Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/139

p i s P I S 129 Public fish-culture exists only in the United States and Canada. European iish-culturists have always operated with only small numbers of eggs. The hatchery of Sir James Maitland at Howieton near Stirling, Scotland, may be specially mentioned in this con nexion, since it is undoubtedly the iinest private fish-cultural establishment in the world. It is described in one of the Confer ence papers of the International Fishery Exhibition. The recent organization of the Scottish Fishery Board, and the establishment of a society for the biological investigation of the coasts of Great Britain, are indications that England, having at last recognized the importance of protecting its extensive fishery industries, will at no distant time become a leader in matters of fishery economy. Holland, Germany, and Norway have hitherto been the only European nations manifesting intelligent enterprise in the con sideration of fishery questions in general, although fair work has been done by Sweden and other countries in the treatment of limited special branches of this industry. In Germany the functions of the German Fishery Union (DeutscJier Fischerei- Vercin) and of the commission for the investigation of the German seas (Ministerial- Kommission zur wissenschaftlichcn Untcrsuchung cler deutschcn Meerc zu Kiel), taken together, represent practically the two divisions of the work of the United States Fish Commission, propagation and investigation. The latter body is composed of a commission of scientific men, whose head is appointed by the Government ; it is carried on with Government funds, but is not in any way subjected to Government control, the central headquarters being at Kiel instead of Berlin. The Fischerei-Verein is also a private body, under the patronage of the emperor, and with funds partly furnished by the Government and having also the general direction of the National Fish Cultural Society at, Hiiuingen. This, also, is not a bureau of any Government department, but managed entirely by its own officers. It is the only European fish eries institution that has so far constituted a thoroughly successful experiment. The Netherlands Commission of Sea Fisheries (Collegic voor dc Zccvisscherijen) is a body of fifteen men, chiefly workers in science, occupying a responsible position in the national economy, their function being "to advise Government in all subjects con nected with the interest of the fisheries." During the twenty-five years of its existence, says its historian, "the commission has con stantly been consulted by Government on the different measures that might be beneficial, or on the abolition of others that were detrimental, to the fisheries." The Society for the Development of Norwegian Fisheries (Sclskaletfor de Norske Fiskeriers Fremme) is an organization independent of the Government, and electing its own officers, but receiving large grants from Government to carry on work precisely similar to that of the United States Commission. In 1882-83 these grants amounted to 49,000 kroner. As an illustration of the interest manifested in fish-culture in the United States, it may be stated that from 1871 to 1883 $1,190,955 has been appropriated by Congress for the use of the United States Fish Commission, and that thirty-five of the State Governments have made special grants for fish-culture, in the aggregate equal to 1,101,000. To show the wholesale methods employed in this, a letter by Mr Livingston Stone, superintendent of one of the seventeen hatcheries supported by the United States Fish Commis sion, that on the M Cloud river in California, may be quoted : " In the eleven years since the salmon-breeding station has been in operation fi7,000,000 eggs have been taken, most of which have been distributed in the various States of the Union. Several millions, however, have been sent to foreign countries, including Germany, France, Great Britain. Denmark, Russia, Belgium, Holland, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the Sandwich Islands. About 15,000.000 have been hatched at the station, and the young tish placed in the M-Cloud and other tributaries of the Sacramento river. So great have been the benefits of this restocking of the Sacramento that the statistics of the salmon fisheries show that the annual ealmon catch of the river has increased 5,000,000 pounds each year during the last few years." Fifteen canneries now are fully supplied, whereas in 1872 the single establishment then on the river was obliged to close for lack of fish. In the two Government hatcheries at Alpena and North- ville, Michigan, there have been produced in the winter of 1883-84 over 100,000,000 eggs of the whitefish, Corcgonus dupeiformis, and the total number of young fish to be placed in the Great Lakes this year by these and the various State hatcheries will exceed 225,000,000. The fishermen of the Great Lakes admit that but for public fish-culture half of them would be obliged to abandon their calling. Instances of great improvement might be cited in connexion with nearly every shad river in the United States. In the Potomac alone the annual yield has been brought up by the operations of fish-culture from 668,000 ft in 1877 to an average of more than 1,600,000 R> in recent years. In 1882 carp bred in the Fisli Commission ponds in Washington were distributed in lots of 20 to 10,000 applicants throughout every State and Territory, at an average distance of more than 900 miles, the total mileage of the shipments being about 9,000,000 miles, and the actual distance traversed by the transportation car 34,000 miles. There still exists in Europe some scepticism as to the beneficial results of fish- culture. Such doubts do not exist on the other side of the Atlantic, if the continuance from year to year of liberal grants of public money may be considered to be a test of public confidence. Perhaps the best general treatises upon the methods of artificial propagation practised by pisciculturists are Herr Max Von Dem Home s f ischiucht, .Berlin, 1880, and from the philosophical standpoint, Dr Francis Day s Fish Culture, one of the handbooks of the International Fisheries Exhibition of 1883. The reports and bulletins of the United States Fish Commission, in twelve volumes, from 1873 to 1884, contain full descriptions of American methods, and discussions of all foreign discoveries and movements. Two prominent London journals, the Field and Land and Water, contain authoritative articles upon the subject, and the museum of fisheries and fish-culture at South Kensington, enriched as it has been by the contributions of exhibitors at the Fisheries Exhibition of 1883, is an excellent exponent of the methods and implements in use in the past and at present. For a history of the subject see " Epochs in the History of Fish Culture," by G. Brown Goode, in Transactions of the American Fish Cultural Association (10th meeting, 1881, pp. 34-58), and "The Status of the United States Fish Commission in 1884," by the same author, in part xii. of the Report of that commission; and for a discussion of modern methods and apparatus, as shown at the late Fisheries Exhibition, the essays by Mr U. Edward Earll in the report of the United States commissioner to the exhibition and in Nature (Oct. 4, 1883). (G. B. G.) PISEK, a small town of Bohemia, 55 miles to the south of Prague, lies on the right bank of the Wottawa, which is here crossed by an interesting stone bridge of great antiquity. The town generally has a mediaeval air, heightened by the preservation of part of the old walls and bastions. The most prominent buildings are the church of the Nativity, the town-house, and the venerable chateau. The name of Pisek, which is the Czech for sand, is said to be derived from the gold-washing formerly carried on in the bed of the Wottawa. This source of profit, however, has been long extinct, and the inhabitants now support themselves by iron and brass founding, brewing, and the manufacture of shoes and Turkish fezes. The population in 1880 was 10,545. Pisek was one of the chief centres of the Hussites, and it suffered very severely in the Thirty Years War, when Maximilian of Bavaria put almost all the inhabitants to the sword. It was also occupied by the French in 1741. In spite of these reverses Pisek is now a very wealthy community, possessing large and valuable tracts of woodland. PISIDIA, in ancient geography, was the name given to a country in the south of Asia Minor, immediately north of Pamphylia, by which it was separated from the Mediterranean, while it was bounded on the north by Phrygia, on the east by Isauria, Lycaonia, and Cilicia, and on the west and south-west by Lycia and a part of Phrygia (see vol. xv. PI. II.). It was a rugged and mountainous district, comprising some of the loftiest portions of the great range of Mount Taurus, together with the offshoots of the same chain towards the central tableland of Phrygia. Such a region was naturally occupied from a very early period by wild and lawless races of mountaineers, who were very imperfectly reduced to subjection by the powers that successively established their dominion in Asia Minor. The Pisidians are not mentioned by Herodotus, either among the nations that were subdued by Croesus, or among those that furnished contingents to the army of Xerxes, and the first mention of them in history occurs in the Ana basis of Xenophon, when they furnished a pretext to the younger Cyrus for levying the army with which he designed to subvert his brother s throne, while he pretended only to put down the Pisidians who were continually harassing the neighbouring nations by their lawless forays (Anab. i. 1, 11 : ii. 1, 4, &c.). They are afterwards mentioned by Ephorus among the inland nations of Asia Minor, and assume a more prominent part in the history of Alexander the Great, to whose march through their country they opposed a deter mined resistance. In Strabo s time they had passed tran quilly under the Roman dominion, though still governed by their own petty chiefs and retaining to a considerable extent their predatory habits. The boundaries of Pisidia, like those of most of the inland provinces or regions of Asia Minor, were not clearly defined, and appear to have fluctuated at different times. This was especially the case on the side of Lycia, where the upland district of Milyas was sometimes included in Pisidia, at other times assigned to Lycia. Rome

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