This is the fourth 'blog' page devoted to the history of the Boccius family.
For the main page click HERE:
where we keep a running record and commentary on the results of our researches.
The second page is on THIS link:
which is mainly for photographs, and for the rare and much-loved paintings of the ancestors, plus other related pictures. As we get more and more photos we'll also put photographs on the fourth page, 'Boccius family oddments'.
For the third, click HERE
This is for the two early 19th-century sketch books, one that belonged to Charlotte Boccius née Scott, and the other, we think, of her daughter-in-law Caroline Boccius née Barth.
This fourth page has been set up, as the title suggests, both for photographs AND for anything else that we have that doesn't fall into the first categories.
None of our researches or discoveries are complete or comprehensive, and we welcome contributions from any Boccius descendant who can add to the story.
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From the Journal of the Society of Arts, Vol 2, 1854
ARTIFICIAL BREEDING OF SALMON AND OTHER FISH.
Sir,—The notice which has at last been taken in order to re-store the streams and rivers of the kingdom with salmon and other of the finny tribe, may render an account of the reasons and commencement of my system of " artificial spawning, breeding, and rearing of fish," not unacceptable. The naturalists of the Continent are not only examining the truth of theexample I have set for the last fifteen years, but are also carrying the same into extensive practice.
The Chinese were the first people who introduced " artificial breeding of fish" by capturing brood fish just emerged from the egg, protecting them, and feeding them until in a fit condition for food. Herr Jacobi, a retired military officer, a native of (and living near) Osnaburg, in the Hanoverian States, about the year 1766 or 1758, I believe, was the first who attempted to take the spawn and milt from the live parent fish for the purpose of impregnation and production, and after some five yeare' of experience and attention, and proving his arrangements, introduced the subject to Count Goldstein, a talented naturalist and literary person, who published the account of Jacobi's experiments: the subject, however, died away, like many others at that period.
In 1821 and 1822 our celebrated countryman, Sir Humphrey Davy (whom I personally knew), with hi» friends Sir Francis Chantrcy, the sculptor, Mr. Pepys, celebrated for his chemical knowledge and improvement in British steel, with many others, attempted artificial spawning, dec, at Mr. Hamlett's, on the Colne, near Uxbridge, Middlesex, but failed, not producing more than five per cent, of brood.
In 1815 I went to Leipsic, in Saxony, and being on visiting terms with all the professors in the University, I had an opportunity of attending their evening parties, which invariably produced delightful discussions upon moral philosophy, natural history, and the arts and sciences. Here it was where I heard the first discussion upon cold-blooded animals, the peculiar character of their habits and existence, and which prompted me to go deeper into the inquiry. My sojourn in that country was of some years' duration, in the interim of which I learned the system of stocking ponds from a gentleman who possessed twenty-two of large extent, seven of which were fished annually, and eight every third year, the profit of which produced him about 6000 dollars per annum, and from his correct system the ponds never deviated in the course of fifty years from yielding the same weight of fish! During my stay in that country my friends and self went through various processes with fish of various descriptions, toads, frogs, and efts, all producing their young on the same terms and principle, not one of them possessing any sexual organ.
In 1823 I returned to England, and followed up mercantile pursuits; and 1838 I had occasion to go to Newcastleon-Tyne, where I sojourned some seven weeks, during which period a gentleman came to the same inn who was proprietor of a considerable salmon fishery. In the course of conversation I related to him all the circumstances of artificial spawning. This gentleman proved to be Sir F. A. M'Kenzie, who published in 1840 some letters upon his success in the art.
In 1841 I published my first treatise upon fish in ponds, and that same year had upwards of 20,000 trout bred out upon my artificial system. This stock I reared at Denham Fishery, on the Colne, the property of Mortimer Druramond, Esq., and did not lose an egg: all came into life. About this period, or a little before, a dispute arose between the naturalists of the north of England as to the distinction of samlets from parr. Both Mr. Shaw and Sir F. A. M'Kenzie bred the salmon eggs taken from the bed and placed in artificial bends of the streams. In the dispute Mr. Shaw concluded that parr and samlets, smolts or Ustspringa, were synonymous, on account of their bars. There is a trout, however, the "stone trout" of the Germans, which possesses the same bar, and exists in Cornwall, and is termed the "saddle-backed trout;" they never exceed a pound in weight, and where they exist no salmon can get to the same water. They always haunt under a stone, and dart for their food, returning to the ■pot from whence they came. I merely state this to cause others to make inquiry into these perplexing contradictions. From 1840 1 have pursued the system of artificial spawning, and have restored many streams fully to the desires of the proprietors, invariably giving lessons and instructions to the bailiffs how to proceed for the future: some havu profited, while others have not. The second pamphlet, on "Fishes in Rivers and Streams," I wrote in 1847 and published iu 1848. This pamphlet upon artificial spawning, breeding, and rearing of fish, I am happy to find has created an emulation, and aroused the desires of others to follow my Bystem, which, if undertaken and followed out with judgment and care, must lead to an increase of food, demand for labour, and great profit. In 1843 I was invited to go over to France for the purpose of restoring the rivers with fish, but after consulting with my friends 1 declined. Shortly after, in 1844, two poor fishermen in that country commenced operations, and partially succeeded, by the advice of Dr. Haxo. Others then took it up. and each claimed the priority, but all breeding alike after my Denham arrangements, in narrow canals, bedded with gravel, and flowing water. This art, like all others, requires a schooling, and a little more attention than the rough uncouth operator administers; for instance, I believe I have bred millions of fish, yet I have never in fifteen years or seasons, Jost a parent fish, or found a single egg broken when expressed, and it is only the clumsy, unitiated operator that effects such a mischief. From close examination, year after year, from canvassing the great field of nature's chemistry, I found out that the eggs of fish merely required water and air. Water to be pure—and air, when the embryo life comes into operation, to invigorate the water with fresh charges of oxygen in order to stimulate life. Gravel, weed, or aught else, is merely extraneous, or an adjunct, not only of use when the animal attains life, but to entangle the egg in the position where instinct teaches the parent fish to deposit it for protection against the universal predatory habits of their kindred. From this ascertained fact I have now so simplified the system of artificial spawning, breeding and rearing of fish, that they can be produced in deep or shallow water, or in a room, and, according to the temperature of the room, eithor progressed or retarded in their
I received much assistance from Worcester in 1851, when I forwarded salmon spawn to Van Diemen's Land, by the order of Earl Grey, then Secretary to the Colonies, the result of which was highly interesting although not successful; the cause of the failure was owing to my obtaining the spawn a month previous to the sailing of the vessel, from which circumstance the brood came into life, according to the testimony of the captain, on this side of the line, and the vessel l>eing becalmed there for three weeks, the young brood died of excessive heat. This experiment proved that neither salmon nor trout require running water for their propagation, which has hitherto been the theory insisted upon by philosophical writers and practical men of fishing pursuits. With this knowledge we enter upon new grounds for the breeding offish, and as I deem myself the original promoter of artificial breeding. &c, I have procured patents in order to protect myself from a second series of piracies. I cannot close this statement without drawing your attention to the subject of the propagation of eels, which was canvassed at Worcester in 1851 by an anonymous writer of Clitheroe, demanding of me in a very imperious tone to give him all the information upon this extraordinary fish, which I felt no inclination to give. Thi3 party I believe to be one of those connected with the artificial breeding in the north of England; if so, and he is adopting the process described in a pamphlet lately put forth to the public, a serious mischief will take place in the fishery, besides the destruction of at least 60 per cent, of the eggs ho obtains by the proceeding.
When I shall have completed my arrangements, and am prepared to deliver my new, cheap, and simple apparatus, I will take the opportunity of making it known to the public through the Society's journal. I am firmly convinced of the ultimate success of the system I have introduced, and of which several parties are now attempting to take the merit to themselves.
I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,
G. BOCCIUS.
Broadway, Hammersmith, 31st Jan., 1854.
In addition to the foregoing communication, Mr. Boccius writes as follows to Mr. Flinn:—
"The view you have taken in your letter, of salmon having had two great runs for killing during this past season, I should say was quite correct, as your rivers have been vitally disturbed by the serious floods. And I think with you, that there are many old fish yet hanging back for the equinoctial freshes; these will be largo old fish, and die from exhaustion after spawning. If spawners yet are to be had, I wishmueh to obtain one or two females and one male, as I have still an opportunity of transmitting to Van Diemen's Land in March.
"The two fish upon which I intended to operate were not strangled, but frozen to death from the snow-ice in the bed of the river. Strangulation would in this state have caused an emission of all the ova and milt, as the gills, which are the lungs of the fish, being compressed, the fish becomes in such a state of depletion that all passes away involuntarily."
Mr. Young, of Invershin, also writes to Mr. Flinn, in which ho says:—" I approve very much of your proposal — allowing that the flood-gates of the weir at Powick be inado a pass for the salmon, a very small aperture would be sufficient. The fish will go up any rapidity of current if it be but a short distance; and all the water that could escape can have little effect on the quantity required for driving machinery even in the driest season.
"We have nothing in vogue now in Scotland but artificial breeding of salmon. The establishment on the Tay at Stormontfield is yet the most extensive, having got 400,000 grains of ova deposited in the boxes; and great things are expected in the shape of an increase of the salmon, but how far they may succeed in that respect is something doubtful. Artificial breeding is useful in planting rivers, and where the seed is deposited and the nursing of the fry left to the production of the river; hut when they have to be hand-fed in an artificial pond, where the water is not even the same temperature as the river, I would even have doubts of what is_ actually reared retumiug to the river after going into the sea. The fish have some instinct by which they know the taste, temperature, or quality of the water where they are bred, and they return punctually to the same river; but whether they will gather a new instinct and return to ponds, again to be fed on brown bread and hashed flesh, is yet to be seen.
"We had an excellentspawning time, from September to the break of the storm. We never had too much water at any time, and the rivers were never too low. Since the Rtorm broke, the rivers have been too high for fair fishing, but not so high as to injure any of the spawning beds. We have got some fine salmon with the rod, and also a few with the net, but not the number we would have got had the river been less. However, from the number raised with the fly and not caught, we are sure that many fish are up."
