.
D) the demand curves in both countries shift inward.
Answer: A
Topic: Gains from Trade, Changes in Production
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Analytical thinking

2) The United States has a comparative advantage and specialize in the production of airplanes.
Compared to the situation with no trade, which of the following will occur?
A) More airplanes will be produced in the United States.
B) There will be no change in the price of airplanes in the United States.
C) The world price of airplanes will increase.
D) The quantity of airplanes demanded in the United States will increase.
Answer: A
Topic: Gains from Trade, Changes in Production
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Analytical thinking

3) A country specializes in the production of goods for which it has a comparative advantage, so
A) some producers and consumers win, some lose, but overall the gains exceed the losses.
B) all producers win.
C) all consumers win.
D) producers win, consumers lose, but overall the gains exceed the losses.
Answer: A
Topic: Gains from Trade
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Analytical thinking

4) Suppose sugar is exported from a nation. In the sugar market who does NOT benefit from the
exports?
A) domestic consumers
B) domestic producers
C) workers in the industry
D) foreign consumers
Answer: A
Topic: Gains from Trade
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Analytical thinking

4
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
5) Who benefits from imports?
A) domestic consumers
B) domestic producers
C) foreign consumers
D) Both answers A and B are correct.
Answer: A
Topic: Gains from Trade, Imports
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Analytical thinking

6) A country opens up to trade and becomes an importer of a sugar. In the sugar market,
consumer surplus will ________, producer surplus will ________, and total surplus will
________.
A) increase; decrease; increase
B) increase; decrease; decrease
C) decrease; decrease; decrease
D) decrease; increase; increase
Answer: A
Topic: Gains from Trade, Imports
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Analytical thinking

7) Consider a market that is initially in equilibrium with quantity demanded equal to quantity
supplied at a price of $20. If the world price of the good is $10 and the country opens up to
international trade then in this market then
A) imports will increase, the price will fall, and the quantity supplied will fall.
B) exports will increase, the price will be unchanged, and the quantity supplied will increase.
C) imports will increase, the price will decrease, and the supply curve will shift to the left.
D) the quantity demanded will decrease, the quantity supplied will decrease, and the price will
decrease.
Answer: A
Topic: Gains from Trade, Imports
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Analytical thinking

8) A country opens up to trade and imports clothing. In the clothing market, surplus has been
redistributed from
A) producers to consumers.
B) consumers to producers.
C) government to consumers.
D) producers to government.
Answer: A
Topic: Gains from Trade, Imports
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Analytical thinking

5
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
9) Based on the table below, at what world price would the country import the good?

Price Q Demanded Q Supplied


2 100 70
4 95 75
6 90 80
8 85 85
10 80 90
12 75 95

A) a price below $8
B) at exactly $8
C) a price above $8
D) It is impossible to say.
Answer: A
Topic: Imports
Skill: Analytical
AACSB: Analytical thinking

10) Suppose the world price of a good is $4. Based on the table below, the country would

Price Q Demanded Q Supplied


2 100 70
4 95 75
6 90 80
8 85 85
10 80 90
12 75 95

A) import 20 units.
B) export 20 units.
C) import 10 units.
D) export 10 units.
Answer: A
Topic: Imports
Skill: Analytical
AACSB: Analytical thinking

6
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
11) In a market open to international trade, at the world price the quantity demanded is 150 and
quantity supplied is 200. This country will
A) export 50 units.
B) import 50 units.
C) export 200 units.
D) import 150 units.
Answer: A
Topic: Gains from Trade, Exports
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Analytical thinking

12) A country opens up to trade and becomes an exporter of wheat. In the wheat market,
consumer surplus will ________, producer surplus will ________, and total surplus will
________.
A) decrease; increase; increase
B) increase; decrease; increase
C) decrease; increase; decrease
D) remain unchanged; increase; increase
Answer: A
Topic: Gains from Trade, Exports
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Analytical thinking

13) A country opens up to trade and exports computer chips. In the computer chip market,
surplus has been redistributed from
A) consumers to producers.
B) producers to consumers.
C) producers to government.
D) government to consumers.
Answer: A
Topic: Gains from Trade, Exports
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Analytical thinking

7
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
14) Based on the table below, at what world price would the country export the good?

Price Q Demanded Q Supplied


2 100 70
4 95 75
6 90 80
8 85 85
10 80 90
12 75 95

A) a price above $8
B) at only $8
C) a price below $8
D) It is impossible to say.
Answer: A
Topic: Exports
Skill: Analytical
AACSB: Analytical thinking

8
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
The figure shows the market for shirts in the United States, where D is the domestic demand
curve and S is the domestic supply curve. The world price is $20 per shirt.

15) In the figure above, with international trade American consumers buy ________ million
shirts per year.
A) 48
B) 32
C) 16
D) 24
Answer: A
Topic: Gains from Trade
Skill: Graphing
AACSB: Analytical thinking

16) In the figure above, with international trade ________ million shirts per year are produced in
the United States.
A) 48
B) 32
C) 16
D) 20
Answer: C
Topic: Gains from Trade
Skill: Graphing
AACSB: Analytical thinking

9
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
17) In the figure above, with international trade the United States ________ million shirts per
year.
A) imports 32
B) imports 48
C) exports 16
D) exports 32
Answer: A
Topic: Imports
Skill: Graphing
AACSB: Analytical thinking

18) In the figure above, international trade ________ consumer surplus in the United States by
________.
A) increases; $320 million
B) decreases; $192 million
C) increases; $192 million
D) decreases; $320 million
Answer: A
Topic: Gains from Trade
Skill: Graphing
AACSB: Analytical thinking

19) In the figure above, international trade ________ producer surplus in the United States by
________.
A) increases; $320 million
B) decreases; $192 million
C) increases; $192 million
D) decreases; $320 million
Answer: B
Topic: Gains from Trade
Skill: Graphing
AACSB: Analytical thinking

20) In the figure above, international trade ________ total surplus in the United States by
________.
A) increases; $128 million
B) decreases; $192 million
C) increases; $320 million
D) decreases; $256 million
Answer: A
Topic: Gains from Trade
Skill: Graphing
AACSB: Analytical thinking

10
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The figure shows the market for helicopters in the United States, where D is the domestic
demand curve and S is the domestic supply curve. The United States trades helicopters with the
rest of the world at a price of $36 million per helicopter.

21) In the figure above, with international trade U.S. companies buy ________ helicopters per
year.
A) 240
B) 480
C) 720
D) 360
Answer: A
Topic: Gains from Trade
Skill: Graphing
AACSB: Analytical thinking

22) In the figure above, with international trade ________ helicopters per year are produced in
the United States.
A) 360
B) 480
C) 720
D) 240
Answer: C
Topic: Gains from Trade
Skill: Graphing
AACSB: Analytical thinking

11
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
23) In the figure above, the United States ________ helicopters per year.
A) exports 480
B) exports 720
C) imports 480
D) imports 240
Answer: A
Topic: Exports
Skill: Graphing
AACSB: Analytical thinking

24) In the figure above, international trade ________ consumer surplus in the United States by
________.
A) decreases; $2.88 billion
B) decreases; $1.92 billion
C) increases; $2.88 billion
D) increases; $4.8 billion
Answer: A
Topic: Gains from Trade
Skill: Graphing
AACSB: Analytical thinking

25) In the figure above, international trade ________ producer surplus in the United States by
________.
A) decreases; $2.88 billion
B) decreases; $1.92 billion
C) increases; $4.8 billion
D) increases; $3.6 billion
Answer: C
Topic: Gains from Trade
Skill: Graphing
AACSB: Analytical thinking

26) In the figure above, international trade ________ total surplus in the United States by
________.
A) increases; $1.92 billion
B) decreases; $2.56 billion
C) increases; $4.8 billion
D) decreases; $3.6 billion
Answer: A
Topic: Gains from Trade
Skill: Graphing
AACSB: Analytical thinking

12
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
27) U.S. producer surplus ________ when the United States imports a good and U.S. producer
surplus ________ when the United States exports a good.
A) increases; increases
B) increases; decreases
C) decreases; increases
D) decreases; decreases
Answer: C
Topic: Study Guide Question, Gains From Trade
Skill: Analytical
AACSB: Analytical thinking

28) When the United States exports a good, U.S. consumer surplus ________ and U.S. total
surplus ________.
A) increases; increases
B) increases; decreases
C) decreases; increases
D) decreases; decreases
Answer: C
Topic: Study Guide Question, Gains From Trade
Skill: Analytical
AACSB: Analytical thinking

29) When the United States exports a good, the amount of the ________ in U.S. consumer
surplus is ________ the amount of the ________ in U.S. producer surplus.
A) increase; smaller than; increase
B) increase; larger than; decrease
C) decrease; smaller than; increase
D) decrease; equal to; decrease
Answer: C
Topic: Study Guide Question, Gains From Trade
Skill: Analytical
AACSB: Analytical thinking

3 International Trade Restrictions

1) A tariff is a
A) tax on an exported good or service.
B) tax on an imported good or service.
C) subsidy on an exported good.
D) subsidy on an imported good.
Answer: B
Topic: Trade Restrictions
Skill: Definition
AACSB: Reflective thinking

13
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
2) A tariff is a tax that is imposed by the ________ country when an ________ good crosses its
international boundary.
A) exporting; imported
B) importing; exported
C) exporting; exported
D) importing; imported
Answer: D
Topic: Trade Restrictions
Skill: Definition
AACSB: Reflective thinking

3) A tariff
A) is a tax imposed on imported goods.
B) is a tax imposed on exported goods.
C) encourages worldwide specialization according to the principle of comparative advantage.
D) has no effect on prices paid by domestic consumers, even though it increases the revenue
collected by domestic producers.
Answer: A
Topic: Trade Restrictions
Skill: Definition
AACSB: Reflective thinking

4) A tariff is
A) a licensing regulation that limits imports.
B) a quantitative restriction of imports.
C) a tax on an imported good.
D) an agreement to restrict the volume of exports.
Answer: C
Topic: Trade Restrictions
Skill: Definition
AACSB: Reflective thinking

5) A tax that is imposed by the importing country when an imported good crosses its
international boundary is called
A) an import quota.
B) dumping.
C) a voluntary export restraint.
D) a tariff.
Answer: D
Topic: Trade Restrictions
Skill: Definition
AACSB: Reflective thinking

14
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
6) A major purpose of tariffs is to
A) encourage imports.
B) encourage exports.
C) discourage imports.
D) discourage exports.
Answer: C
Topic: Trade Restrictions
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Reflective thinking

7) Tariffs and import quotas differ in that


A) one is a form of trade restriction, while the other is not.
B) one is a tax, while the other is a limit.
C) one is imposed by the government, while the other is imposed by the private sector.
D) one is legal, while the other is not.
Answer: B
Topic: Trade Restrictions
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Reflective thinking

8) Tariffs and import quotas both result in


A) lower levels of domestic production.
B) the domestic government gaining revenue.
C) lower levels of imports.
D) higher levels of domestic consumption.
Answer: C
Topic: Trade Restrictions
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Analytical thinking

9) If the United States imposes a tariff on imported cars, the


A) U.S. demand curve shifts rightward.
B) U.S. demand curve shifts leftward.
C) U.S. supply curve shifts rightward.
D) the price in the United States rises but neither the U.S. demand curve nor the U.S. supply
curve shift.
Answer: D
Topic: Effects of a Tariff
Skill: Conceptual
AACSB: Analytical thinking

15
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
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Gillone, the lessees of the river Dee salmon-fisheries. Mr. Gillone, who
is an adept in the art of fish-culture, was one of the earliest to
experiment on the salmon, and so long ago as 1830 had arrived at the
conclusion that parr were young salmon, and that that tiny animal
changed at a given period into a smolt, and in time became a valuable
table-fish. These early experiments of Mr. Gillone’s were not in any
sense commercial; they were conducted solely with a view to solve
what was then a curious problem in salmon-growth. In later years Mr.
Gillone and his partner have entered upon salmon-breeding as an
adjunct of their fisheries on the river Dee, for which, as tacksmen,
they pay a rental of upwards of £1200 per annum. The breeding-
boxes of Messrs. Martin and Gillone have been fitted up on a very
picturesque part of the river at Tongueland, and the number of eggs
last brought to maturity is considerably over 100,000. The present
series of hatchings for commercial purposes was begun in 1862-63
with 25,000 eggs, followed in the succeeding year by a laying down of
nearly double that number. The hatchings of these seasons were very
unsuccessful, the loss from many causes being very great, for the
manipulation of fish eggs during the time of their artificial extraction
and impregnation requires great care—a little maladroitness being
sufficient to spoil thousands.
The last hatching (spring 1865) has been most successfully dealt
with. Messrs. Martin and Gillone’s breeding-boxes are all under cover,
being placed in a large lumber-store connected with a biscuit
manufactory. This chamber is seventy feet long, and there is a double
row of boxes extending the whole length of the place. These
receptacles for the eggs are made of wood; they are three feet long,
one foot wide, and four inches deep, and into the whole series a
range of frames has been fitted containing glass troughs on which to
lay the eggs. The edges of the glass are ground off, and they are
fitted angularly across the current in the shape of a V. The eggs are
laid down on, or rather sown into, these troughs, from a store bottle,
on to which is fitted a tapering funnel. The flow of water, which is
derived from the river, and is filtered to prevent the admission of any
impurity, is very gentle, being at the rate of about fifteen feet per
minute, and is kept perfectly regular. The boxes are all fitted with lids,
in order to prevent the eggs from being devoured, as is often done,
by rats and other vermin, and also to assimilate the conditions of
artificial hatching as much as possible to those of the natural
breeding-beds—where, of course, the eggs are covered up with gravel
and are hatched in comparative darkness.
It may be of some use, particularly to those who are interested in
pisciculture, to note a few details connected with the capturing of the
gravid fish and the plan of exuding the ova practised at Tongueland.
The river Dee is tolerably well stocked with fish, as may be surmised
from the rent I have named as being paid for the right of fishing. Mr.
Gillone adopts the plan, now also in use at Stormontfield, of capturing
his fish in good time—in fact, as a general rule, before the eggs are
ripe—and of confining them in his mill-race till they are thoroughly
ready for manipulation. Last season—i.e. in November and December
1864, and January 1865—as many as thirty-six female fish were taken
for their roe, the number of milters being twenty-five, the total weight
of the lot being 454 lbs., or, on the average, six and a half pounds
each fish. According to rule, the weight of the female fish taken
having been 283 lbs., these ought to have yielded 283,000 eggs, but
as several of the fish were about ripe at the time they were caught,
they spawned naturally in the mill-race, where the eggs in due time
came to life. The plan of spawning pursued at Tongueland is as
follows:—Whenever the fish are supposed to be ripe for that process,
the water is shut out of the dam, and the animal is first placed in a
box filled with water in order to its examination; if ready to be
operated upon, it is then transferred to a trough filled with water
about three feet and a half long, seven inches in breadth, and of
corresponding depth, and the roe or milt is pressed out of the fish just
in the position in which it swims. As soon as the eggs are secured, a
portion of the water is poured out of the wooden vessel, and the male
fish is then similarly treated. The milt and roe are mixed by hand
stirring, and the eggs then being washed are distributed into the
boxes.
Mr. Gillone carries on all his operations with the greatest possible
precision. He has a large clear glass bottle marked off in divisions,
each of which contains 800 eggs, and he numbers the divisions
allotted to each particular fish, which are sown into a similarly
numbered division in his box, so that by referring to his index-book he
can trace out any peculiarity in the eggs, etc.
Although pisciculture has been shown by means of what has been
achieved on the Continent and at Stormontfield to be eminently
practical, yet nothing beyond a few toy experiments, so to speak,
have been made in England; indeed, we have had a great deal of
“toying” with the subject; but all honour to Messrs. Buckland and
Francis—they are evidently doing their best to create public opinion on
the subject. Lectures have been delivered on fish-culture, and letters
have been thickly sent to the daily papers, advocating the extension of
the art; but no great movement has been made beyond stocking the
upper waters of the Thames with a few thousand trout and some
fancy fish. Salmon also have been hatched; but can they reach the
sea in the present state of the river?

PISCICULTURAL APPARATUS.
In order that gentlemen who have a bit of running water on their
property may try the experiment of artificial hatching, I give a drawing
of an apparatus invented by M. Coste suitable for hatching out a few
thousand eggs—it could be set up in a garden or be placed in any
convenient outhouse. I may state that I am able to hatch salmon eggs
in the saucer of a flower-pot; it is placed on a shelf over a fixed wash-
hand basin, and a small flow of water regulated by a stopcock falls
into it. The vessel is filled with small stones and bits of broken china,
and answers admirably. Out of a batch of about two hundred eggs
brought from Stormontfield, only fifteen were found to have turned
opaque in the first five weeks. Eggs hatched in this homely way are
very serviceable, as one can examine them day by day and note how
they progress, and in due time observe the development of the fish
for a few days. The young animals can only be kept in the saucer
about ten or twelve days, and should then be placed in a larger vessel
or be thrown into a river.
As regards England, I should like to see one of the great rivers of
that country turned into a gigantic salmon “manufactory.” Ponds might
be readily constructed on one or two places of the Severn, or on some
of the other suitable salmon streams of England or Wales, capable of
turning out a million fish per annum, and at a comparatively trifling
cost. The formation of the ponds would be the chief expense; a
couple of men could watch and feed the fry with the greatest ease.
The size adopted might be three times that of the ponds on the river
Tay, and the original cost of these was less than £500. I would humbly
submit that the ponds should be constructed after the manner of the
plan I have elsewhere given. Except by the protecting of the spawn
and the young fish from their numerous enemies, there is no way of
meeting the present great demand for salmon, which, when in
season, is in the aggregate of greater value than the best butchers’
meat. The salmon is an excellent fish to work with in a piscicultural
sense, because it is large enough to bear a good deal of handling, and
it is very accessible to the operations of mankind, because of the
instinct which leads it to spawn in the fresh water instead of the sea.
It is only such a fish as this monarch of the brook that would
individually pay for artificial breeding, for, having a high money value
as an animal, it is clear that salmon-culture would in time become as
good a way of making money as cattle-feeding or sheep-rearing.
There are waste places in England—the Essex marshes, for
instance, or the fens of Norfolk—where it would be profitable to
cultivate eels or other fish after the manner of the inhabitants of
Comacchio. I observed lately some details of a plan to rescue a
quantity of land in Essex from the water; it would perhaps pay as well
to convert the broad acres in question, from their being near the great
London market, into a fish-farm. The English people are fond of eels,
and would be able to consume any quantity that might be offered for
sale, and the place being in such close proximity to the Thames, other
fish might be cultivated as well. All the best portions of the hydraulic
apparatus of Comacchio might be imitated, and to suit the locality,
such other portions as might be required could be invented. The art of
pisciculture is but in its infancy, and we may all live in the hope of
seeing great water farms—but, to be profitable, they must be gigantic
—for the cultivation of fish, in the same sense as we have extensive
grazing or feeding farms for the breeding and rearing of cattle.
In Ireland, Mr. Thomas Ashworth, of the Galway fisheries, finds it as
profitable and as easy to breed salmon as it is to rear sheep. His
fisheries are a decided success; and, if we except the cost of some
extensive engineering operations in forming fish-passes to admit of a
communication with the sea, the cost of his experiments has been
trifling and the returns exceptionally large. Mr. Ashworth put into his
fisheries no less than a million and a half of salmon eggs in the course
of two seasons—viz., 659,000 eggs in 1861, and 770,000 in 1862.[3] I
am anxious to obtain a consecutive and detailed account of the
operations carried out by the Messrs. Ashworth, but have not been
able to get correct particulars. Mr. Ashworth has lately visited the
oyster-farms of the Isle of Re, and has a high opinion of the efforts
made for the multiplication of that favourite mollusc. He has very
obligingly communicated to me a number of interesting statistics as to
French oyster-culture, which I have incorporated into my account of
the shell-fish fisheries.
Two recent achievements in the art of fish-culture, or at any rate in
the art of acclimatisation, deserve to be chronicled in this division of
the “Harvest of the Sea.” I allude to the successful introduction into
Australia of the British salmon, and the equally successful bringing to
this country of a foreign fish—the Silurus glanis.
Grave doubts at one time prevailed among persons interested in
acclimatisation and pisciculture as to whether or not it were possible
to introduce the British salmon into the waters of Australia; and an
interesting controversy was about three years ago carried on in
various journals as to the best way of taking out the fish to that
country. Those very wise people who never do anything, but are
largely endowed with the gift of prophecy, at once proclaimed that it
could not be done; that it was impossible to take the salmon out to
Australia, etc. etc. But happily for the cause of progress in natural
science, and the success of this particular experiment, there were men
who had resolved to carry it out and who would not be put down. Mr.
Francis Francis, Mr. Frank Buckland, and Mr. J. A. Youl, took a leading
part in the achievement; but before they fell upon their successful
plan of taking out the ova in ice, hot discussions had ensued as to
how the salmon could be introduced into the rivers of the Australian
Continent. Many plans were suggested: some for carrying out the
young fish in tanks, and others for taking out the fructified ova, so
that the process of hatching might be carried on during the voyage.
One ingenious person promulgated a plan of taking the parr in a
fresh-water tank a month or two before it changed into a smolt,
saying that after the change it would be easy to keep the smolts
supplied with fresh salt water direct from the sea as the ship
proceeded on her voyage.
The mode ultimately adopted was to pack up the ova in a bed of
ice, experiments having first been made with a view to test the plan.
For that purpose a large number of ova were deposited in an ice-
house in order to ascertain how long the ripening of the egg could be
deferred—a condition of the experiment of course being that the egg
should remain quite healthy. The Wenham Lake Ice Company were so
obliging as to allow boxes containing salmon and trout ova, packed in
moss, to be placed in their ice vaults, and to afford every facility for
the occasional examination of the eggs. Satisfactory results being
obtained—in other words, it having been proved that the eggs of the
salmon could with perfect safety be kept in ice for a period exceeding
the average time of a voyage to Australia—it was therefore resolved
that a quantity of eggs, properly packed in ice, should be sent out.
The result of this experiment is now well known, most of the daily
papers having chronicled the successful exportation of the ova, and
announced that the fish had come to life and were thriving in their
foreign home.
I do not wish to weary my readers, but must crave their indulgence
while I give a few of the more interesting details connected with this
important experiment.
The number of ova sent out to Australia was 100,000 salmon and
3000 trout. The vessel selected for the conveyance of the eggs was
the Norfolk, which on one or two occasions had made very rapid
voyages. The ova were procured from the Tweed, the Severn, the
Ribble, and the Dovey rivers; thus England, Scotland, and Wales
contributed to this precious freight. One hundred and sixty-four boxes,
containing about 90,000 ova, were placed at the bottom of the ice-
house, with a solid mass of ice nine feet thick on the top, so that
every particle of this mass must melt before the ova would suffer.
Sixteen boxes, containing above 13,000 ova, were placed in other
parts of the ice-house, with ice below and above, as well as all round
the boxes. The ova were taken between the 13th and 15th January,
placed on board the ship on the 18th, and the Norfolk left the docks
on the morning of the 21st, and Plymouth on the 28th January. Thirty
tons of Wenham Lake ice were used in the experiment.
The ship arrived at Hobson’s Bay, Melbourne, on the 15th of April,
having been seventy-seven days on the voyage. A few of the boxes
containing the eggs were at once opened and placed in a suitable
hatching apparatus, but the larger portion were sent off to Tasmania
and reached Hobart Town on the 20th of April, where they were at
once deposited in the pond which had been carefully prepared for
them on the river Plenty. The following extract from a letter, written by
the Hon. Dr. Officer, Speaker of the House of Assembly, will show what
was done on the arrival of the eggs:—“Soon after the arrival of the
first half of the boxes, the process of opening them and depositing the
ova in their watery beds commenced, and you may be sure an anxious
process it was. In the first two boxes that were opened by far the
greater number of the ova had perished, but as we proceeded much
more fortunate results were obtained, and in many of the packages
the living predominated over the dead. I could not attempt to state to
you, even approximately, at the present moment, the actual number
of healthy ova that were found in the moss and placed in the
hatching-boxes, beyond saying that they amount to many thousands,
and are amply sufficient, if they should all continue to thrive and
should become living fish, to insure the complete success of our
experiment. All the boxes have now been opened except fifteen, and
the ova first taken out have been about twenty-four hours in the
water. Among these some of them can be observed with the eyes
quite prominent, and visibly indicating the near approach of hatching,
so that not many days will elapse until the ultimate result of the
experiment is known. The remnant of the ice, amounting to about
eight tons, obtained from the Norfolk, was brought up here with very
little loss, and has of course been used in cooling the water in the
hatching-boxes. Mr. Ramsbottom thinks it will last as long as he will
require its aid, although it melts very quickly. The water of the Plenty,
which had fallen below 50 degrees, had been again raised by a week
of warm sunny weather to 54 degrees, which was its temperature
yesterday, but it was reduced to 45 degrees by the introduction of ice.
To-day the weather has been more suitable, and the natural
temperature is not much over 50 degrees, and will in all probability
soon decline several degrees lower. One or two of the ova which were
deposited in the water in apparently sound health have been observed
to become opaque and die, while some others have been seen to
retain all their clearness. These observations have necessarily been of
very limited extent. In one of the two boxes of trout ova, nearly all
were dead; in the other nearly all alive, and of a remarkably clear and
brilliant appearance. These have been placed in a compartment
separated from the salmon-boxes.”
The commissioners appointed to receive the ova sent to Tasmania
made a formal report to the Government of the colony. One of the
local papers supplies a summary of what was reported, which is as
follows:—“They state that upon examination of the cases on arrival, it
was found that a close and almost unvarying relation existed between
the fate of the ova and the condition of the moss in which they were
enveloped. Where the moss retained its natural green hue and
elasticity, there a large proportion of the ova retained a healthy
vitality; where, on the contrary, the moss was of a brown colour, and
in a collapsed or compressed form, few of the ova were found alive,
and all were more or less entangled in a network of fungus. The
smallest amount of mortality was invariably found to have taken place
in those boxes in which the moss had been most loosely packed and
the ova subjected to the least amount of pressure. On the 4th of May
the first trout made its appearance, followed on the succeeding day by
the first salmon that had ever been seen in Australia, or south of the
equator. The further hatching of the trout and salmon proceeded very
slowly for some days, but then became more rapid—especially among
the trout. Among these the process was completed about the 25th
May, producing upwards of two hundred healthy fish. The hatching of
the salmon is more protracted, and was not concluded until the 8th
June, on which day the last little fish was observed making its escape
from the shell. As they continued to make their appearance from day
to day, their numbers were counted by Mr. Ramsbottom with tolerable
accuracy up to about 1000, after which it was no longer possible to
keep any reckoning. The great undertaking of introducing the salmon
and trout into Tasmania has now, the commissioners believe, been
successfully accomplished. Few countries of the same extent possess
more rivers suited to the nature and habits of this noble fish than
Tasmania. A stranger acquainted with the salmon rivers of Europe
could scarcely behold the ample stream and sparkling waters of the
Derwent without fancying that they were already the home of the king
of fish. And the Derwent is but one of many other large and ever-
flowing rivers almost equally suited to become the abode of the
salmon. When these rivers have been stocked, they cannot fail to
become a source of considerable public revenue, and of profit and
pleasure to the people.”
Mr. Ramsbottom, a son of the well-known English practical
pisciculturist, went out in charge of the eggs, and aided in their
accouchement, watching over the progress of the experiment with
much zeal. Very great anxiety was evinced by those interested for the
proper hatching out of the eggs, and the mortality which was soon
visible among the ova—it was at one time at the rate of one hundred
each day—was viewed with great alarm. The first eggs were hatched
in the ponds of Tasmania. Of the Victoria consignment, the first egg
was hatched at an ice company’s establishment on the 7th of May,
twenty-two days after the arrival of the ship. In a letter, dated 11th
May 1864, Dr. Officer communicates many interesting details of the
experiment, as the following extract will show:—“By our last out-going
mail I reported the hatching of the first trout and the first salmon on
May 4 and 5. We have now forty trout and nine salmon, but of the
latter two are deformed, and, therefore, not likely to survive long. The
first-born salmon is now nine days old, and is quite healthy and visibly
grown. The mortality among the ova, which had been about one
hundred per diem for some days, has very much decreased again, and
for the last two days has been quite trifling. The weather and
temperature of the water have continued favourable. The temperature
of the Plenty and ponds has not exceeded 49 degrees, nor descended
below 46 degrees. This equality is of course highly conducive to the
health and progress of our charge. We expected to have seen more
salmon by this time, but our impatience has outrun probability and the
teachings of experience. The authorities tell us that a few always
precede the great body of fish by a good many days, and are not
usually so vigorous as those that are hatched at a later period. As to
the trout we may, I think, regard them as safe. Only one out of the
whole number hatched has died. As I looked at their box this
afternoon, I observed several in the act of escaping from the shell. Mr.
Ramsbottom’s attentions are indefatigable, and, I believe, nothing has
been neglected that could insure success.”
The process of hatching was much more protracted than was
anticipated; it was not till the 8th of June that the last of the eggs
gave forth its little tenant. An account of the daily hatching was kept
up till the time that 1000 of the eggs had arrived at maturity, but after
that the hatching went on with such rapidity as to render it impossible
to keep a correct record. Up to the 16th of June the trout had not
been artificially fed, but for all that they looked healthy and grew fat.
Mr. Ramsbottom computed that he had at least 3000 healthy salmon,
rather a small percentage certainly to obtain out of the 30,000 eggs,
but quite sufficient to solve the grand problem of whether or not it
were possible to introduce the British salmon into Australian waters.
The latest accounts tell us that the young parr are doing well, though
they are not growing so fast as the trout.[4] The further progress of
the experiment will be watched with great anxiety both at home and
abroad. The Tasmanian Legislature have voted a further sum of £800
for the purpose of introducing another batch of ova; this sum will be
augmented by £400 voted by the Victorian Acclimatisation Society; so
that no means will be left untried to bring to a successful conclusion
this great experiment—the ultimate result of which, I have no doubt,
will be, that the salmon will become as valuable a fish in the waters of
the great Australian Continent as it is in the waters of our own islands.
The naturalisation of fish, to which a brief reference has already
been made, is a subject that is not very well understood; but so far as
practical experience goes, I have seen nothing to prevent our
breeding in England some of the most productive foreign kinds.
Among the fishes of China, for instance, in addition to the golden carp
—now quite common here, and bred in thousands in nearly every
factory pond, and which is looked upon as simply an ornamental fish—
there is the lo-in, or king of fish, which frequently measures seven
feet in length, and weighs from fifty to two hundred pounds, the flesh
being excellent; the lien-in-wang and the kan-in, almost as good, and
even larger than the other. Then there is the li-in, the usual weight of
which is about fifteen pounds, and is said to be of a much finer
flavour than our European carp. There are many other choice fishes of
exquisite flavour, which it is unnecessary to enumerate; but I have no
doubt that, besides these natives of Chinese seas, there are numerous
other fine fish that might be acclimatised in our rivers and firths. The
seir fish of Ceylon may be named: it is a kind of scomberoid, and in
shape and size is similar to the British salmon. We must not, however,
build ourselves much on the acclimatisation of foreign fish, especially
tropical fish, as—although fish can bear great extremes of
temperature—it would be no easy matter to habituate them to our
climate. Indeed some writers think it will be found impossible to
habituate tropical fish, however valuable, to our cold waters, but the
experiment is, I believe, being tried in France. The bass of Lake
Wennern may also be mentioned as a suitable fish for British waters,
as well as the ombre chevalier of the Lake of Geneva, a few of which
latter are now, I believe, along with some other varieties, being tried
in the river Thames. So great is the increasing interest of pisciculture
becoming, that new ideas are being daily thrown out regarding it. A
few months ago a writer in the Times suggested the introduction of a
white fish from the Canadian lakes to our fresh waters:—“This fish
(Coregonus albus), of the salmon family, is from three to four pounds
weight, as delicious as a Dublin Bay haddock when fresh, and when
barrelled considered a luxury in the Central and Southern States of
America and the West Indies, bringing 50 per cent over the price of
barrelled trout. Different from our fresh-water fish, it is a vegetarian,
living on weeds and moss. It is a great article of food in the North-
Western States of America and Canada, the exports of it being
$464,479 in 1861 from the states on the lakes; but I have no return
from Canada, which may be about one-half more, making a total of
over $700,000, or £140,000 a year.”
The latest achievement in pisciculture has been the introduction to
this part of Europe of “the Wels” (Silurus glanis), an interesting
account of which lately appeared in the Field newspaper. Great
expectations have been formed that this gigantic fish may be
successfully reared in England. It is, I believe, the largest European
fresh-water fish, commonly attaining a weight of from fifty to eighty
pounds, and individuals have been found of the extraordinary size of
four cwts.! Dr. Gunther, the eminent ichthyologist, remarks that this is
the only foreign fish which it would be worth while to introduce into
this country; and thinks that, in several of our lakes, particularly those
in peat soil, it might be usefully placed.

SILURUS GLANIS.

The following particulars regarding this new food fish have been
printed by the Acclimatisation Society, to whom the greatest praise is
due for its introduction:—Its appearance is not pleasant, the large
flattened head having a capacious mouth, which is capable of seizing
the largest kind of prey; so that if this fish be successfully propagated
in our streams and lakes, the pike, the water-wolf of the British
waters, will meet with more than its match. The habits of the Silurus
glanis are said to be most ferocious, and its growth, provided there be
a sufficient supply of food, very rapid. The body is less elongated than
the eel, and there are, stretching from the head, long tapering
barbels; the eyes are frog-like, and there are many other points of
resemblance to the frog. The new fish is like the eel in its habits,
being a wallowing fish, fond of burrowing in the mud, and hiding
amongst the rotten roots of trees. There are dark charges made
against some of the largest specimens of the Silurus glanis, in the
stomachs of which it is reported that portions of human bodies have
been found. However, this is probably an exaggeration. There can,
however, be no doubt of the extraordinary appetite and fierceness of
this fish. In the floods of the Danube the silurus finds plentiful prey in
the multitude of frogs which pass into the river; but at other times,
fish, small animals, worms, indeed anything which comes near, afford
a supply of food; and there may be fear that, notwithstanding the
valuable qualities of the silurus as a means of supply to our tables, it
may more than balance its value in this way by the immense
destruction of fish which is needed for its support. It is said that the
silurus, when the prey is plentiful, will attain over fifty-six pounds in
four years; and Englishmen who have tasted it report that in flavour it
is superior to the salmon. Specimens of the wels have been brought
alive from a distance of nearly two thousand miles to the station of
the society at Twickenham by the exertions of Sir Stephen Lakeman
and Mr. Lowe, a gentleman who takes a great interest in all questions
of natural science. In all, fourteen of these young fish were brought
from Kapochien, in Wallachia, where Sir Stephen Lakeman has an
estate. The Argich river, which flows past there, abounds in these and
other valuable fish, which are found more or less throughout central
Europe and in Scandinavia. In the Danube and many of its tributaries
the number is abundant; and in those wide waters the Silurus glanis is
said to reach the enormous weight of three hundred pounds.
CHAPTER IV.
ANGLERS’ FISHES.

Fresh-Water Fish not of much Value—The Angler and his Equipment—Pleasures of


the Country in May—Anglers’ Fishes—Trout, Pike, Perch, and Carp—Gipsy
Anglers—Angling Localities—Gold Fish—The River Scenery of England—The
Thames—Thames Anglers—Sea Angling—Various Kinds of Sea-Fish—Proper
kinds of Bait—The Tackle Necessary—The Island of Arran—Corry—Goatfell, etc.

A
lthough it may be deemed necessary in a work like the present to
devote some space to the subject, I do not set much store by the
common anglers’ fishes, so far, at least, as their food value is
concerned; for although we were to cultivate them to their highest
pitch, and by means of artificial spawning multiply them exceedingly,
they would never (the salmon, of course, excepted) form an article of
any great commercial value in this beef-eating country. In France,
where the Church enjoins so many fasts and has such strict
sumptuary laws, the people are differently situated, and require,
especially in the inland districts, to have recourse to the meanest
produce of the rivers in order to carry out the injunctions of their
priests. The fresh waters are therefore assiduously cultivated in nearly
all continental countries; but the fresh-water fishes of the British
Islands have at present but a very slight commercial value, as they
are not captured, either individually or in the aggregate, for the
purposes of commerce; but to persons fond of angling they afford
sport and healthful recreation, whether they are pursued in the large
English or Scottish lakes, or caught in the small rivulets that feed our
great salmon streams.
Although Britain is possessed of a seabord of 4000 miles, and a
large number of fine rivers and lakes, the total number of British
fishes is comparatively small (about 250 only), and the varieties which
live in the fresh water are therefore very limited; those that afford
sport may be numbered with ease on our ten fingers. Fishers who live
in the vicinity of large cities are obliged in consequence to content
themselves with the realisation of that old proverb which tells them
that small fish are better than no fish at all; hence there is a race of
anglers who are contented to sit all day in a punt on the Thames,
happy when evening arrives to find their patience rewarded with a
fisher’s dozen of stupid gudgeons. But in the north, on the lakes of
Cumberland or on the Highland lochs of Scotland, such tame sport
would be laughed at. Are there not charr in the Derwent and splendid
trout in Loch Awe? and these require to be pursued with a zeal, and
involve an amount of labour not understood by anglers who punt for
gudgeon or who haunt the East India Docks for perch, or the angler
who only knows the usual run of Thames fish—barbel, roach, dace,
and gudgeon. To kill a sixteen-pound salmon on a Welsh or Highland
stream is to be named a knight among anglers; indeed, there are men
who never lift a rod except to kill a salmon; such, however, like the
Duke of Roxburghe, are the giants of the profession. For sport there is
no fish like the monarch of the brook, and great anglers will not waste
time on any fish less noble. An angler, with a moderate-sized fish of
the salmon kind at the end of his line, is not in the enjoyment of a
sinecure, although he would not for any kind of reward allow his work
to be done by deputy. I have seen a gentleman play a fish for four
hours rather than yield his rod to the attendant gillie, who could have
landed the fish in half-an-hour’s time. It is a thrilling moment to find
that, for the first time, one has hooked a salmon, and the event
produces a nervousness that certainly does not tend to the speedy
landing of the fish. The first idea, naturally enough, is to haul our
scaly friend out of the water by sheer force; but this plan has speedily
to be abandoned, for the fish, making an astonished dash, rushes
away up stream in fine style, taking out with it no end of “rope;” then
when once it obtains a bite of its bridle away it goes sulking into some
rocky hiding-place. In a brief time it comes out again with renewed
vigour, determined as it would seem to try your mettle; and so it
dashes about till you become so fatigued as not to care whether you
land it or not. It is impossible to say how long an angler may have to
“play” a salmon or a large grilse; but if it sinks itself to the bottom of a
deep pool, it may be a business of hours to get it safe into the
landing-net, if the fish be not altogether lost, as in its exertions to
escape it may so chafe the line as to cause it to snap and thus regain
its liberty; and during the progress of the battle the angler has
certainly to wade, aye and be pulled once or twice through the
stream, so that he comes in for a thorough drenching, and may, as
many have to do, go home after a hard day’s work without being
rewarded by the capture of a single fish.
There is abundance of good salmon-angling to be had in the season
in the north of Scotland, where there are always a great variety of
fishings to be let at prices suitable for all pockets; and there is nothing
better either for health or recreation than a day on a salmon stream.
There are one or two places on Tweed frequented by anglers who
take a fishing as a sort of joint-stock company, and who, when they
are not angling, talk politics, make poetry, bandy about their polite
chaff, and generally “go in” as they say for any amount of
amusement. These societies are of course very select, and not
generally accessible to strangers, being of the nature of a club. The
plan which every angler ought to adopt on going to a strange water is
to place himself under the guidance of some shrewd native of the
place, who will show him all the best pools and aid him with his advice
as to what flies he ought to use, and give him many useful hints on
other points as well. Anglers, however, must divide their attention, for
it is quite as interesting (not to speak of convenience) for some men
to spend a day on the Thames killing barbel or roach as it is to others
to kill a ten-pound salmon on the Tweed or the Spey. It is good sport
also to troll for pike in the Lodden or to capture grayling in beautiful
Dovedale. And so pleasant has of late years become the sport that it
is no uncommon sight to see a gentle-born lady handling a salmon-
rod with as much vigour as grace on some one of our picturesque
Highland streams. In fact, angling is a recreation that can be made to
suit all classes, from the child with his stick and crooked pin to the
gentleman with his well-mounted rod and elaborate tackle, who hies
away in his yacht to the fiords of Norway in search of salmon that
weigh from twenty to forty pounds and require a day to capture. For
those, however, who desire to stay at home there is abundant angling
all the year round. From New-Year’s Day to Christmas there needs be
no stoppage of the sport; even the weather should never stop an
enthusiastic angler; but on very bad days, when it is not possible to
go out of doors, there is the study of the fish, and their natural and
economic history, which ought to be interesting to all who use the
angle, and to the majority of mankind besides; and there is spread out
around the angler the interesting book of nature inviting him to
perusal. He can see the white seal of winter opened, and observe the
balmy spring put forth its vernal power; note the turbid streams of
winter as they are slackening their volume of water; see the swelling
buds and the bursting leaves; admire the cowslip and the primrose
grow into blossom almost as he looks at them; hear the sweet notes
of the cuckoo, and the unceasing carol of noisier birds; watch the
sportive lamb or the timid hare; and chronicle the ever-changing
seasons as they roll away on their everlasting journey of progress.
Without pretending to rival the hundred and one guides to angling
that now flood the market, I shall take a glance at a few of the more
popular of the anglers’ fishes; not, however, in any scientific or other
order of precedence, but beginning with the trout, seeing that the
salmon is discussed in a separate division of this work.
Of all our fresh-water fishes, the one that is most plentiful, and the
one that is most worthy of notice by anglers, is the trout. It can be
fished for with the simplest possible kind of rod in the most tiny
stream, or be captured by elaborate apparatus on the great lochs of
Scotland. There are so many varieties of it as to suit all tastes; there
are well-flavoured burn trout, not so large as a small herring, and
there are lake giants that, when placed in the scales, will pull down a
twenty pound weight with the greatest ease. The usual run of river
trout are about six or eight ounces in weight; a pound trout is an
excellent reward for the patient angler. Where a trouting stream flows
through a rich and fertile district of country, with abundant drainage,
the trout are usually well-conditioned and large, and of good flavour;
but when the country through which the stream flows is poor and
rocky, with no drains carrying in food to enrich the stream, the fish
will, as a matter of course, be lanky and flavourless; they may be
numerous, but they will be of small size. It is curious, too, to note the
difference of the fish of the same stream: some of the trout taken in
Tweed, and in other rivers as well, are sharp in their colour, have fine
fat plump thick shoulders, great depth of belly, and beautiful pink
flesh of excellent flavour; others again are lean and flavourless. The
colour of trout is of course dependent on the quality and abundance
of its food; those are best which exist on ground-feeding, living upon
worms and such fresh-water crustaceans as are within reach. Fly-
taking fish—those that indulge in the feed of ephemeræ that takes
place a few times every day—are comparatively poor in flesh and
weak in flavour. As to where fishers should resort, must be left to
themselves. I was once beguiled out to the Dipple, but it was a
hungry sort of river, where the trout were on the average about three
ounces and scarce enough; although I must say that for a few
minutes, when “the feed” was on the water, there was an enormous
display of fish, but they preferred to remain in their native stream, a
tributary of the Clyde I think. The mountain streams and lochs of
Scotland, or the placid and picturesque lakes of Cumberland and
Westmorland, are the paradise of anglers.
For trout-fishing we would name Scotland as being before all other
countries. “What,” it has been asked, “is a Scottish stream without its
trout?” Doubtless, if a river has no trout it is without one of its
greatest charms, and it is pleasant to record that, except in the
neighbourhood of very large seats of population, trout are still
plentiful in Scotland. It is true the railway, and other modes of
conveyance, have carried of late years a perfect army of anglers into
its most picturesque nooks and corners, and therefore fish are not
quite so plentiful as they were thirty years ago, in the old coaching
days, when it was possible to fill a washing-tub in the space of half an
hour with lovely half-pound trout from a few pools on a burn near
Moffat. But there are still plenty of trout; indeed there is a noted
fisher who can fill his basket even in streams that, being near the
large cities, have been too often fished; but then it is given to him to
be a man of great skill in his vocation, and moreover capable of
instructing others, for he has written a work that in some degree has
revolutionised the art of angling.
The place to try an angler is a fine Border stream or a grand
Highland loch; but I shall not presume to lay down minute directions
as to how to angle, for an angler, like a poet, must be born, he can
scarcely be bred, and no amount of book lore will confer upon a man
the magic power of luring the wary trout from its crystalline home.
The best anglers, and I may add fish-poachers, are the gipsies. A
gipsy will raise fish when no other human being can move them. If
encamped near a stream, a gipsy band are sure to have fish as a
portion of their daily food; and how beautifully they can broil a trout
or boil a grilse those only who have had the fortune to dine with them
can say. Your gipsy is a rare good fisher, and with half a rod can rob
the river of a few dozens of trout in a very brief space of time, and he
can do so while men with elaborate “fishing machines,” fitted up with
costly tackle, continue to flog the water without obtaining more than a
questionable nibble, just as if the fish knew that they were
greenhorns, and took a pleasure in chaffing them. Mr. Cheek, who
wrote a capital book for the guidance of what I may call Thames
anglers, says that the best way to learn is to see other anglers at work
—which is better than all the written instructions that can be given,
one hour’s practical information going farther than a folio volume of
written advice. It is all in vain for men to fancy that a suit of new
Tweeds, a fair acquaintance with Stoddart or Stewart, and a large
amount of angling “slang,” will make them fishers. There is more than
that required. Besides the natural taste, there is wanted a large
measure of patience and skill; and the proper place to acquire these
best virtues of the angler is among the brawling hill streams of
Scotland, or on the expansive bosom of some of the great
Cumberland lakes, while trying for a few delicious charr. A
congregation of fish brought together by means of a scatter of food
and an angler’s taking advantage of the piscine convention over its
diet of worms, is no more angling than a battue is sport. An American
that I have heard of has a fish-manufactory in Connecticut, where he
can shovel the animals out by the hundred; but then he does not go
in for sport, his idea—a thoroughly American one—is money! But
despite this exceedingly commercial idea, there are a few anglers in
America, and as there are much water and many game fishes, there is
plenty of sport. In North America there are to be found in large
quantities both the true salmon and the brook trout; and as a great
number of the American fishes visit the fresh and salt water
alternately, they, by reason of their strength and size, afford excellent
employment either to the river or sea angler. One of the best of the
American fishes is called the Mackinaw salmon.

ANGLERS’ FISHES.
1. Great lake trout (Salmo ferox). 2. Salmo fario. 3. Trout.

To come back, in the meantime, to Scotland and the trout, and


where to find them, I may mention that that particular fish is the
stock in trade of the streams and lochs of Scotland,—Scotland, the
“land of the mountain and the flood,”—and there is an ever-abiding
abundance of water, for the lochs and streams of that country are
numberless. One county alone (Sutherland, to wit) contains a
thousand lochs, and one parish in that county has in it two hundred
sheets of water, and all of these abounding with fine trout, affording
rich sport to the angler—rewarding all who persevere with full
baskets. As I have already hinted, the fisher must study his locality
and glean advice from well-informed residents. The gipsies of a
district can usually give capital advice as to the kind of bait that will
please best. Many a time have anglers been seen flogging away at a
stream or lake that was troutless, or at their wit’s end as to which of
their flies would please the dainty palate of my lord the resident trout.
But I shall not further dogmatise on such matters; most people who
are given to angling are quite as wise as the writer of these remarks;
and there are as fine trout in England, I daresay, as there are in
Scotland; indeed there are a thousand streams in this Great Britain,
Ireland, and Wales of ours, where we can find fish—there are splendid
trout even in the Thames. Then there are the Dove and the Severn, as
well as rivers that are much farther away, so that on his second day
from London an active angler may be whipping the Spey for salmon,
or trolling on Loch Awe for the large trout that inhabit that sheet of
water. The change of scene is of itself a delight, no matter what river
the visitor may choose. At the same time the physical exertion
undergone by the angler flushes his cheek with the hue of health, and
imparts to his frame a strength and elasticity known only to such as
are familiar with country scenes and pure air. May and the Mayfly are
held to inaugurate the angler’s year; for although a few of the keenest
sportsmen keep on angling all the year round, most of them lay down
their rod about the end of October, and do not think of again
resuming it till they can smell the sweet fragrance of the advancing
summer. Although few of our busy men of law or commerce are able
to forestall the regular holiday period of August and September, yet a
few do manage a run to the country at the charming time of May,
when the days are not too hot for enjoyment nor too short for country
industry. In August and September the landscape is preparing for the
sleep of winter, whilst in May it is being robed by nature for the fêtes
of summer, and, despite the sneers of some poets and naturalists, is
new and charming in the highest degree. Town living people should
visit the country in May, and see and feel its industry, pastoral and
simple as it is, and at the same time view the charms of its scenery in
all its vivid freshness and fragrance.
Some anglers delight in pike-catching, others try for perch; but give
me the trout, of which there is a large variety, and all worth catching.
In Loch Awe, for instance, there is the great lake trout, which,
combined with the beauty of the scenery, has sufficed to draw to that
neighbourhood some of our best anglers. The trout of Loch Awe, as is
well known, are very ferocious, hence their scientific name of Salmo
ferox. This trout attains to great dimensions; individuals weighing
twenty pounds have been often captured; but its flavour is indifferent
and the flesh is coarse, and not of a prepossessing colour. This kind of
trout is found in nearly all the large and deep lochs of Scotland. It was
discovered scientifically about the end of last century by a Glasgow
merchant, who was fond of sending samples of it to his friends as a
proof of his prowess as an angler. The usual way of taking the great
lake trout is to engage a boat to fish from, which must be rowed
gently through the water. The best bait is a small trout, with at least
half-a-dozen strong hooks projecting from it, and the tackle requires
to be prodigiously strong, as the fish is a most powerful one, although
not quite so active as some others of the trout kind, but it roves about
in these deep waters enacting the parts of the bully and the cannibal
to all lesser creatures, and driving before it even the hungry pike.
Persons residing near the great lochs capture these large trout by
setting night lines for them. As has been already mentioned, they are
exceedingly voracious, and have been known to be dragged for long
distances, and even after losing hold of the bait to seize it again with
great eagerness, and so have been finally captured. These great lake
trout are also to be found in other countries.
In Lochleven, at Kinross, in the county of Fife, twenty-two miles
from Edinburgh, there will be found localised that beautiful trout
which is peculiar to this one loch, and which I have already referred to
as one of the mysterious fishes of Scotland. This fish—although its
quality is said to have been degenerated by the drainage of the lake in
1830, at which period it was reduced by draining to a third of its
former dimensions—is of considerable commercial value; it cannot be
bought in Edinburgh under two shillings a pound weight; and if it was
properly cultivated might yield a large revenue. I have not been able
to obtain recent statistics of “the take” of Lochleven trout, but in
former years during the seven months of the fishing season it used to
range from fifteen thousand to twenty thousand pounds weight, and
at the time referred to all trout under three-quarters of a pound in
weight were thrown back into the water by order of the lessee.
Eighty-five dozen of these fine trout have been known to be taken at
a single haul, while from twenty to thirty dozen used to be a very
common take. As to perch, they used to be caught in thousands. Little
has or can be said about Lochleven trout, except that they are a
speciality. Some learned people (but I take leave to differ from them)
consider the Lochleven fish to be identical with Salmo fario, but never
in any of my piscatorial wanderings have I found its equal in colour,
flavour, or shape. It has been compared with the Fario Lemanus of the
Lake of Geneva, and having handled both fishes I must allow that
there is very little difference between them; but still there are
differences. Boats can be hired at Kinross for an hour or two’s fishing
on Lochleven. Mr. Barnet, the editor of the local paper, himself a keen
fisher, will, I have no doubt, put gentlemen in the way of enjoying a
day’s pike or trout fishing on the loch.
I need not go over all the varieties of fresh-water trout seriatim, for
their name is legion, and every book on angling contains lists of those
that are peculiar to the districts treated upon. If anglers’ fishes ever
become valuable as food, it will be by the cultivation of our great
lochs. With such a vast expanse of water as is contained in some of
these lakes, and having ample river accommodation at hand for
spawning purposes, there could be no doubt that artificial breeding, if
properly gone about, would be successful. The Lochleven trout in
particular might be made a subject of piscicultural experiment; it is
already of great money value commercially, and could be cultivated so
as to become a considerable source of revenue to the proprietor of
the lake and amusement to the angler.
JACK IN HIS ELEMENT.

There are some pretty big pike in Lochleven; I lately examined a


very large one, weighing sixteen pounds, that had been feeding very
industriously on the dainty trout of the loch. As every angler knows,
the pike affords capital sport, and may be taken in many different
ways. Pike spawn in March and April, when the fish leaves its hiding-
place in the deep water and retires for procreative purposes into
shallow creeks or ditches. The pike yields a very large quantity of roe
on the average, and the young fish are not long in being hatched.
Endowed with great feeding power, pike grow rapidly from the first,
attaining a length of twenty-two inches. Before that period a young
pike is called a jack, and its increase of weight is at the rate of about
four pounds a year when well supplied with food. The appetite of this
fish is very great, and, from its being so fierce, it has been called the
pirate of the rivers. It is not easily satisfied with food, and numerous
extraordinary stories of the pike’s powers of eating and digesting have
been from time to time related. I remember, when at school at
Haddington (seventeen miles from Edinburgh), of seeing a pike that
inhabited a hole in the “Lang Cram” (a part of the river Tyne), which
was nearly triangular in shape, supposed to be the exact pattern of its
hiding-place, and which devoured every kind of fish or animal that
came in its way. It was caught several times, but always managed to
escape, and must have weighed at least twenty-five pounds. Upon
one occasion it was hooked by a little boy, who fished for it with a
mouse, when it rewarded him for his cleverness by dragging him into
the water; and had help not been at hand the boy would assuredly
have been drowned, as the water at that particular spot was deep. As
to the voracity of this fish many particulars have been given. Mr.
Jesse, in one of his works, says that a pike of the weight of five
pounds has been known to eat a hundred gudgeon in three weeks;
and I have myself seen them killed in the neighbourhood of a shoal of
parr, and, notwithstanding their rapidity of digestion, I have seen four
or five fish taken out of the stomach of each. Mr. Stoddart, one of our
chief angling authorities, has calculated the pike to be amongst the
most deadly enemies of the infant salmon. He tells us that the pike of
the Teviot, a tributary of the Tweed, are very fond of eating young
smolts, and says that, in a stretch of water ten miles long, where
there is good feeding, there will be at least a thousand pike, and that
these during a period of sixty days will consume about a quarter of a
million of young salmon!
One would almost suppose that some of the stories about the
voracity of pike had been invented; if only half of them be true, this
fish has certainly well earned its title of shark of the fresh water. There
is, for instance, the well-known tale of the poor mule, which a pike
was seen to take by the nose and pull into the water; but it is more
likely I think that the mule pulled out the pike. Pennant, however,
relates a story of a pike that is known to be true. On the Duke of
Sutherland’s Canal at Trentham, a pike seized the head of a swan that
was feeding under water, and gorged as much of it as killed both. A
servant, perceiving the swan with its head below the surface for a
longer time than usual, went to see what was wrong, and found both
swan and pike dead. A large pike, if it has the chance, will think
nothing of biting its captor; there are several authentic instances of
this having been done. The pike is a long-lived fish, grows to a large
size, and attains a prodigious weight. There is a narrative extant about
one that was said to be two centuries and a half old, which weighed
three hundred and fifty pounds, and was seventeen feet long. There is
abundant evidence of the size of pike: individuals have been captured
in Scotland, so we are told in the Scots Magazine, that weighed
seventy-nine pounds. In the London newspapers of 1765 an account
is given of the draining of a pool, twenty-seven feet deep, at the
Lilishall Limeworks, near Newport, which had not been fished for
many years, and from which a gigantic pike was taken that weighed
one hundred and seventy pounds, being heavier than a man of twelve
stone! I have seen scores of pike which weighed upwards of half a
stone, and a good many double that weight, but, as in the case of the
salmon, the weight is now on the descending ratio, the giants of the
tribe having been apparently all captured. Formerly there used to be
great hauls of this fish taken out of the water. Whether or not a pike
be good for food depends greatly on where it has been fed, what it
has eaten, and how it has been cooked. In fact, as I have already
endeavoured to show, the animals of the water are in respect of food
not unlike those of the land—their flavour is largely dependent on
their feeding; and pike that have been luxuriating on Lochleven trout,
or feeding daintily for a few months on young salmon, cannot be very
bad fare. As a general rule, however, pike are not highly esteemed as
a dish even when cooked à la Walton, who recommended them to be
roasted, and basted during the process with claret, anchovies, and
butter. Old Isaac says a dish of pike so prepared is too good for any
but anglers or very honest men. The pike is a comparatively ugly fish
as regards its shape, but at certain seasons is very brilliant in colour. It
is extensively distributed, and is found over the greater part of
Europe, and also in America and Asia. The mascalogne, Esox estor, is
the name of the largest American pike; it is found only in the great
lakes and waters of the St. Lawrence basin, and grows to a very large
size, thirty pounds being a common enough weight, but individuals
have been captured ranging from sixty to eighty pounds. The
mascalogne, like all its tribe, is a bold and voracious fish. There is also
the northern pickerel, another American pike, which does not grow so
large as the above, but is quite as fierce and bold as our own pike;
and as the fish is not good for food, although an excellent game fish,
affording no end of sport, I need not recommend the acclimatisation
of any of these American savages.
The carp family (Cyprinidæ) is very numerous, embracing among its
members the barbel, the gudgeon, the carp-bream, the white-bream,
the red-eye, the roach, the bleak, the dace, and the well-known
minnow. There is one of the family which is of a beautiful colour, and
with which all are familiar—I mean the golden carp, which may be
seen floating in its crystal prison in nearly every home of taste, and
which swarms in the ponds at Hampton Court and in the tropical
waters of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. The gold and silver fish are
natives of China, whence they were introduced into this country by
the Portuguese about the end of the seventeenth century, and have
become, especially of late years, so common as to be hawked about
the streets for sale. In China, as we can read, every person of fashion
keeps gold-fish by way of having a little amusement. They are
contained either in the small basins that decorate the courts of the
Chinese houses, or in porcelain vases made on purpose; and the most
beautiful kinds are taken from a small mountain-lake in the province
of Che-Kyang, where they grow to a comparatively large size, some
attaining a length of eighteen inches and a comparative bulk, the
general run of them being equal in size to our herrings. These lovely
fish afford great delight to the Chinese ladies, who tend and cultivate
them with great care. They keep them in very large basins, and a
common earthen pan is generally placed at the bottom of these in a
reversed position, and so perforated with holes as to afford shelter to
the fish from the heat and glare of the sun. Green stuff of some kind
is also thrown upon the water to keep it cool, and it (the water) must
be changed at least every two days, and the fish, as a general rule,
must never be touched by the hand. Great quantities of gold-fish are
often bred in ponds adjacent to factories, where the waste steam
being let in the water is kept at a warmish temperature. At the
manufacturing town of Dundee they became at one time a complete
nuisance in some of the factories, having penetrated into the steam
and water pipes, and occasionally brought the works to a complete
stand. In England the golden carp usually spawns between May and
July, the particular time being greatly regulated by the warmth of the
season. The time of spawning may be known by the change of habit
which occurs in this fish. It sinks at once into deep water instead of
basking on the top, as usual; previous to which the fish are restive
and quick in their movements, throwing themselves out of the water,
etc. It may be stated here, to prevent disappointment, that golden
carp never spawn in a transparent vessel. When the spawn is hatched
the fish are very black in colour, some darker than others: these
become of a golden hue, while those of a lighter shade become silver-
coloured. As is the case with the salmon, it is some time before this
change occurs, some colouring at the end of one year, and others not
till two or three seasons have come and gone. These beautiful
prisoners seldom live long in their crystal cells, although the prison is
beautiful enough, one would fancy:—

“I ask, what warrant fixed them (like a spell


Of witchcraft fixed them) in the crystal cell;
To wheel with languid motion round and round,
Beautiful, yet in mournful durance bound?
Their peace, perhaps, our slightest footstep marr’d,
Or their quick sense our sweetest music jarr’d;
And whither could they dart, if seized with fear?
No sheltering stone, no tangled root was near.
When fire or taper ceased to cheer the room,
They wore away the night in starless gloom;
And when the sun first dawned upon the streams,
How faint their portion of his vital beams!
Thus, and unable to complain, they fared,
While not one joy of ours by them was shared.”

Gold-fish ought not to be purchased except from some very


respectable dealer. I have known repeated cases where the whole of
the fish bought have died within an hour or two of being taken home.
These golden carp, which are reared for sale, are usually spawned
and bred in warmish water, and they ought in consequence to be
acclimatised or “tempered” by the dealer before they are parted with.
Parties buying ought to be particular as to this, and ascertain if the
fish they have bought have been tempered.
Returning to the common carp, I may speak of it as being a most
useful pond-fish. It is a sort of vegetarian, and it may be classed
among the least carnivorous fishes; it feeds chiefly upon vegetables or
decaying organic matter, and very few of them prey upon their kind,
while some, it is thought, pass the winter in a torpid state. There is a
rhyme which tells us that

Turkeys, carp, hops, pickerel, and beer,


Came into England all in one year.

But this couplet must, I think, be wrong, as some of these items were
in use long before the carp was known; indeed, it is not at all certain
when this fish was first introduced into England, or where it was
brought from, but I think it extremely possible that it was originally
brought here from Germany. In ancient times there used to be
immense ponds filled with carp in Prussia, Saxony, Bohemia,
Mecklenburg, and Holstein, and the fish was bred and brought to
market with as much regularity as if it had been a fruit or a vegetable.
The carp yields its spawn in great quantities, no fewer than 700,000
eggs having been found in a fish of moderate weight (ten pounds);
and, being a hardy fish, it is easily cultivated, so that it would be
profitable to breed in ponds for the fishmarkets of populous places,
and the fish-salesmen assure us that there would be a large demand
for good fresh carp. It is necessary, according to the best authorities,
to have the ponds in suites of three—viz., a spawning-pond, a nursery,
and a receptacle for the large fish—and to regulate the numbers of
breeding fish according to the surface of water. It is not my intention
to go minutely into the construction of carp-ponds; but I may be
allowed to say that it is always best to select such a spot for their site
as will give the engineer as little trouble as possible. Twelve acres of
water divided into three parts would allow a splendid series of ponds

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