At a nls lh eee [at Danii t te - sane ote am BINDING LIstTccT 1 1922: TRANSACTIONS OF THE American Fisheries Society. Held in New York, Wednesday and Thursday, June 12th and 13th, 1895. ‘al 8 Tae NEW YORK: THOS. HUMPHREY, PRINTER, 3€8 CANAL STREE1 246 OFFICERS FOR 1895-’96. PRESIDENT, LL. D. HUNTINGTON. ....... New Rochelle, N. Y. VICE-PRESIDENT, CALVERT SPENSLEY .MWineral Point, Wis. MREASUORER, FRANK J. AMSDEN........... Rochester, N. Y. Rec. Sec’y, TARLETON H. BEAN, | ee Cor, sec-y, li. By MANSFIELD, U.S. N...:. Brooklyn, N.Y. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. HNRY Co PORD, 2.4... .0.. 1823 Vine St., Philadelphia, Pa. eee OO GTA Mi isd a seeds eae Mt. Arlington, N. /. HERSCHEL “WVed DY. £6) 2) ° aa ag are Detroit, Mich. BDWewk Ps DOYLE wai... «Port Richmond, S.1.,AN. VG Ie, NO Se ee eee Omaha, Neb. TABLE OF CONTENTS: Report ot Recording Secretaty-: . 22x). few ages teak oer RSM OE GL TEASIILEL .\. sj. . ~ ore idnere oa) teas ashing nee PAPERS READ :— MATHER, FrRED.—The Influence of Railroads on ash NiGulkeate. 4 Asa es Sere eee oe eo one VAN CLEEF, J. S.—Decadence of our Trout Streams.. JAMEs, Dr. B. W.—Impoverishment of the Food-fish Wa duStHies oes eee oe eC ee Tomuin, W. D.—The Distribution of the Trout EL} 16006 SR eee RORY. SOR rem ae Meet eh eye, O'BRIEN, M. E.—. Epidemic among Trout in Nebraska WHITAKER, HERSCHEL.—Some Observations on the moral:pliases/ of hish) Culture: le = ate BEAN, Dr. T. H.—The work of the U. S. Fish Coimmissionr, 3.2226. sbi. 62s ee eee eee WHITAKER, HERSCHEL.—A New Hatchery....... BowER, SEYMOUR.—The Artificial Hatching of White-fish and Brook Trout, and the Rela- tions of Planting to Results... 72 -'-)- 2... -'.- AMSDEN, FRANK J —Fish and Game Protection in Nieay Y onkense 8.54 Oe eet ie cena tee > tees DopGE, Pror. C. W.—Fish Fungus at Caledonia .. ReisteoF Met bersiaic os ce pesos cute vores Miniitesome4th Anmual Meeting. eee ae eee Page ce 14 16 24 28 36 49 52 ae) 100 109 115 MENU ES TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. HELD IN NEW YORK AQUARIUM, Castle Garden, N. Y., On WEDNESDAY, June 12TH, 1895. The following members were present on roll call: W.. L. May, Omaha, Nebraska. Herschel Whitaker, Detroit, Michigan. Fred. Mather, Cold Spring; Harber, Ne Y¥. Fly tC. Ord, Philadelphia, Pa. Frank J. Amsden, Rochester, N. Y. H. B. Mansfield, U.S. Navy. William H. Bowman, Rochester, N. Y. Davide Gailiackney, Fort Plain, N. Y. Robert Hamilton, Cambridge. Dr. Bushrod W. James, Philadelphia, Pa. Tarleton H. Bean, New York. W. deC. Ravenel, Washington, D. C. jee lotwanalian, Put-in-Bay, Ohio. 6 John W. Titcomb, St. Johnsbury, Vermont, EWE sitlioxie, Garolinayhixeis H. W. Davis, Grand Rapids, Michigan. L. D. Huntington, New York. Edward P. Doyle, New York. AZ IN Cheney, Glens Falls (yNa ve President W. I. May, of Omaha, Nebraska, pre- sided. After the roll call, the President announced that in order to facilitate business he would appoint Com- mittees on Nominations, Auditing the accounts of the Treasurer, and on time and place) of mext meeting The Committees appointed were as follows: Committee on Auditing accounts of Treasurer— lenny. Gr ond, Philadelphia, Pa. H.W. Davis: Grand Rapids, Michigan. Flenry Hi Wyman,,) “Osweso, N- Yr Committee on Nomitnations— Herschel Whitaker, Detroit, Michigan. W. H. Bowman, Rochester, N. Y. Gy E> Peabody: Appleton, Wisconsin. H. B. Mansfield, New York. eGo Rord Pennsylvania. The Commzttce on location of place of next meeting was as follows: lay leisy (Be ngis Palnayras NS YY: jamesA? aD ale: Vor esbas eV eeloxaics Ree The following gentlemen were elected to member- ship wns thes society: Pry ‘ NeaeR. Buller, Carolina, R. ‘I; Wee. Clark, Newark, N. J. ee ...C orwin, Pittsbure,, Pa. Die jas. A: Dale, ~ York; Pat Ba id. Davis, Palmyra; IN. Yo H. B. Frothingham, Mt. Arlington, N. J. Monroe A. Green, Rochester, N. Y. Cour. -Gritith, Staten. Island. Ney, G. Hansen, Osceola, Wis. Hiram F. Hurlbut, Lynn, Mass. A. A. Hynemann; 55 W. 33d St., New York. G. He, lennin gs, 317 Broadway, New York. Die O, A. jones, 30 W. 35th St., New York. ). Harrington Keene, Greenwich, N, Y- Plenary Tia kyman, Oswego, N.Y. Dr Justus O' Hage, St. Paul, Minn. Parker Page, West Summit, N. J. Geo. F. Peabody, Appleton, Wis. G. Phefier, |x, Camden, N. J. E. T. Rowinvill, East Freetown, Mass, Edward Thompson, Northport, N. Y. W. R. Weed, Potsdam, N. Y. The President then called for a list of the papers to be offered at the meeting. The following papers were =presented: to be read: 7. The Influence of Ravlroads on Fish Culture. Fred. Mather. 2. The Decadence of our Trout Streams. J. S. Van Cleei: 3. LImpoverishment of the Food Fish Industries. Dr. Bushrod W. James. 8 g. The Distribution of the Trout Family. W. D. Tomlin. 5. Epidemic among Trout in Nebraska. M. E. O’Brien. 6. Observations on the Moral Phases of Modern Fish Culture. Herschel Whitaker. The Work of the Untted States Fish Commission. Tarleton H. Bean. 8. A New Flatchery. Werschel Whitaker. g. The Artificial Hatching of White Fish and Brook Trout, and the relations of planting to results. Seymour Bower. 10. The work of the State Association for the pro- tection of Fish and Game. F. J. Amsden. ir: Disease of Trout am Caledonia Creek. Pion W. Dodge. my The Committee on time and place of next meeting presented its report, and recommended that New York City be selected as the place of the twenty-fifth meet- ing of the Society, the time to be the third Wednesday and Thursday of May, 1896. On motion the report was received and adopted. On motion the Society took a recess until one o’clock for lunch. When the Society reconvened at one o'clock the President declared the first thing in order was the pre- sentation of the reports of Committees. The Com- mittee on Nominations recommended the following officers for the ensuing year: L. D. Huntington, New York, Preszdent. C. Spensley, Wisconsin, l’7ce-Preszdent. 4] T. H. Bean, New York, Recording Secretary. F. ‘J. Amsden, Rochester, New York, 7reasurer. H. B. Mansfield, Brooklyn, Cor. Secretary. Lixecutive Commettee— Fienry C. Ford, Philadelphia, Pa. Ei Ps Prothingham, NN. J. Herschel Whitaker, Detroit, Michigan. Edward P. Doyle, New York. W. L..May, Omaha, Nebraska. W. deC. Ravenel, Washington, D. C. The report of the Committee was received and on motion approved, and the Secretary was directed to cast one ballot for each of the officers named in the report. The Secretary cast the ballots as directed, and the officers were declared elected. The Committee on auditing the accounts of the Treasurer presented their report which, upon motion, was approved as read. Mr. Bowman, of New York, offered the following resolution which, upon motion, was adopted : Resolved, That a Committee of Five, consisting of one Commissioner from each of five States, be appoint- ed to secure, if possible, uniformity of legislation for the protection and preservation of Fish and Game in the several States in the Union. Mr. Bowman offered another resolution which, upon motion, was adopted : Whereas, it .is conceded by all parties, both com- mercial fishermen and others, that in the inland waters of the different States as well as in the Great Lakes, so called, the supply of food fish is decreasing annually, and that in some waters the supply has entirely dis- appeared. 10 Therefore, Resolved, that it is the unanimous opinion of this Society that stringent laws should be prepared by the legislatures of the several States to prevent the pollution of streams, to make a close season for all fish during their spawning seasons, and to prevent the taking and sale of fish until they have reached a proper size and age. That the size of meshes of all nets should be regulated. That such protection should be given by law that the full efforts of artificial propa- gation can be realized. W. L. Powell, of Pa., offered the following resolu- tion which, upon motion, was adopted: Resolved, that the Governors of the several States, by virtue of their positions, be honorary members of the Society. The Committee on Nominations then made a further report which, upon motion, was adopted. The report was as follows : The committee recommend that the style and character of the report of our Transactions be changed, and that hereafter the report shall show in the natural order in which they occur the transactions of the Society, the discussion to follow each paper as it occurred, and that the Transactions be published within 60 days after the meeting. We further recommend that the Rec. Sec’y be directed to notify each member of the Society of the date of the next meeting a month before the same shall take place, and that a copy of Transactions be mailed to each honorary member of the Society. That he also be requested at the same time to ask members 11 to contribute papers to be read at the following meet- ing, and that the titles of such papers be sent him. Respectfully submitted, Herschel Whitaker, H. B. Mansfield, Geo. FH. Peabody, Henry*G. Ford, Wm. H. Bowman. Mr. Huntington, of New York, presented the fol- lowing resolution which, upon motion, was adopted : Resolved, that it is the sense of this Society that no fish or fry should be distributed at public expense for private waters. Dr. Bean, of the United States Fish Commission, seconded the resolution and stated that the States now had regulations against such private distribution of fry, but that the United States still granted free fish for private waters, from which the public can derive no benefit. The reading of the papers then began and contin- ued until six o’clock P. M., and a resolution was adopt- ed providing fora recess until ten o'clock the next day, Minutes of adjourned meeting of the American Fisheries Society, held Thursday June 13th, 1895, on board the steamboat ‘Sam Sloan.” All the delegates in attendance at the conference were present; President W. L. May in the chair. Mr. L. D. Huntington, of New York, offered the following resolution which, upon motion, was adopted. Resolved, That’ the Secretary of this Society enter upon its minutes an expression of the hearty gratitude 12 of its members for the magnificent entertainment pro- vided for them by the New York State Commissioners of Fisheries, Game and Forests; And bert further Resolved, that there be entered the special thanks of this Society to the Hon. John H. Starin, through whose courtesy the Commissioners of Fisheries, Game and Forests were enabled to provide so commodious and elegant a steamboat; And be it further Resolved, that the thanks of the Society be extended to the Hon. Edward Einstein, President of the Department of Docks, for the privi- lege of landing at Pier A, Battery, and the further thanks of the Society to the Department of Public Parks of the City of New York, through whose courtesy the Society was permitted to use the Aqua- rium for the purposes of their annual session. Mr. Huntington also introduced the following reso- lution which, upon motion, was adopted: Resolved, Vhat the thanks of this Society be ex- tended to the outgoing Officers of the Association for the services rendered by them to the Society during the past year. Mr. Herschel Whitaker, of Detroit, Michigan, introduced the following resolution which, upon motion, was adopted: Resolved, That the thanks of this Society be ex- tended to Mr. Thompson and the Northport Oyster Company for the very kind courtesy they have extend- ed to us in the use of the steamer ‘‘Mystery” for the purpose of explaining the cultivation of shellfish. A resolution was then introduced by Mr. Whitaker, and passed, making J. Sterling Morton, a member of the Cabinet, Washington, D. C., an honorary member of the Society. The following resolution was offered by Mr. Her- schel Whitaker and, on motion, was adopted. Resolved, YVhat the American Fisheries Society desires to congratulate the Board of Parks of the City of New York upon the establishment of a free public Aquarium at Castle Garden. The installation of such an Aquarium reflects credit upon the city which has promoted it, and will serve to entertain the people with a continuous and pleasing exhibit of the common and rare forms of the fauna and flora of her waters, and the student will be afforded an opportunity for scientific observation furnished nowhere else in America. We further desire to congratulate the Board in se- eucine.- the services of Dr. Tarleton H. Beam as Director, who brings to this particular work such ripe experience and broad information as to insure the success of the enterprise. Mr. Mather then said that recently he saw in the Fishing Gazette that Mr. Samuel Wilmot, with whom he had been acquainted for many years, had been retired on half pay as a reward for faithful and continu- ous service. Mr. Mather suggested that, as this was commonly done in Canada and Great Britain, it might be appropriate for the Fisheries Society to recommend: that some sort of custom of this kind be resorted to in this country as a reward for long and faithful service. On motion, the Society adjourned. Epwarp P. Dovte, Secretary. 14 REPORT OF RECORDING SECRET Aine GENTLEMEN : A plan was adopted at the meeting at Phila- delphia last year by which the membership, it was thought, of the American Fisheries Society could be very largely increased. The Secretary was associated with the Committee, and an attempt was to be made to get into the membership of the Society very prominent men interested in the preservation and propagation of fish and game in the United States. The «reat pressure of business, however, on the part of the Re- cording Secretary, prevented him from carrying out the object of the resolution, and the result is that, although several thousand circulars were sent out, no attempt was made to follow up the first circular, and an increase of fifteen or twenty members was all that the Society - secured during the past year. This fact, however, does not affect the belief ‘of the Secretary that the membership of the Society could be very easily in- creased to several thousand members, and made one of the most important associations of its kind in the world. Whenever a man, interested in the object of the asso- ciation is approached properly, his name can be secured, and a thorough and systematic canvass of fish and game people of the United States would certainly secure an extremely large and valuable membership. The Society then would become of great importance in recommending and determining legislation, and in furthering the investigations of fish and game. | would suggest that some Committee of the members, composed of men who have leisure and who are enthu- siastic for the protection of fish and game, be formed, and that this Committee be authorized to employ some- 15 body and cause to be made a thorough canvass of the United States, using asa basis the present members of the Fisheries Society. In this way, I believe the membership could be swelled to three or four thousand members. The membership of the Society is now about 225. Nearly all the Fish Commissioners of the United States are members, and a number of promi- nent Fish Culturists, but the membership, of course, is not what it should be. I hope that this matter will receive the careful consideration of the Society at this meeting, and that every endeavor will be made to take the necessary steps to secure a larger and more influen- tial membership. Very respectfully yours, Epwarp P, DovruE TREASURERS“ REPORT FRANK J. AMSDEN, IN ACCOUNT WITH AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. Dr. To amount received from Dr. R. OQ. Sweeny 00 23s eee $80.65 Membership dues received to June (Oth TOOK aw eae aoe 111.00 $191.65 Cr. pall Ron StAlionelyy oto ntact ee ees $16.25 FAs Ok Shem oeraya ly.1, Semele. ee 15.44 pe Pt’ xt MBA TR ae 4.00 | > aembersaip DOObes ey ype “ “ part payment on printing Mercansactions T6G4,cna.:.5:|. cere a EOL Os Washvon hands... erect bee eee 64.06 fa $191.65 Frank »J. AMSDEN, Treasurer. New York, June 12th, 1895. Approved, Henry C. Forp, FW DAvis. H. H. Lyman, Auditing Committee. THE INFLUENCE OF RAILROADS ON FISH CULTURE. READ BEFORE THE AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY, BY ERED” MATHER, COLD SPRING HARBOR, N.Y; The continual extension of railroads has been an important factor in stimulating fish culture, and has had a most important bearing on it that is worth consider- ing. When I am asked why shad are not cheaper, now that so many millions of eggs are taken from fish caught for market and are hatched and added to the natural product of the rivers, I answer, ‘railroads.” If the question refers to the price of oysters, lobsters or the fresh-water fishes of the Great Lakes, the same answer is returned. Forty years ago the Hudson River furnished all the shad for New York City and for a district included in two strips thirty miles back from each bank of the river as far north as Troy. Farmers drove in to the fishing grounds and bought shad to salt for winter use and in the height of the season they could be bought at the nets for from three to five dollars per hundred. In Albany they retailed at two for a quarter of a dollar, and some times for less. Lobsters were retailed at about five cents per pound and were seldom seen under four pounds weight, oftener six to eight pounds. Before the building of the Boston and Albany Railroad teams came through to Albany from Boston, when sleighing was good, loaded with boxes of fresh codfish, 18 haddock, pollock and kegs of opened oysters. The latter were in quart, two quart and gallon sizes. The Hudson River Railroad was not built and the only source of supply of sea-food in winter was from Boston. In summer the steamboats brought some shell oysters to Albany, but the demand was light and the ship- ments were not as prompt as now and I often heard it said that we never got good oysters in Albany! To-day they can be had in Omaha, owing to fast trains, prompt express service and the use of ice, for it must be re- membered that there were no express companies in those days, and the great New York Central Railroad did not exist as a continuous line. From Albany to Rochester there were three railways; the Albany and Schenectady, the Schenectady and Syracuse, and the Syracuse and Rochester via Auburn and Canandaigua. These roads did not sell tickets, nor check baggage, beyond their own lines, and if passengers were delayed by stops to transfer and re-check baggage, freight was sure of long delays. No wonder, then, that the inland towns of the State of New York in those days never saw an oyster in the shell, nora shad. Ice was thena luxury and we only got a few lobsters because they spoiled so quickly that it did not pay to risk large shipments. Under these circumstances it is plain that shad, lobsters and sea fish did not get far beyond Albany and Troy, the head of navigation on the Hudson. In boyhood days, forty-five to fifty years ago, I did not see either hard or soft crabs in Albany, but my father was part owner in and agent for the Eckford line of barges engaged in freichting between Albany and New Y ork, before canal boats were towed down the river, and my main desire for a trip to the great city was to buy boiled hard crabs along the dock for a cent a piece and go down the pier and eat them, regardless of smeared face and fingers. Now soft crabs are com- aS) mon in Chicago; packed in sea weed and kept cool they are whirled through in good shape. In the early days of which I have spoken and up to twenty years ago no shad came to New York from Florida, nor even from North Carolina, where some of the finest come from to-day, and the citizens of the great metropolis waited for the first shad to be taken in New York Bay. This was an event in the year that was heralded far and wide and hotels bid high for the first fish, as much as twenty-five dollars, having frequently been paid for the honor of serving the first shad of the season by the Astor House and other hotels. Now that Florida begins to send shad in mid- winter, the strife for the first ‘‘ North River” shad is ended. Having glanced at the different conditions of rail- roading some decades ago and noted the effect upon the Goin markets of inland towns, let us see how the changed conditions affect fish culture, which only began operations on a large scale well within twenty years. The pioneers in fish culture fondly expected to make fish cheaper for the masses. We expected to multiply certain species to such an extent that the market prices would be perceptibly lowered, and it is on record that the shad fishermen of Holyoke and South Hadley Falls, Mass., rebelled at the first efforts at shad hatching there by the late Seth Green because he said that he could “make shad cheap.” He meant that they would be made plenty, and merely used the wrong word to the fishermen. We have increased the yield of shad in the Hudson, the Delaware and in other rivers farther south, but this increase of supply has been met by an increased demand that has kept prices up to, and even beyond, the old standards, and the extension of railways and the improved express facilities have made increased demands upon the shad fisheries that has kept, and will keep, the prices up, 20 and perhaps increase them notwithstanding the in- creased production. In this paper I have chosen to take the shad as an illustration of the effect that the +ratlroads@iawe had on fish culture in America, but the same line of argument is applicable to the white fish of the Great Lakes, which now reaches a hundred tables where it only fed one a quarter of a century ago. The oyster is more subject to an increased consumption by the ex- tension of railroads than either the shad or the white fish, for it not only has a longer “‘season” but is not as perishable as the fish, and by the use of ice is now found on the “half shell” in most small towns, while in tins, both raw and cooked, it 1s a visitor to many mining | camps. But to return to the shad. The increase of popula- tion, and of fishermen with improved appliances along the Hudson River, would have exhausted the supply of shad without the help of railroads twenty years ago but for the aid of the fish culturist. The annual catch had been falling off for some years before the work of shad hatching was begun and continued to fall off for several years vafter, for the first work was done ona small scale. We know this in a general way by reports of the fishermen, for there had been no attempt to gather the fishing statistics until 1880; but both fisher- men and marketmen from Troy to New York City, agreed that the supply had gradually fallen off, until many fishermen declared that it did not pay to wet their nets. The work of shad hatching on the Hudson River was begun in a small way by the State Fish Commis- sioner in 1868, near Coeymans. The next year work was not begun until the first day of June (second report, page 4), about a month late, and continued until July 13th. The report says: “Only 15,000,000 of shad were hatched in place of 21 300,000,000 as could doubtless have been done, had proper legislation been had!’ "In 1870, there were 2,604,000 shad fry planted (see report for that year, page 4). This, judging by the plants afterward made, was an average year, and it is possible that there was a typo- graphical error in the figures for 1869. But, whatever may have been the number planted each year since the good work began it is certain that each young shad artificially feted would never have seen daylight but for the aid of the fish culturist, for the eggs obtained were from fish caught for market and would have been wasted entirely, as they were too ripe to be eaten as ‘roe,’ for when within a week of maturity the ovarian sac is almost purple with the distended veins and not at all tempting as food, besides being very tender to handle, for the eggs are ready to drop apart. This extra supply of young shad, preserved from danger during the egg and embryo stage and let loose at the time when ready to take food, supplements and reinforces the natural hatch in the river, which has gradually grown less each year, because of the increase of fishermen with improved appliances of capture to supply the increased demand occasioned by the exten- sion of railroads. Looked at in this light it will be seen that the natural hatch in the river must decrease in proportion to the number of fish caught, and only artificial propa- gation has kept the shad fisheries of the Northern States up to their former standard, and now that the southern rivers are beginning to feel the drain, they will soon have to look to shad culture to keep up their stock, or see it dwindle into next to nothing as the shad eacchshastaone in the’ Connecticut River. This river furnishes a case in point. Its shad fisheries, once so famous, have fallen off until they are hardly sufficient 22 for home consumption since hatching was discontinued at South Hadley Falls. In 1880 the catch of shad in the Connecticut was 268,608, or about equal to 1,074,432 pounds, with a value of $53,721. In 1889 the catch of the whole State of Connecticut, including the Housatonic, Connecticut and Thames Rivers was less than one-third of the catch of 1880, the official figures for the three rivers being 48,963 shad, weighing 195,852 pounds, and worth $16,580. These figures for two different years would mean little did we not know that the falling off had been gradual, and that the catch has fluctuated with a down- ward tendency for the past six seasons. The shad in the Hudson have been enabled to stand the drain caused by an increased local population and the shipments by rail by two factors: artificial fish culture and the newly worked southern rivers. I say ‘‘newly worked” because it is only a few years since the northern markets have taken great quantities of shad from the south. Ten years ago New York City was forced to look beyond the Carolinas for early shad, and Florida began to get her fish to the great market even as early as January; and how long these rivers will stand the increased fishing without crying for aid from the fish culturists remains to be seen. At present the hatching of shad is mainly done on the Hudson, the Delaware, Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac. Some work has been done on Virginia rivers and in North Carolina, but the work ‘of the UsS: F."@, mear Hawae de Grace, where the Susquehanna loses itself in Chesa- peake Bay, has been one of the most important stations. Last year the State of New York received over seven millions of shad fry from that place for planting in the Hudson, in addition to what hatching was done on that river. According to the census of 1880 the catch of shad in the Hudson was 683,400 fish, which at an average of four pounds each would be 2,733,600 Ibs., valued at $136,680, at wholesale. While I have not the figures at hand for any of the succeeding years I am informed by the fishermen that the river has more than held its own in the past fifteen years. From the above statements it seems plain that while the fish culturist has been striving to increase the food supply, and possibly cheapen it, he has merely been successful in keeping the supply up to the in- creased demand, and the railroads have prevented any decrease in prices by taking all surplus above the local demand far inland, and thereby bringing to people distant fron the fisheries delicious and wholesome food which has been produced by the fish culturist. Last year Mr. Charles Hallock read a very interest- ing paper before this society, entitled ‘When shad were a penny a piece,” in which he stated that ‘‘ Con- necticut shad in barrels were first advertised in Boston in 1736. though they were current in river towns for at least three years previous at one penny a piece, By 1773 prices had advanced to two or three pence.” This was caused by lack of transportation to inland towns, and no matter how many shad we may produce, those prices will not be heard again, nor will the markets be glutted to the extent of lowering present prices, unless for an occasional day or two when the catch has been much larger than usual. The extension of railroads will always drain the fisheries, which are limited in production, especially in the fresh waters. . The shad only feed in fresh water during their first year of life and afterward get their growth at sea, but the pasturage for young shad, to borrow a word from the herdsman, is limited by the amount of food such as cyclops, copepoda, daphnia, 24 etc., which are in turn limited by other causes. There- fore there is a natural limit to the capacity of every stream to produce fish, but that limit in our shad rivers and in our lakes has not even been approached by our labors in fish culture. DISCUSSION, ON THESPA PER 0m MR. MATHER. Dr. Bean: “I only want to call your attention to another epoch in the history of the introduction of the shad into rivers in which they were not native, in connection with the State of California. In 1872, Seth Green, I believe, carried the first young shad to California. In 1876 the first so called large ship- ment, consisting of 130,000 fry, was deposited by Mr. Frank’ Clark and myself in-the Sacramento. After that time a few additional plants were made ; the U. S. Commission carrying at most about two millions of eggs, which were hatched on the way, bringing the total of plants of shad in California to not more than five millions of fry. ‘Speaking of the time when shad were a penny apiece, which I suppose was the English penny, equal to two cents in our money, that day was a parallel of the present time in California, for shad are now selling at wholesale at from one cent to two cents per pound in San Francisco. It struck me as a very in- teresting coincidence, and it is an illustration of what can be done by planting. The introduction of the shad on the Pacific coast stands out to-day as per- haps one of the most forcible illustrations of what artificial methods can do in our waters. ‘The striped bass in California are now as _ plenti- ful as the shad, as a result of carrying them from © Or New York waters, and other eastern localities, ten or twelve years ago.” Mr. Goraud: ‘Is there not a proposition to exclude California shad from the New York market?” Dr. Bean: ‘‘I don’t know whether the California shad could be sold in the New York market, when they have been selling in the Chesapeake basin as low as six dollars per hundred, six cents apiece for large shad. Surely California could not compete, because the transportation would cost double as much as the shad.” Mr. Mather: ‘I have heard from several corre- spondents that shad weighing fourteen to sixteen pounds are common in the markets.” Dr. Bean: ‘“ There is a reason for the shad being cheap on the Pacific coast. The shad in California do not go to sea. They remain the year round in the bays or in brackish water near the river mouths. They are kept from going to sea by a wall of cold water and as a consequence they can be got in every month of the year. They have gradually spread into the estuaries along the coast until they are now known in southern Alaska.” Mr. Goraud: ‘‘Isn’t the so called limit of size of the shad in eastern waters due to their excessive capture, which operates to prevent the growth of the fish? It has been said that in our forefather’s time, when shad were a penny a piece they grew to large SIZe. Dr. Bean: ‘‘ Within the last five years two shad weighing about thirteen pounds have been recorded. It is very difficult to say how increased fishing acts to diminish the size of the fish, because they are never caught until they come back into our fresh waters to 26 spawn; they remain at sea and get their growth pieres Mr. Goraud: “If each year a certain percentage of fish is caught of course that operates to the disad- vantage of the larger fish ?” Dr. Bean: ‘I presume it doés, but they caanet be caught at any time except in the spawning season. There is no fishery for them at sea, and the catch is limited to the time when they return to the rivers to spawn.” Mr. Huntington: ‘I want to refer to a stream near Smithtown, L. I. There is a stream there per- haps three miles long that comes down to the waters of the Sound. Years ago there was taken there only an occasional stray shad. About ten years ago, I do not remember the exact date of the planting, there was a plant made by the State of N. Y. in that river, and for the last two or three years there has been quite good fishing. I was over there and spent a week in the shad time about three weeks ago, and at the house where I stopped I saw them have one morn- ing three or four shad that weighed over ten pounds apiece. I cite this to show fishermen that shad _ will thrive in waters that are suitable for their introduction.” Mr. Whitaker: ‘‘I think perhaps the same factors will not operate in regard to the shad and other salt water fish as would in regard to the fresh water fish of the lakes. The fish are growing smaller and there is a cause for it. As the fish Qi&crease in size the meshes of the nets have been contracted, the fish pursued at every season of the year, and the size of the captured fish annually diminishes, whereas, as Dr. Bean has said, the migratory character of the shad protects them for perhaps nine or ten months of the year. They seek the deep water regions and do not or Ri return until they mature. They remain in the rivers only three months, and thus nature intervenes to pro- tect them. It is gratifying to know that fish culture in the rivers has annually renewed the shad. The great obstacle to-day that is met with in almost every direction is the hand of man. There cannot be a better exemplification of the value of fish culture than the results with such fish as the shad and salmon. [| think Mr. Mather’s plan is an excellent one and his reference to the fact of the increase and poor maintenance of the stock in our waters, by reason of the distribution is right. In our great lake system, we have another thing to contend with, which is that a man has a right to fish throughout the year whenever he can, and this is a great obstacle to the propagation of the fish.” ~ (o's) DECADENCE OF OUR TROUT STREAMS. READ BEFORE THE AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY BY je.) WAN (GEE. Some three or four years ago an article was con- tributed by me to Forest and Stream in which the above subject was discussed, and while this is not a reproduction of that article, it must necessarily contain many of the facts and conclusions which were con- tained in it and which further investigation satisfies me are correct. Every angler who has waded and fished our trout streams during the past thirty or forty years has observed the general decrease in the waterflow, especially during seasons of drought, and the decrease does not seem to be local but universal. The Legislature of this State has endeavored to arrest this decrease, especially in the North Woods, but in spite of legislative action it still goes on steadily and uniformly, both in the ‘forest primeval” and out of it. This legislative action has been based upon the theory that the causes of the gradual diminution in the waterflow are and have been wholly or very largely local, and it seems to have been assumed that if the destruction of the trees at or near the sources of our streams can be prevented this decrease will be practi- cally arrested. 29 Do the results thus far obtained justify this con- clusion, or in other words, are these causes local, and can the preservation of the trees at the sources of our streams do more than retard a result which is inevitable from other and more far-reaching causes ? It has not been my fortune to visit the North Woods or Adirondack region, as my fishing trips have been confined to the Catskill region and Canada. For over thirty-five years, however, I have constantly visited the Catskills, and during all that time have been thoroughly familiar with the streams of that region; and while my personal knowledge of these streams does not extend much beyond thirty-five years, yet I feel assured that the statement of facts given below will be corroborated by many persons who could be named, and who have been familiar with these streams for over fifty years. It will be conceded that, all other things being equal, like causes will produce like results, and if the North Woods and the Catskills are alike in their characteristics, then the causes which have produced and are producing a decrease in the waterflow of one of these regions will produce a like result in the other. Whe eastern part of the State of New York is divided into two immense watersheds, the northern with its streams emptying into Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence, Lake Champlain and the Mohawk River, and the southern with its streams emptying into the Mohawk, Hudson and Delaware Rivers. Both of these regions are mountainous, and the altitude of these mountains and the intervening valleys above tide water are substantially the same. The highest mountain in the northern watershed is Mt. Marcy, which is 5,468 feet high, and one of the highest in the State of New York is Slide Mountain, 30 in the southern watershed, which is 4,205 feet high. The lower watershed, which extends through Schoharie, Greene, Ulster, Sullivan and Delaware counties, contains fifty-nine mountains which are over 3,000 feet high. Of thesé, thirty-seven are cig height of 3,500 feet and upward, and of an average height ot 3,723 feet. Including this immense tract is what is generally known as the Southern Catskill range, contained wie an area of perhaps thirty miles in Jength and twenty miles in breadth. Fourteen mountains in this range are from 3,571 feet to 4,205 feet in height, the average height being 3,747 tect. These mountains are covered with nothing but hard wood—beech, birch, maple and balsam. The axe has never touched these trees except to provide an occasional camp for some benighted bear hunter or lost angler, and examination shows that these trees are of immense age. The hemlock which formerly abounded in this region and has been used so largely for tanning pur- poses has, with but few exceptions, been cut entirely, or almost entirely, from the valleys which are from 2,000 feet to 2,500 feet below these mountain peaks. It has not abounded nor has it been cut anywhere within many miles of the sources of the largest of the streams which rise in this mountain range. In this range the following noted trout streams have their source, the largest ones, though running in opposite directions, having their sources very close to each other, viz.: the Beaverkill, Neversink, Rondout, Willewemoc, Esopus, Dry Brook and Millbrook. For the purpose of calling attention to certain facts in regard to these streams I will first select the o1 most noted of all of them, the Beaverkill, which has its source in the very heart of the Southern Catskill range, and runs for many miles before it reaches even the smallest clearing. There are but few of the veteran anglers in this State who did not visit the delightful fishing retreat of James Murdock, which is situated on this stream, some twenty-five or thirty miles below its source, in the fifties; and all will bear testimony not only to the abundance of the trout but also to the abundance of the waterflow. At that time this region was always visited during the latter part of May and the fore partior June with one or more severe northeast storms, which were largely or wholly local, and so Sale did these storms occur that the lumbermen could always rely upon what was generally termed by them the “June fresh” for the purpose of rafting their lumber from a point some twelve miles below Murdock’s, at the junction of the Beaverkill and Willewemoc streams, down to the Delaware River, and thence to Trenton or Philadelphia, and they could also always rely upon the high water produced by these storms for the three or four days required for that purpose. In 1859 I encountered one of these storms just after reaching Mr. Murdock’s house. He immediately started off his rafts, and my brother anglers and I waited for some five days before the waters receded to such an extent that we could wade the stream. The next day another storm of like severity occurred, and after waiting for some five or six days and finding the stream still unfit to wade I returned home, having had but one day’s sport in a trip of two weeks. oz About the year 1863 I had a similar experience on the Rondout stream. A severe and sudden storm had raised the stream, and it was four or five days before the stream was fit to wade. These are isolated cases, but they are in line with my constant experience between thirty and forty years ago. It was not low water then, but high water which was most feared by anglers. On returning home from these trips, when we had been visited by these severe storms, it was found that they had not extended to any great extent either to the east or west of this mountain region, but seemed to be almost entirely local. These storms were almost invariably followed by strong westerly winds which usually continued for two or three days. All this is entirely changed. The storms which prevailed so frequently thirty or forty years ago seldom occur any more, and when they do the streams run down almost as rapidly as they rise. In 1891 I was on the Rondout Stream when I found that it was nearly bank full in the morning from the effects of a storm which had prevailed during the previous night and which was followed in the morning by the usual wester- ly wind. The stream ran down so rapidly that in the afternoon I found it possible to wade it, and in the afternoon of the next day it was too low for good fishing. I have had the same experience in the Beaverkill, and have found within the last few years that not later than the second day after a storm it was in good con- dition for fishing, and on the third day too low for any satisfactory sport. For the purpose of ascertaining whether the rapid depletion of the water in these streams commenced at 33 their sources, or at the point where the land on the banks had been cleared, | made a personal examination of the Beaverkill some four or five years ago, within a day or two after a heavy storm, following the stream for several miles above the point where a tree had never been cut, and found that the water had run down almost to the drought level. I have also found, by actual comparison, that these mountain streams have of late years run down quite as rapidly as the streams which in other places run through lands which have been cleared and drained from source to mouth, and I firmly believe that the ex- perience of others will thoroughly coincide with my own in this respect, and if I am correct in my state- ment of the above facts, then I am forced to the con- clusion that the cutting or destruction of the trees at the head waters of our streams is but one, and a very limited one, of the causes of their gradual drying up. I suggest the following theory as accounting in part at least for the conditions above referred to. Years ago the lands lying west of this mountain range were very largely unbroken, the prairies were covered to a greater or less extent with natural grass, and the swamps in the low lands were undrained. Under these conditions the winds, which during that time largely prevailed from the West, were surcharged with moisture by reason of the eradual evaporation from the soil, the low lands and the swamps, and when these winds were forced up to a height of from 3,000 feet to 4,000 feet, the moisture was condensed into rain, and the mountain tops were saturated with moisture, which slowly and steadily through springs and rivulets kept up the water supply of the streams. During the last thirty years the prairies have been almost entirely reclaimed from their natural state, the low lands and swamps which furnished a large amount Bes of moisture to the atmosphere have been drained, the rain as it falls sinks rapidly into the cleared lands, is carried off immediately by surface drainage, and as a result the atmosphere as it blows over these lands is no longer kept in its normal condition, or supplied with moisture from the soil through gradual and natural evaporation, but rather yields moisture to the soil to produce an equilbrium, and when this atmosphere reaches the mountains of this State and is forced up to the altitude of from 3,000 feet to 4,000 feet, the moisture which it contains is not suff- cient to be condensed into rain, but like a dry sponge it withdraws or soaks up moisture from the soil in order that it may be restored to its normal condition. The same is equally true as to the forests which thirty or forty years ago abounded in the States ly- ing west of us, and which to a greater or less extent have yielded to the lumberman’s axe, or have been destroyed that the land might be opened to cultiva- tion. The amount of moisture which scientists tell us is evaporated annually from every tree is almost be- yond comprehension, and in addition the destruction of every tree submits the soil, which had been pro- tected by its shade and had yielded moisture by gradual evaporation, to the direct rays of the sun. Does not the clearing of every acre of the original prairie, the draining of every swamp, and the cutting of every tree in the vast region of this country lying west of the water sheds of the State of New York, through which the earth is exposed to the direct rays of the sun, constitute an unit in the process of the destruction of the water supply of our streams, and if so, would not the planting of every tree constitute an unit of force in the opposite direction ? If there is any force in the above theory, and if it is sustained by the facts, then it must necessarily 35 follow that our mountain streams are largely doomed, and that the preservation of the trees at or near their sources will but partially save them. If this be true, it is to be hoped that the Board of Fisheries, Game and Forests in this State will check, so far as may lie in its power, the further cutting or destruction of the trees in the cleared lands and woods throughout the entire State, and use every effort in its power to foster a general spirit in favor’ of planting and preserving trees everywhere through- sout the State. 36 IMPOVERISHMENT OF THE FOOD-=-FISH INDUSTRIES. BY DR. BUSHROD W. JAMES, PHILADELPHIA, PA., MEMBER AND VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE PENNSLYVANIA FISH PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION. The time has come when the inhabitants of the United States must cease to look upon the lavishly generous gifts bestowed upon them by nature as limit- less, and therefore needless of special care or protec- tion. |Wastefulness has been overlooked without tear of inevitable retribution, until the punishment 1s al- ready upon us in more than one perceptible quarter. To that which relates to the impoverishment of the fish-food supply, I will devote the subject of this paper. If we take the literal meaning of ‘ food-fish” we must include every known animal product of ocean. river, or streamlet ; for if possible, some species, which to our refined taste, are actually loathsome, are more important in their multi-usefulness than are many of those which we favor particularly with above mention- ed name, and which our Fish Commissions are en- deavoring to protect. A universal impoverishment in the fisheries is making itself felt from Point Barrow all the way down the Pacific coast so that business itself in shipping is 37 beginning to suffer. This was once very important in whalebone, whale oil, seal skins and walrus ivory, but it has so far deteriorated as to almost ruin the coast trades in this line, while more sadly still, the natives of the northern coasts and islands have been reduced to actual want through the wholesale destruction of the once plentiful supply of animal life so peculiarly fitted to meet their various needs. Without a natural supply of wool or cotton, those which they possess being ob- tained by trading, the fur seal furnished to them their most comfortable garments and, next to the pelt of the sea otter, their most va aluaole trading staple. The seal also bestowed upon them the oil which actually was the only substitute for the milk, coffee, tea or chocolate, without which we feel it would be impossible to enjoy our meals. The flesh rated second only to fresh fish, and so precious was it that not a particle was wasted. Now with those vast herds very nearly de- pleted or frightened from their breeding grounds , what must become of those people who depended upon them for the necessities of existence ? So with the whale and the walrus—greed of gain has so over-grasped until hundreds of the nation’s wards must go hungry, houseless and scantily clothed, simply because individuals or corporations have en- deavored to sweep into their hands the whole supply in a short time while prices were good. Now whal- ing vessels go and return unsuccessful, seals are al- ready alarmingly scarce and walruses are rarely seen at all; partly because they are extremely cautious and shy, but in greater part because their tusks excited the cupidity of traders to the procuring of all animals, whether mature and perfect in ivory or not. We are rather too far away to hear the cry of distress among the inhabitants of the northwestern islands, but com- merce now discovers the grand mistake, perhaps too 38 late. A slight expression of anxiety in San Francisco gives rise to a demand fora greater protection of the finer salmon fisheries, which but a few years ago ap- peared to be inexhaustible. This fish being delicate and a very desirable table food, doubtless the laws will be more effectually and carefully enforced. But the fishes, or other animal life or plants on which the salmon feed, must also be guarded from destructive depredation. Leaving the western shore of the continent, still another note of dismay is sounding from Maineto Florida! Salmon is rare in all our rivers; the great fishing banks of Maine and Massa- chusetts are failing; the lobsters are growing scarce and small; mackerel is almost gone from some quarters in which the ‘‘ Look-out” has heretofore watched the coming schools and sent the joyous tidings to many an eagerly waiting fisherman. Herring catches in some localities are growing less and less; in some places the fishing smacks are laid high and dry because there is no longer special use for them. Some fishermen say that shad is getting scarce in some of our rivers; others assert that they, once so rarely flavored, are now at times tainted with coal oil and sewage or foul mud, and are consequently almost unsalable. And so the cry continues from shore to shore, while one of the most im- portant industries of the country lies in jeopardy. Both the United States Fish Commission and the commis- ions of the several individual States have done nobly, so far as they have had prerogative, but there is still a vast amount of improvement to. be made in fish protec- tive legislation before we can feel assuied of preven- tive measures concerning fishing in the public water- ways all over the land. A very apparent defect is in- stituted by conflicting laws made for the control of streams which run through two or more States, whereas, if each State would consult with its neighboring ones before maturing its laws regarding rivers and streams, and fishing therein, conjoint measures might be taken which would i improve the local fisheries without injury to any one locality. In my opinion, alert watchfulness is requisite, not not only during certain seasons, but at all times, if the product is ever to be elevated to its pristine quality and abundance. Common sense teaches that fish, as well as other animals, require a certain length of time to mature and become perfect for the food of man. It affirms also that when consumers discover that they are obtaining an inferior article, particularly if at a high price, they will soon cease to purchase the com- modity, giving its place to something else, thereby crea- ting a market which by-and-by may repudiate fish as a fashionable staple for food. One of the first and most important safeguards to the fisheries is the cleanliness of the rivers in which they are found. Chemical impurities, as well as sew age, should be kept out of fishing streams entirely, or at least as far as can be made practicable, and facilities would soon appear if so required by legislation. Some chemicals may not be poisonous, others are, and they are therefore unfit to be eaten or drunk by fishes intend- ed for food, either for man or for other fishes. I think there might be a feasible arrangement made by which the water from dyeing establishments, mills, factories, etc., could be spread over an extent of ground through which it could percolate before reaching the stream, thus depositing the maximum of poisonous matter in the earth. Possibly the food worms of the fishes might be destroyed, but the localities devoted to these indus- tries are sufficiently limited to allow a much greater extent of land uninjured. The dangers of eating fishes who feed in streams polluted by sewage have not as yet been considered fully, but it is ably demonstra- 40 ted that they are subject to very numerous parasites, some of which are not evil to mankind, while others are poisonous. More extensive and universal biological research, carried on upon strictly scientific principles, willsoon make known the number and kind of dangerous parasites, and the waters which they infest, when the fish afflicted by them should be pronounced unsalable, and if no other plan can succed in preventing their dis- tribution, fishing in streams in which they are found should be prohibited entirely. That parasite growth is possible in fish, suggests the question whether they may not be attacked by the bacteria of diphtheria, the microbes of typhoid or malarial diseases, and even the bacilli of Asiatic cholera from drinking the river water near large cities which deposit all or a greater part of the sewage therein; if that be the case, may they not impart such diseases to unsuspecting mankind using them for food? Many people, especially the poor, eat fish and eels that are caught in lower streams whose waters are so far influenced by tides that they back up a considerable distance, yet the ebb is not strong enough to carry away the debris which they take up and deposit along the shores. This rubbish holds pools of water in check until they become stagnant, and sometimes dead fish are found imprisoned among branches, weeds, old barrels, baskets, etc. It stands to reason that any fish drinking the water or feeding in such places must become more or less subject to poison- ous parasites, and thus become unwholesome for food ; and if the flavor of coal oil, gas, tar and other impurities make themselves disagreeably apparent in their flesh, which is a well known fact, the probability of far more dangerous matter seems to become an incontrovertible certainty. By partaking of this infected fish, cholera and other epidemic diseases may be started in the sys- tems of afew persons, and the contamination would 41 spread in every direction, afflicting even people who never touch food fishes. I think, under these con- ditions, each State should have laws compelling the clearing and lowering of the mouths of all rivers or creeks in which the waters lie stagnant and restricted by rubbish; that each State Commission should have a biologist, who could make known the presence of dan- gerous parasites, and all who are interested in fish cul- ture and protection should join in trying to discover whether there could not be some plan adopted to de- stroy them without endangering the life of the fish ; that the food animalcule should be as carefully protected as the fish themselves, and that all deleterious matter should be kept from them as faras possible. I believe all States, and especially those that have coast lines and bays, Should so regulate the fishing seasons that the = strong, mature and fertile fish may ie allowed to reach g, the spawning places unmolested, or else that certain streams in every State shall be closed against fisher- men every second year, thus giving them a whole sea- son in which to spawn and multiply. While some are closed, others can be opened and so alternated that there will be no danger of exterminating the fine food supply. The reward in full- grown fishes of good qual- ity would soon compensate for the sacrifice. If these plans are not practicable then others must be adopted. Perhaps good results would follow if fish culture were made so universal that at the time of the running of the schools to the spawning grounds men were stationed at the mouth of or along every impor- tant river to catch the fish, obtain the eggs, and hatch them artificially ; then they could be deposited i in fitting places, after the season was over, and thus the danger of extinction would be over. The present style of ocean pound-nets could be im- proved by making the meshes large enough to allow of 42 many more fishes than can possibly get away now. Of course, the larger the fish the less danger there is of its being pounded to death by the others ; therefore the mesh of the leader and pound-net should be so increas- ed as to permit those of unmerchantable size to get free without injury to fins or scales. Fish weirs, or so-called eel weirs, largely used in inland streams, es- | pecially the smaller ones, should be entirely abolished by law in every State, as they are now in Pennslyvania; but if any State is unwilling or unable to procure such legislation, then all such arrangements should be legally constructed of such pliable material as to insure that the fish will not be so injured or bruised as by the pre- sent slat system. Would it not be practicable in such instances to produce screen of other material than wood, such as woven grass, canvas, or something which would not bruise the fish nor break the scales from them as they go through? If so, thousands of them would be saved from damage, which often results in deformity or deterioration, if not in death. I am possessed of a keen interest in food fish culture and protection. First —Because of their vast importance as the chief support of many thousands of inhabitants of this and other countries. Second—That because through them may be pro- mulgated disease, and the public health be jeopardized, because of the waters in which they abide becoming liable to contamination. Third—Because of their great value as a staple commercial production of the country. For these reasons I would earnestly urge fishermen and all those engaged in the trade to join with our American Fisheries Society in the endeavor to per- petuate the growth and quality of food fishes; and to 43 this end a little self-denial will be found very advanta- geous not only to their personal business but toward the ultimate protection and continuance of our great in- terests at stake in fish as a commercial element. Therefore, let the mackerel banks alone for a year or two, and perhaps they will again be abundantly populated. Do not try to take all the best fish from the sea and streams at one time because prices are temptingly high. Let the lobsters have a few years in which to attain their normal growth and quality. Do not so far overstock the market with herring and other food fish that they will become a drug to the trade. And let us hope that there may be some way by which we may obtain the right to protect the young herring which are now caught in the waters on our northeastern boundary, and canned under the name of ‘Scardines. If it is possible to regulate the salable size of each variety of fish so that those below that size will not be caught, let each one conscientiously regard the law. Undersized or imperfect commodities always tend to disqualify even the better grades of the same; there- fore, from a selfish point of view alone, every interested party should give earnest endeavor to favor any plan which points to improvement. Impoverishment has been the finale of nearly every production, and now the necessity calls upon the people and the entire govern- ment to provide ample legislation for the protection of all kinds of water animals, from the great walrus, whale, sea lion and seal of the Arctic and Pacific to the delicate 44 brook and mountain fishes, all of which are valuable food for either human beings, other fish, water birds or lower animals. Perhaps it is too much to expect the States which have not been subjected to a threatened insufficiency to join with us in our protective work at present. But this State and others which have taken up the important matter, must make the propriety of their measures so prominent, and the attention to every detail in legisla- tion so consistent, that the result will redound to their credit and provoke a spirit of emulation in those who to-day are inclined to disparage the great commercial and financial importance which, we are convinced, is attached to the numerous fishing interests of the United States, The objects and successes of the several com- missions should be understood by the general public as well as by those closely connected with the fishing business, and with their knowledge will probably be very valuable aids to the commission, aroused in dis- tricts through which excellent streams pass. When they are convinced that unclean and unhealthy matter thrown into waters will probably produce disease- breeding fish, they will not place it there, and every individual effort will have a good influence upon others. My firm conviction is that even among the most care- less people, ignorance is far more to blame than inten- tional destructiveness. Let the consumer, and the man who obtains and supplies, come together harmoniously on the common ground of mutual advantage to remedy the wasteful impoverishments to which I have referred, as well as all others. DISCUSSION -ON. THE t 93 Dr. Bean: I must apologize for the length of this paper, but where it is possible I will omit such portions as may be practicable. It has been partly dictated to a stenographer and partly written in longhand, and I have had no time to revise it. I think you will over- look the length of the paper, and allow me to do the best I can to give you the essential points without taking up too much time. It is an interesting paper, and especially so to us, because it refers incidentally to the pond method of rearing trout by means of natu- ral food, that is, food which is supplied in the pond itself; and it is 1mteresting for another reason, which is, that a Frenchman of high repute, a man in the first rank of fish culture in Paris, has succeeded in raising profitably as a commercial venture the California Sal- mon in ponds in France; secondly, he has secured the reproduction of that species without its ever having gone to salt water, and he says that after five genera- tions in fresh water, the spawning is as ample as it was at the beginning. He says, furthermore, that the mortality among the females after spawning is much less than we know it to be in the natural condition of affairs in the Western rivers. It seems to me these things are matters of much importance to us, and on that account I hope you will bear with me if I do speak at some length. Dr. Jousset de Bellesme is a man of the highest rank as a fish culturist, the director of the Aquarium of the Trocadéro in Paris, where, in a small space, a good many problenis in the rearing of the sa/monzda, especially introduced sa/monzd@, have been success- fully carried out. I want to say further that my impressions of the results obtained by Dr. Jousset de Bellesme are drawn from personal observation, for I had the pleasure of seeing what he accomplished in the Trocadéro Aquarium, and I am sure that nowhere else in the world is the California Salmon reared as suc- 24 cessfully, grown as quickly, and in a general way brought into such condition as in that Aquarium. Dr. Bean then reads paper. Mr. Cheney then read a paper on “The Work of the Fisheries, Game, and Forest Commission of the State of New York.” The President: Gentlemen, if there is no discus- sion desired upon the paper, no remarks to be offered, we will proceed to the next paper, which is by Dr. B. W. James on ‘The Interstate Protection of Food Fish.” Dr. James: I think a very important point is the protection of the fish from an interstate point of view. We had some discussion on the subject some years ago, and I brought up the point that there had been cases where the Government has decided that it is un- constitutional to pass any United States law; and yet it seems that there ought to be some measure by which all the states could be reached. ‘The practice of hav- ing the states make separate laws does not seem to work very well. I simply want to throw out some ideas to keep the matter up in the minds of the people interested ; not that I want to give any information to those working in the direction of propagating fish, my idea being in the way of protecting the food fishes of the states and country at large. If my views do not coincide with those held by you, you are at liberty to discuss them as freely as you wish. Dr. James then read his paper. Dr. James: In the Delaware River some years ago the promiscuous fishing reduced the amount of shad, as I believe has been stated on this floor by Mr. Ford, to a valuation of about seventy-five thousand dollars. During the year before last I think it had reached a valuation of some four hundred thousand dollars, and last year, I have it from Mr. Ford, who is our commis- sioner, 1t amounted to over five hundred and twenty-five 25 thousand dollars, and this year the supply of shad on the Delaware has been unprecedented. We have had a larger number of fish running in the Delaware, and of course the fisheries have represented a larger income than last year. We have been propagating these fishes in the hatcheries. There has been one recently established at Bristol, on the Delaware, and the com- missioners are busy at Gloucester collecting the eggs in all the large fisheries. They propagate these, and they are put in the upper streams, so that in that way we are aiming to increase the amount of fish in our larger streams and getting a larger return for our state. What Pennsylvania reaps in that way, of course New Jersey and New York is likely to get some of the benefit of. The Secretary: Mr. Huntington has a paper, somewhat in line with the paper just read. The President: I have a paper here on “Waste of Food Fish.” While we have heard the grievances of the lake region, etc., I wish to state the grievances of we sea-board people. Mr. Dickerson: I would offer this resolution: Resolved, That a committee consisting of the Pres- ident-elect and the Secretary be appointed a committee to prepare a uniform bill for the protection of fish in all the states bordering on the Great Lakes; that the bill be submitted to the various commissions for approval, and that the bill be submitted to the next Legislature in each state. Mr. Amsden: I think we ought also to include the rivers that cover the shad fishing, and also this matter of menhaden. It is time that this Society showed it- self to be something and acted on something, and I think we have a President who can take hold, with the assistance of such a committee as he may appoint at 26 his leisure, and accomplish something. The proposed bill should go on record, and with the communications presented will be argument enough, and ought to be presented in proper form as coming from the American Fisheries Society, so that after a while it will become known as an aggressive body. Mr. Whitaker: I want to make a suggestion as to the resolution. I would ask Mr. Dickerson to re-form it. ‘The bill should be drafted after conversation with these men representing the different states and an agreement from them. I suggest that Mr. Dickerson put his resolution in this form: “That it is the sense of this American Fisheries Society that some such action should be taken,’ and leave the matter of the drafting of a uniform bill to a subsequent meeting, that shall represent the interests of the different states. Mr. Amsden: Will you have it, Mr. Whitaker, that it comes from this Society, so that the Society gets the credit of it? Mr. Whitaker: The Society gets ‘the credit for it, in adopting it as its sense. The President: Do you accept the suggestion Mr. Dickerson ? Mr. Dickerson: Yes, sir. Dr. James: With regard to this matter, it seems to me that it is time for action. All the debate on this subject here recently shows that there is a very great need for action upon this subject by the states, and if we leave it to the states indefinitely, the Government of the United States will take no action, and, of course, in that event we will not accomplish anything, and the sooner we get at the matter the better. The resolu- tion as originally offered was most correctly framed, because the President and Secretary certainly have all these different laws at their command and know just what is needed, and if some sort of a draft is made and brought up at our next meeting and discussed, we will 27 have something to act upon. If it is left indefinitely in this way, simply recommendatory, it may fall as other things have fallen. I am in favor of prompt action; and not only that, I would like to see the same action taken in the direction of looking forward to the international supervision in the same way of the coast interests and our entrance to the rivers, if it is pos- sible. If it cannot be done under the Constitution of the United States, then Canada and Mexico and the United States ought by some method to appoint a joint commission or joint committee, which could devise some way by which their interests can all be brought together, and they can recommend in some form a sort of international agreement for the protection of the waters in the neighborhood of their individual coun- tries. It must come to that sooner or later; otherwise the ocean will be depopulated of many of its food fish and of the larger fish. We do know that up in the Northwestern country, where other countries come in, bordering on the waters of the Behring Sea, 1n years to come you will find that great international questions will arise out of this late decision as to the method which has been adopted 1 in two countries, bringing together their countries and deciding by this method which has been adopted in settling that question. It is not settled, as other nations must come in. ‘There must be an inter- national law other than this three-mile method. ‘There must be some law by which the fish coming from one country to another, or one part of the ocean to the other, coming in as a source of product and resource to Canada and Mexico, must be met by some international provision. A simple protection three miles from the coast does not meet the question. We all see that, and sooner or later it must come to that; and before that we should, if possible, get all the states in this country, so far as we have authority to suggest, this 28 American Fisheries Society ought to induce the states to get together and make their laws governing the states and the borders of these states in which food fish are. Subsequently, in years to come, there must naturally be an international law which will protect larger areas. The whale and other large fishes in Northern countries are nearly all gone and will con-: tinue to fall away, and so will the salmon fisheries, we all know, sooner or later be abandoned, because of their unproductiveness, on account of the way they are being taken into the market; and we ought to look forward to some ultimate action in that way. Mr. Thompson: I wish to offer this resolution: Resolved, That the President appoint a committee of one member from each of the seaboard states, to whom the subject of Mr. Huntington’s paper shall be referred, with power. Dr. Bean: I would like to make a remark on the resolution which is before the Society, if I may be allowed to do so. The resolution of Mr. Dickerson provides that a committee be appointed to draft a form of bill to be approved by the various commissions: for the protection of fish in the various states bordering on the Great Lakes, and that such bill be submitted to the next Legislature in each state. Mr. Chairman, the remark I want to make is this: We have been members of the Fisheries Society for a great many years, and we have observed the course of business here, I think, very thoroughly. Now, it appears to me that the work of the Society for a good many years, after we got away from New York, Chi- cago, Detroit, or Washington, or wherever the meeting may be held, falls upon the President and Secretary. Mr. Whitaker knows it; Mr. Huntington knows it; Mr. Amsden knows it; we all know it. Is it going to 29 fall upon the President and Secretary again, or will the committees which may be appointed for special work do that work, conduct the correspondence, get the results, and make the reports? A member (facetiously, perhaps): They have never been asked. Dr. Bean: ‘‘They have never been asked?” There it is in the transactions, and how many men have acted on the instructions under which they were appointed last year? I do not say it in a fault-finding spirit, but it is true, and we all know it is true; and I hope it will not be so hereafter. Mr. H. Whitaker: I would lke to offer a substi- tute for both of these resolutions. I do not think the American Fisheries Society can do anything more than act as an advisory body. Any laws that may be drawn up, for general action by the lake states or sea- board states, must be agreed to by representatives of this Society. Your President or Secretary cannot do it. They can simply call a meeting, if it is your desire. I am aware of the very thing Dr. Bean refers to there, a resolution authorizing this thing to be done last year. If it isthe sense of the Society that this thing should be done, the President will be glad to call together the members of the different commissions and of the fishermen of the lake states and seaboard states to meet in some convenient hotel, where these things can be done. The President and Secretary cannot draw up a form of a law and say you must agree to this. It would be arbitrary, and you can never make an agreement of that kind; but let the commission come together and discuss this thing; and if the Soci- ety re-affrms what it did last year, and says that it is the desire of the members that the President call a meeting next fall to discuss this question, it will be done. No two men, Secretary, President, Treasurer, or 30) anybody else, entirely out of this Society, should draft a bill which is to govern the action of states in which they had no part whatever. It is impracticable, and that is all there is toit. I would move this:as a sub- stitute, if the gentlemen who introduced the other resolutions—Messrs. Dickerson and Thompson—will permit it: Resolved, That it is the sense of the American Fisheries Society that laws regulating the commercial fisheries of the seaboard and of the Great Lakes should be drawn in the interest of the people and for the pro- tection of the fisheries. If this resolution is adopted, I think the President should be authorized to call a meeting of the repre- sentatives interested. Dr. James: It is not that they shall draw a law to be enforced, but to draw up the features of a law which will embody all the points connected with this matter, and submit it to the commissions, and then get their approval, and next year’we will have the basis by which some general law can be suggested by the Society. Mr. Whitaker: If we are going to do anything, we have got to do it this fall, because many of our Western states have biennial sessions of the Legis- lature, and the first of January the matter must be presented. It would be a work of supererogation, and something we had no business to do, to make a law of that kind. Let us go to some of the gentlemen inter- ested and then make that draft, and ask each state to bring it before the Legislature and get it passed. I, therefore, renew my motion that the sense of the American Fisheries Society is that the commercial fisheries should be protected by proper laws; and that the President be authorized to call a meeting of the jl representatives of the different states to consult on the matter of uniform legislation. The President: Before the motion is put, I desire to say one word in connection with the resolution offered by Mr. Thompson. It appears, as regards the troubles on the Great Lakes, which run from 400 to 1400 miles distant from the seaboard, that you cannot very well provide for both of them at one time; neither do they both cover the exact ground, and are so far apart, and there is such a difference between the two points, both in distance and other things, that it would be well to separate them. Mr. Whitaker: I think so, too. The President: I would like to say this, gentle- men. I would like to see a committee appoited for the seaboard states, selected from members of this Soci- ety who are members of fish commissions, and let these people come together, and in justice to all interests see 1f they cannot get something which will be accept- able to the Legislatures of the respective seaboard states. Mr. Amsden: There ought to be no delay. The President: We will take the matter right up. Therefore, if you will relieve the resolution of Mr. Thompson from your motion, Mr. Whitaker— Mr. H. Whitaker: I think it is better to withdraw the whole thing and then let the other resolutions be adopted. The President: We will now consider the resolu- tion of Mr. Thompson. Dr. James: I have lost the thread of the business. I understood the resolution of Mr. Whitaker was first in order. The President: That was withdrawn. The motion is now upon the adoption of the resolution of Mr. Thompson. It is as follows: o2 Resolved, That the President appoint a committee of one member from each of the seaboard states, to whom the subject of Mr. Huntington’s paper shall be referred with power. The question was put on the resolution, which was adopted. Mr. Dickerson: I move that the President appoint a committee consisting of one member from each of the several Great Lake states, to whom the subject of pro- tecting commercial fisheries shall be referred. This resolution was carried. The President: Mr. Whitaker has a paper. Mr. Whitaker: I want to say to you that I havea paper here, which is of considerable interest, on the “Culture of Black Bass,” but the hour is getting too late to read it. I understand there is to be a meeting tomorrow, and if it is to be held, and there is time for the consideration of this paper, I think we had better postpone the reading until tomorrow. May I ask what the arrangements are as to that matter? The President: We will have a meeting on the boat if there is any business. Mr. Whitaker: I suggest that the further reading of papers be deferred until tomorrow. Dr. James: Perhaps while we are on this business we had better finish these papers. Mr. Whitaker: Mr. Cheney said that he had an engagement and had to go away soon, and would like to have the reading deferred. Dr. James: I think there would be more interest taken in the papers now than on the boat. The President: There was (a) paper tromtiie Frothingham, who could not remain to read it, but who will be on the boat tomorrow. There are two papers. Mr. Babcock moved that the thanks of the Society 30 be and they are hereby tendered to Mr. L. D. Hunt- ington, Mr. Frank J. Amsden, and Dr. Tarleton H. Bean, the retiring President, Treasurer, and Secretary, for the efficient services tendered the Society in the past year, by putting it on a better financial basis and increasing the public interest therein. Mr. Babcock called upon the new President, Mr. Whitaker, to put the motion to the house. Mr. Whitaker: Courtesy will not permit the sit- ting President to present this motion; and therefore, at the suggestion of our friend from New York, I will put the motion to the house. Unanimously carried. The President put the question to the house whether to go on with the reading of the papers or to postpone them until tomorrow. The President: It is understood that the reading of the papers 1s postponed until tomorrow. Mr. Dickerson: I move that the Secretary be requested to insert the picture of Judge Potter in the transactions of this meeting, with the memorial. Carried. Mr. Mather announced that his article on scallops, which was announced to appear in the July number of the Popular Science Monthly, would be deferred until the August number. On motion, adjourned to meet on the steamer Valley Girl at nine o'clock on Thursday morning. SECOND Day, THURSDAY, MAY 21ST, 1896. Meeting called to order by President Huntington on steamer Valley Gorl. In the absence of Dr. Bean, the Recording Secre- tary, A. N. Cheney, Recording Secretary-elect, acted as Secretary. b+ The paper written by Mr. Seymour Bower, Supt. Michigan Fish Commission, upon ‘The Propagation of the Small-mouthed Black Bass,” was read by Com- missioner Whitaker. Owing to the absence of the stenographer, who missed the boat, the discussion which followed this paper was not reported. By Mr. Whitaker: Resolved, That the thanks of the American Fish- erles Society be and are hereby tendered to the Fish- eries, Game, and Forest Commission of New York for the entertainment tendered to this Society, and also to its efficient committee, Messrs. Davis, Holden, and Thompson. Carried. By Mr. Davis: Resolved, That the thanks of the American Fisher- les Society be and are hereby tendered to Mr. Starin for his almost annual courtesy of the use of a steamer for the entertainment of the Society. Carried. By Mr-Cheney: Resolved, That the thanks of the American Fish- erles Society are due to the Board of Parks of New York City; for the use of “the lecture toon! or tie Aquarium at Battery Park, and that they be tendered through the President of the Board, Hon. S. Y. Re Cruger. Carried. The paper of Commissioner Frothingham, upon ‘Fish and Game Protection in New Jersey,” was, in his absence, read by Secretary Cheney. ) t The names of Hon. F. D. Kilburn and Hon. John L. Hill were proposed for membership in the Society by Commissioner Thompson. Referred to Executive Committee and elected. By Mr. Titcomb: Resolved, That the meeting in Detroit in 1897 shall continue for three days, viz., June 17th, 18th, and roth. Seconded by Mr. Whitaker and carried. The Committee upon resolutions on the death of Judge Potter reported: The passing of Judge Emory D. Potter, a long- time and useful member of this Society calls for more than casual notice. Judge Potter’s active identifica- tion with public affairs marked him as an important figure in national legislation during his political activ- ities, and his important services in that connection will be deeply appreciated and have been duly noticed, and need not be here further referred to. But his deep interest in fish culture and his influ- ence in the shaping of public opinion demanding the protection of the public’s interest in the commercial fisheries, is a matter of which this Society hereby de- sires to make due acknowledgment. The active years of his life were spent in advocating these principles, and the influence he exerted along these lines will be long remembered by reason of the passage of good laws and the creation of a deep public interest in these questions. It is therefore Resolved, That this Society shall order spread upon its minutes an expression of regret for his death; and ») 36 that we recognize therein that fish culture has lost one of its pioneers and most earnest advocates. That the sympathy of this Society be extended to his family in their bereavement, and that we mourn with them, not only the death of a good friend, but the loss to his state and community of an upright man and a good citizen. J. E. GUNCKEL. Upon motion adjourned. A. N. CHENEY, Acting Secretary. EMERY dA VS: Ol aban HON. EMERY DAVIS POTTER. BY J. E. GUNCKEL, FISH COMMISSIONER OF OHIO. A biographical sketch is probably the least inter- esting of any subject that could possibly be presented to a society the aim and object of which is the consid- eration of the propagation and protection of fish, but if you will bear with me fora very few minutes I wil! present to your attention a subject that will excite your interest and command your appreciation. By request Iam to speak to you of a man whose name has been familiarly known throughout the United States, and intimately known to many of us for nearly half a century. Asa member of this Society, and as Fish Commissioner of Ohio for many years, no person took a greater personal interest in the propagation and distribution of fish. From the first experiments in 1853 of artificial breeding of trout, when he was inti- mately associated with the late Dr. Theodatus Garlick, to the time of his death in 1896, he was a faithful advocate of the objects of this Society. I would like to invite your attention to a brief memorial touching the life history of our esteemed companion, showing his relationship to the interests of this Association and what we learn from the lessons so patiently taught us for nearly a century. Some of the most distinguished men of the country have paid the highest tribute to his memory. Men of 38 national reputation have paid homage to his worth and expressed their admiration of his many virtues. Emery Davis Potter was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the 7th day of October, 1804, and died Febru- ary 12th, 1896, in the ninety-second year of his age. The family removed to Otsego County, New York, in 1806. Like most of the early pioneers of our country he devoted his leisure hours to studying such books as fell, by chance, into his possession, and during the winter he attended the public schools, receiving such instruction in the branches of learning as were taught in those days. After many years of hard, earnest labor he entered the office of John A. Dix, at Coopers- town, New York. Mr. Dix was subsequently Governor of New York; later United States Senator from that state, and Secretary of the Treasury. Completing his studies, Mr. Potter was admitted to practice in New York, but soon decided to make his home in the West. He arrived at Toledo, Ohio, in the winter of 1834. His qualities as a lawyer and his high standing among the people were appreciated, and in 1838 he was post- master in Toledo. .In 1839 he was elected by the Legislature as Presiding Judge of the Common Pleas Court of the Thirteenth Judicial District, covering all of Northwestern Ohio. Many interesting experiences he delighted to repeat, in later years, relative to his traveling from county to county on horseback, through dense wilder- ness, and how in the absence of bridges he was com- pelled to swim streams and resort to methods wholly unknown to the present generation in the same section. Wild animals roamed at will in the forest; the streams were filled with fish, and in such vast quantities he often selected the size and kind desired in advance of biting. In 1843 he was elected a Member of Congress from a district embracing ten counties. In Congress he at once took a prominent position, which laid the 30 foundation for his great interest in-fish and fishing, for the welfare and happiness of mankind, which followed him through the remaining years of his eventful life. He served with John Quincy Adams on the select committee on the Smithson will, which led to the founding of the Smithsonian Institution, now one of the most valuable and interesting institutions in the world. In 1847 we find him Mayor of the city of Toledo, and during this year he was elected to the Ohio Legisla- ture; in 1848 he was elected to the Thirty-first Congress, where he took a specially prominent part in the long struggle for Speaker, receiving within three votes of being elected to that office. He was made chairman of the Committee on Postoffices and Post-roads, and as such was the author of the bill providing for cheap postage and the coining of the three-cent silver piece. Of this he said: ‘Speaker Cobb made me chairman of the Committee of Postoffices. During my first term in Congress postage was reduced from eighteen, twelve, ten, and six cents, according to distance. It was ten cents for a single sheet to any part of the country. I had been corresponding with Sir Rowland Hill and was convinced that the rates of postage could be reduced in this country without incurring debt. I introduced a bill reducing the postage to three cents, a uniform rate for all distances in the United States. I was deeply interested. The main objections came from Senator Toombs, a distinguished and polished gentleman, whose principal objection was that we had no money, no change less than a five-cent piece. I knew I had to do something to offset this plea, so I went to the mint and told them I wanted a three-cent coin made. They sent me three hundred or four hun- dred of the little silver pieces, soI had my pockets full when Mr. Toombs was ready to make his final speech against me. I walked over to his seat, just before he was ready, and I said, ‘So you ’ve got no change less 40 than five-cent pieces—how do you like this for post- age?’ I pulled out a handful of the silver three-cent pieces and as he surveyed them carefully he replied, good-naturedly, ‘ll give up, you have conquered.’ He voted for the bill. I afterwards got the three-cent pieces authorized by the Government.” It was in 1853 that Mr. Potter became first interested in the artificial breeding of fish. The successful exper- iments were made by Dr. Theodatus Garlick and Mr. Potter, and from that time to his death he devoted his leisure to the study and work of this interesting subject. In 1857 he was appointed Judge of the Federal Court of Utah, but declined the honor. In 1859 he was appointed Collector of Customs for the-Toledo dis- trict, serving until 1861. He was elected as Senator to the Ohio Legislature in 1873, serving until 1875. It was during this term that Mr. Potter founded the law providing, at the expense of the state, for the pro- pagation of fish in Ohio. To his personal attention and good management the successful introduction and establishment of that policy by the state was largely due. He was a member of ‘the Ohio State Fish Com- mission for as many years as he thought he could be of service to the state and people. No man took greater delight in personally watching the many changing conditions of the millions of eggs hatched out in the different hatcheries of Ohio, or greater inter- est in distributing small fish in the inland streams and rivers. In addition to the national offices held by him he was at various times a member of the Common Coun- cil, City Solicitor, member of the Board of Education of the city of Toledo, and there was not a fishing or hunting club organized in Toledo but what he was asked to hold some office, and was President of one association for over twenty-five years. Such part of his time as was not occupied by his business was +1 passed in the society of men whose acquaintance was sufficient proof of the esteem in which his talents were held, and the friendship of such men was ample evi- dence of his moral worth. Huis amiable temper, agree- able manner, and unaffected benevolence inspired all who knew him with esteem and regard. He was one of the most enthusiastic and successful anglers of our times. At the green old age of ninety he could bring to his net the gamiest black bass known in the rapidly flowing streams of our Western country, and he had that sweet and amiable disposition characteristic of all true anglers, that whether fish were wont to take his lure or not, he considered that ‘‘No recreation was so harmless and which had so many rational inducements to health and true enjoyment as angling.” After a tedious win- ter’s session of Congress he and Daniel Webster found relief in angling for salmon in the Kennebec and trout in the various streams of Massachusetts. He was a companion of John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay, and sat at the bedside of the great Kentuckian when his spirit took its flight. He was a life-long compan- ion of the late Chief Justice Waite and Allen G. Thur- man. The unselfishness of his life was most remark- able. There are different degrees of unselfishness. There are good men who are willing to devote them- selves toa ‘great cause if they may choose the part of the work that suits them; Mr. Potter had no choice. All that he asked was that the service was needed. No life can have a loftier purpose than his. His genial sympathy and good-nature attracted every per- son and every interest of the whole community. No consciousness of high political honors lifted him above his neighbors. A ‘great man is always greater than any one of his actions. The object of the American Fisheries Society is to devise meaus to restore to the lakes, rivers, and streams in this country the food fish supply. The members, 49 by study, by experiment, and intercourse with each other learned the best methods of fish culture, and by the skill which they have now acquired are able to bring into the world, by artificial means, more young fish than nature can in its ordinary course supply. Had it not been for the members of this Society, the fish industries of the great fresh water bodies, as well as the game fish for sport in the rivers and streams, would by this time be entirely demoralized, if not de- stroyed. Mr. Potter and Dr. Garlick watched with eager eyes the first spawn gathered in a rude box, and the result 1s better told by referring to Mr. Potter’s address before this Society at Put-in-Bay, in 1890, where he says: “About the latter part of January the eyes ap- peared in the eggs, and about the first of March, 1854, there lay prone on his side, on this gravelly bed, the first baby fish artificially propagated on this contt- nent.’ From this experiment has arisen an industry the benefits of which have been realized by every civ- ilized nation of the earth. The question had attracted the attention of fishermen and the ablest scientists in America and Europe. This was the beginning of his active interest in the propagation of fish. He saw with feelings of the deepest regret that each year the hand of commerce was advancing across the waters of the Great Lakes and miles and miles of netting with its destructive tentacles extending in every direction, that in a few years our lakes aud streams would be mere watery wastes. How true were his predictions we all know. In 1871 he appeared before the General As- sembly of Ohio. ‘‘Gentlemen,” he said, “you have but one question to consider. Shall the fish and game be destroyed from the face of the earth by indiscrim1- nate slaughter, or shall wholesome laws be enacted, so that the future generations may share in their prod- uct? Our lakes, our rivers, and our lands are the nation’s wealth. The earth only produces her fruits 43 by careful husbandry. Shall we neglect our waters, the great source of our riches, for the want of an eco- nomical husbandry? Or shall. we let them become a barren waste, when abundance awaits an intelligent cultivation under judicious and wholesome laws?” His interest never wavered in watching the protec- tion of fish and game. Anent his first experiences in “the gentle art” of angling, I quote from a manuscript penned by Mr. Potter for my use when he was in his ninetieth year: “When I was sixteen years of age,’ he writes, “not liking farming very well J made up my mind to goa fishing to sea. I had a colt on the farm called my own, although I had never invested any money in it. This I sold and with the money I started for New York; arriving at Albany, for the sake of economy, I took passage on a lumber sloop. Down about West Point we were becalmed and laid to. After dark, it be- ing very warm weather, the table was set in the cabin with the windows open and the lamp lighted. We were all seated around the table, when all at once a huge sturgeon bounded through the window upon the table scattering dishes and supper in every direction. He took complete possession of the cabin, much to my enjoyment. We soon dragged him on deck, and for the rest of the voyage had plenty of what the captain called ‘Albany beef. Not finding a ship in New York I worked my way to Boston, where I found, at Long Wharf, a vessel just fitted out and ready to sail for the banks of New Foundland on a cod fishing voy- age. This was just what I wanted. I had caught speckled trout in all the mountain streams of New York and I ached for a taste of the gentle art at sea. I got it. I found before the season was over that the gentle art had lost its romance in cod fishing off the banks, and oh, how I longed for the speckled trout in the clear streams of my native home.” 44 At the age of ninety-one Mr. Potter penned me the following interesting sketch: ‘Iam often asked what has been the cause of my robust health. I can best answer by giving my manner of life from the begin- ning. From my early childhood I fished the cold streams of Herkimer and Otsego Counties for the speckled trout with an alder pole, with chalk line, and angle worms, and passing through all the gradations of the art up to the rod and reel, with a book of selected flies. For over fifty years scarcely a summer has passed that I have not spent several weeks on the north shore of Lake Superior amongst the trout and bass, taking in all the favorite fishing grounds from the Soo to Fort William, including the famous Nepigon. My profession, being a lawyer (I was the first lawyer that hung out a shingle in Toledo), required close applica- tion to office work, but in the fishing season, on every Saturday morning before breakfast, I took my fishing traps and spent the entire day, taking neither food nor liquors of any kind until my return at home in the evening. My Saturday’s respite from office labor I continued for nearly sixty years. I can say without boasting, although nearly a hundred years old, that I see well, hear well, feed well, digest well, and sleep well, and without any organic impairment, and can keep with my bird dogs afield from morning until night. Iwill say for the young people, and knowingly too, that there is no sport that brings a person so closely into contact with nature at her best as angling. It first charms, and then makes the art recreation. It leads you into the woods, where you are delighted with new scenes and sweet sounds; it gives you ample exer- cise for every muscle of your body. ‘The music of the mountain brook, the cool air from the mossy cascade, the scent of wild flowers and rare ferns, and the most perfect picture of woodland beauty are all the fortunate heritage of that happy man who goes a fishing.” 45 REMARKS FOLLOWING MR. GUNCKEL/’S BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF HON. EMERY DAVIS POTTER. Mr. Cheney: Mr. President, Mr. Gunckel’s paper on Judge Potter has recalled several things to my mind, and among them is the fact that Ohio has been peculiarly favored in the history of fish culture in many respects. Dr. Theodatus Garlick, the father of fish culture in this country, was an Ohio man; also Dr. Sterling, probably the only American who wit- nessed the experiments in hatching fish artificially in France by Remy and Gehan. Some time after Dr. Sterling’s return to Ohio an effort was made to connect him with Dr. Garlick’s experiments. He has denied over and over again that he had anything to do with them. I have three different communications from him, in which he says that he knew nothing about Dr. Garlick’s experiments until called by him into the office to see the first embryo fish hatching in America, very much as Mr. Gunckel has described the event. Another matter which Judge Potter’s name recalls to me is that a large school of small fish appeared in the lake near Cleveland during the month of March. The fish were caught in large numbers and sold on the streets. Dr. Sterling secured some of the fish and to his surprise found that they were mature fish of the pike family, although only about seven or eight inches long, the females full of nearly ripe spawn ready to be deposited in a few days. The fish had no scales on cheeks or gill covers, and from this fact Dr. Sterling pronounced them an undescribed species, as the pike, the pickerel, and the muscallonge have scales on some portion of cheek or gill covers, and named the fish after Judge Potter. The school of fish disappeared and never returned, and Dr. Sterling’s specimens placed outside his library window were stolen by cats, and all 46 he had to show that he had discovered a new species of pike was a plaster cast of a female with opened abdo- men showing the ripe spawn. This cast Dr. Sterling presented to me before his death and I still possess it, but the cast is not fine enough to show the absence of scales as Dr. Sterling declared in his letter tome. He had some correspondence with all leading ichthyol- ogists regarding the fish, including Dr. Bean, I think, but he could not present specimens of the fish, and all that remains as a souvenir of the school of small pike is the cast in my possession, on the back of which is the inseription:. ““Pigmy Pickerel, sox, Som@ge March 22d, 1877.” Mr. Mather: I move that a committee be appointed to draft resolutions expressive of our regret at the loss of Judge Potter ; and also that we restore to our list of members a list of those who are deceased, after the manner of our publication some years ago. Perhaps this should be two distinct motions, however. Within three years the publication of the names of our de- ceased members has been discontinued. Before that time they were always kept on a roll of honor; and I move you, sir, that that roll be restored. Mr. H:. Whitaker: Before the motion 4s)putell want to say a word. The death of Judge Potter, it seems to me, is a subject fitting and worthy of the at- tention of this Society in the manner indicated by Mr. Mather. We are today on the threshold of our twenty- fifth anniversary. While the legends connected with fish culture show that Jacobi, of Germany, Gehin and Remy, of France, were in advance of anything in this coun- try in the way of artificial propagation of fish, yet noth- ing of practical value grew out of these discoveries for many years. ‘Today we have a word to say with regard to a man who was one of the most interesting men con- nected with the genesis of fish culture, and its discoverer in this country and a witness of its great development. 47 I think we live in an age wherein more progress has probably been made than in the five or ten decades that preceded it. The utility of the electrical develop- ments, the creation of the type-writer, the telephone, and a thousand other devices are well known to us all, and yet when we consider fish culture today we scarcely reflect that it is barely a quarter of a century old. Those of us who were present at the meeting at the Beebe House at Put-in-Bay, I think were all impressed with the remarks made by Judge Potter upon the hatching of the first trout, which has been referred to in the paper read by Mr. Gunckel, and his language was most graphic. He was at that time an octogenar- ian, and his, seemed like a face from the past to the younger members. There are other claimants for the honor, but the credit for the hatching of the first trout in this country undoubtedly belongs to Dr. Theodatus Garlick. Judge Potter described in the most graphic manner, as I say, his visit to that hatchery, if you may so term it, which was located upon a small rivu- let in the outskirts of Cleveland; and I shall never forget the effect that 1t seemed to have upon the Soci- ety when he related that historical event. I most heartily support the resolution, and I trust that in addition to the memorial paper that has been read connecting Judge Potter with these early experi- ments in fish culture, we may have a brief resolution of respect, in this way showing our regard for the Judge and for the work with which he was connected. The President put the question on the motion of Mr. Mather, which was carried. The President: Was the number of the committee named, or what number will you have ? Mr. Gunekel: We will leave that to the chair. NATURAL FOOD FOR TROUT FRY. BY FRED MATHER. Half a dozen years ago, more or less, a fish culturist in Europe published an account of his experiments in rearing trout fry on natural food, which he had learned to produce in great quantities by a process which he would not divulge. His system included a supply pond, where the living food was bred, and a series of small pools, which served as temporary pastures for the fry until the food in one was exhausted, when they were to be driven into another pond, as cattle are changed from one pasture to another. This man’s article was translated into many languages and was published either in the Annual Report of the U. 5. Fish Commission or in its Bulletin. At present, while writing this article, my library is packed away and it is not possible for me to quote the volume or to give the name of the gentleman who originated the idea, but I have stated his main plan and remember that the secret process of growing live food was offered for sale to me, as no doubt it was to other fish culturists, but for two reasons I paid no attention to the matter; one was that I never cared to buy any secret, and the other that the plan seemed to be impracticable on any scale such as we use in America. The plan of driving small trout from a grassy or weedy pond condemned the whole thing, because they do not drive well, and in sucha pond many would remain and keep down the expected 49 increase of food, and so the wonderful scheme was dis- missed from serious consideration. A while after the first announcement of this dis- covery of how to rear trout without expense, it leaked out that the process was to use the dung of animals in water to grow diatoms by the million, and the diatoms in turn would furnish food in plenty for the smaller crustaceans, as daphnia, cyclops, gammarus, and _per- haps other forms of life on which young trout thrive in a state of nature. This was perfect in theory, but I still was skeptical as to its value in practice, and the scheme passed from memory until it was brought before this Society two or three years ago and lightly discussed. You may remember that Mr. Frank N. Clark said that he had experimented a little in this direction with several forms of ordure, but had _ pro- duced no results that were satisfactory to him. Last summer I had leisure to try this scheme, and will give the result of the experiments. There was a dripping fountain in my yard supplied from springs in the hill above, which also supplied a portion of the water used in the state hatchery, on lower ground. ‘This fountain was supplied by a 34 in. lead pipe, and the water trickled and dropped over rockwork into a basin, and from there the overflow went through a series of small pools in my garden, where the year before several species of wild ducks had been confined. An examination of the water in the first pool and also in the small open pond above, which caught the flow of the several springs, revealed the fact that it contained the forms of minute life named above, as well as rotifers, hydra, snails, and several kinds of water insects, as well as their larve. Therefore, all the conditions seemed favorable. For the benefit of those who have paid no attention to the minute forms of life which it was proposed to breed, it may be well to say that diatoms are invisible 50 to the unassisted eye except when in mass, as we often see in swamps, where they appear as an iridescent scum on the surface of the water in still places or in the spoor of some heavy animal. They were formerly supposed to belong in the animal kingdom, but are now classed among the lower forms of algee, and have a shell or case of silica, which passes undigested through fish and turtles. These diatoms form the principal food of the oyster, and naturalists have re- corded and named something like 4000 species of them, but we will not go into the subject so deeply. Suffice it to say that the microscopic vegetables can swim in most cases and supply food for animals also microscopic in their young stages, such as the daphnia, cyclops, and other forms of entomostracans which in turn feed young fishes. To be complete such experiments should begin in February, when the earliest trout of the year may begin feeding ; but these experiments began in April, in time, however, for the production of food for the later hatch to get their first meal. The water now on Long Island was a trifle warmer and presumably more favorable to the production of such life as was desired. The temperature of the water during the season was as follows, mean temperatures only for each month being given in scale of Fahrenheit: Rockery. 1st Pool. 2d Pool. 3d Pool. 4th Pool. es 6) 6 Una Maa 56.5 58.10 59 59.75 60 Miaiyuat 39 Oa 58.5 60 61.25 62 62.10 20 ee ra 62.75 64.10 65 65.75 66.25 atl meth APS 69.25 737.25 75.10 76 78 INA OMSE 22s 2 72.75 74.5 76.25 76.75 77.50 With August the record ended. Neither time nor inclination allowed further observations, for the season had covered the production of food during the most critical period of the life of a baby trout. The ‘“Rockery” received the first water from the 51 spring pond, already mentioned, and in the basin at its top was placed both old and fresh cow ordure weekly. In the first pool there was a division of the water, and in one half horse dung was frequently put, both fresh and stale, and in all the pools was a deposit of duck dung of the previous year, well dissolved, and stocked with all the forms of life which it was thought desirable to cultivate. At different times water was taken from each of the five places in this way: One gallon from the surface by immersing the measure, one gallon from the middle and one from the bottom by means of tubes, and the contents filtered through No. 8 wire cloth, cheese cloth, and then through the finest of mill silk bolting cloth. The last would retain almost all but the smaller diatoms, and they were caught in a funnel of filtering paper below all the other strainers. This work, being done twice each month for the five months including April and August, should give a fair average of the amount of food in the pools dur- ing the season in which the operations were conducted. The following gives the amount of entomostracans obtained, and excluding snails and the diatoms. In other words, the amount of food available for trout fry in their first season, such as they can see, seize, swal- low, and assimilate. The pools contained about 150 cubic feet of water, or 1125 gallons, of which 15 gallons, or 4, were strained on ten different days, at the rst and 15th of each month. Of the above-named food 2.25 grams were caught, equaling .225 grams per day. This multiplied by 75 gives us 16.875 grams for the entire water per day, and again multiplied by the 153 days gives a total of 2,581.875 grams in the whole season. Dividing this by 24 gives us 107.578 oz., a trifle less than 634 lbs. avoirdupois. We must consider the fact that no fish were feed- ing in these pools, and that the calculation is made as 52 if the animals lived only one day and were replaced by others. ‘This is not the fact, and how long they may live I cannot-say, but if each individual lived a week the amount of food produced would be less than 1 Ib. in the entire season, as the calculation is for a daily renewal of all life. Two hundred baby trout could have lived there during the first week of their lives and fed well; after that time, when their appetites began to get sharper, say in a fortnight, all the food to be found would be just what came in the water supply, and that would not have fed half a dozen when two months old. If I had been skeptical of the practical utility of this scheme before this experiment there has been nothing to convince me of error; still, if other trials under other circumstances show that it is practi- cable to raise enough natural food to rear 20,000, or even 10,000, to be six months old, I must try the plan which has proved to be successful. While writing this I do not know that any other men but Mr. Clark and myself have worked in this field in America, still it is to be hoped that they have done so and that they will publish their experience. Such work is very inter- esting to one who has a taste for it, as most fish cultur- ists have, and this paper may stimulate others to similar trials. I think one plan was to have a number of sep- arate ponds in which to breed the food and to tap them in succession, and allow each one to furnish food to the fish, which were not to be driven to the pasture, but to remain in one pond and get the food supply from dif- ferent sources at different times. This is certainly the best plan, as any trout breeder will certify, because it is a difficult matter to get the last. dozen trout from a pool containing vegetation or hiding places of any kind. At present writing I have less faith in the scheme than when I began to experiment with it. ~ 53 DISCUSSION ON THE PAPER OF MR. FRED MATHER. Mr. Mather: I wrote this paper on this subject, and I have been trying to find out if I had changed my belief. I did not believe in the thing, and consid- ered it a humbug; still, as it has been published far and wide, I wanted to see what the results of my experiments would prove; and I am still convinced that the whole thing is as much of a humbug as it struck me when I read the first accounts of it. Mr. Titcomb: Have you tried the effect on the fish in the old pond, where the temperature was sev- enty-seven degrees ? Mr. Mather: Yes, they lived there in warm weather. As I understand this man’s plan, it was to have the reservoir in which to breed the food, and then let a little stream go through and carry the fish into the colder water, where the trout were. Most of them, you know, are very small, and they live in water of a great many different temperatures; and while they were bred in this water, these pools in August were too warm for trout, but not in the early part of the season, up to July. Mr. H. Whitaker: Ido not care to start a discus- sion on this paper, but there seems to be no disposition on the part of any one else to do so. I think itis a paper that should challenge the attention of every fish culturist in America, and I think the thanks of the Society are due to the author for bringing a subject of this kind up for discussion here. I believe it must appeal to every man interested in fish culture that there is a great sentiment today in this country in favor of the artificial breeding and rearing of trout for the. market. I believe it is the proper function of boards of fish commissioners, and particularly the United States Commission, to investigate this subject. 54 We do know that liver fed trout are of little account for market fish; you must give the natural food of the fish to them, in order to get a marketable fish and an edible fish. ‘There is no question that in Germany, in Scotland, and in England this subject has received great attention, and that fish culture has been entered upon by private individuals in these countries, I believe, with profit. It seems to me that with the large amount of means at the disposal of the United States Commission they ought to take the lead in investigations looking to the rearing of trout for the market. There is hardly a day passes in the experience of any man connected with the industry, I fancy, that he is not inquired of with regard to this subject of raising fish for the market. I believe that Mr. Mather’s experiments go to show what he states they do, and that such progress is being made in this line as necessitates just such experiments as Mr. Mather has made. It is only a step, but I am satisfied in my own mind that within the next decade or two, if this matter is properly fol- lowed up, we will have ‘many waters under private control in all the states of the Union that will produce a great many pounds of fish annually, to the profit of the men who own the ponds. I have no doubt that many of you have seen the most valuable book that has been called to my atten- tion within the year, published by Mr. Armistead, “The Angler's Paradise.” “In my opmiion‘it 1s oueor the best books on fish culture that has been published. He deals largely with this question, but does not go into details in regard to it; but that he is running a place in his country, at a profit, is beyond question. Now, considering that America has not advanced as she should in the artificial propagation of fish for dis- tribution in public waters, it seems to me that it is incumbent upon us as fish culturists to take the matter dd up and follow it out and if possible make it a success. There are certain objections, undoubtedly, to the mark- eting of fish by private individuals; but the public good must first be given attention. If barren waters can be made productive, so much has been gained, so much has been added to our substantial food economics. I think if this matter is followed out a just conclusion will be reached, and some will, at least, reap the glory of having bred and reared enough of the food of fish to make the breeding and marketing of fish a practical thing in this country today; and I would like to hear from some others on this subject. Mr. Mather: I would say for the benefit of Mr. Whitaker, that Mr. Hansen, a member of this Society, whose address has escaped me for the moment— The Secretary: Mr. G. Hansen, Osceola, Wiscon- Si Mr. Mather: Mr. Hansen is now breeding trout for the market profitably, he writes me, and it was a question with him whether he could reach the New Work-market. He says his market is lmited. He can raise any quantity of trout, but cannot get the price for it. There is no demand for them in his sec- tion. A few hotels want them, and he wrote to me to see 1f I could make some arrangement whereby he could ship the trout to the New York market. He has got more than he knows what to do with. Mr. Whitaker: Does he raise them on this kind of food ? Mr. Mather: No, not on this kind of food. Mr. Whitaker: What kind? Mi. Mather: Iecannot tell you. Mr. Whitaker: If they are fed on liver he will not find much of a market for them in New York. Mr. Mather: Iam not willing to agree that liver fed trout are not good trout. I find them good to eat. Liver is a pretty good article of food, and I can make a 56 good breakfast on liver. There is a kind of sportsmen who go into the streams and get wild trout—I have myself gone into the woods hungry enough to eat a jackass, and cooked my own trout and eaten it half raw, and declared that it was the finest trout ever cooked on the face of the earth—but if a man ever served it to me in a New York restaurant, it would be sent back. I have eaten trout fed on liver that I con- sider good trout. Mr. Titcomb: I have been interested in the re- marks on the subject of natural food for trout, and on the subject of marketing trout. I have been interested in a hatchery unfortunately so situated that at certain seasons of the year the water is more like mud than water; but I have found that if the eggs of the trout and the fry be carried beyond the sacking period, the mud is full of food for them. I have not experimented as Mr. Mather has in con- fining the fish and getting at the actual supply of food. I could only gather my knowledge from the action of the fish themselves. The stream I refer to flows in a valley for a long distance, and has the water shed from both sides, and it seems to get all the fertilizer which is put on the farms above the station, and therefore in a way the fish get the natural insect food, but there would be days, you might say a week at a time, when the water would be so impure, so roily, that the little fish could hardly be seen. During these periods it did not seem necessary at all to feed them. ‘They did not seem to care for the artificial food, but were lively, keeping up toward the head of the stream as if all the time on the alert for food, natural food, and I found that they thrived in that way nicely. I feel very much as Mr. Mather does, that this question has not been solved, and that we must make a study of it in the future; but from my experience in the plant referred to, I am in hopes that it will be i 57 solved some time, and that we can find a natural food. Relative to commercial hatcheries, I have visited several that are commercial hatcheries, notably those of Mr. Hoxie, at Carolina, R. 1, Mr. Gilbert, Ply- mouth, Mass., and Mr. Hurlbut, at Freetown, Mass. Of these three, the one at Carolina and the one at East Freetown, the food supply at those stations is entirely liver. At Plymouth Mr. Gilbert has a more natural preserve for his trout, that is, the waters approach more nearly to nature. They are located in a cran- berry bog—some of you may have seen them. He makes quite as much out of his cranberries as from his trout ; but in addition to the large pond for the pre- serve, he has a long stream, which affords a flow of water naturally through the bog, marshy on both sides, the natural substrata of soil being sand; but on each side of the stream, if you step off the plank walk, you get into the water. Itis very wet. You turn up any of the shrubbery growing along the bank of that stream and it is alive with shrimp. Mr. Gilbert claims that the trout in that stream get as much natural food as the food he gives them, which is artificial. I have eaten trout taken from his ponds which appeared to me as good as natural wild trout; and I have eaten trout from Mr. Hoxie’s ponds, and I must confess I could not tell the difference between those trout and wild trout. I have eaten trout weighing two pounds—that is to say, a part of it—which was kept at the State Hatch- ery in Vermont until they weighed two pounds, during the early season, when the “water was cold, which seemed to be as good as any wild trout. In speaking of wild trout, we know that the wild trout in different waters will vary as to quality of food. If you take a wild trout from stagnant water where the food is plenty, they do not seem to taste as good as trout taken from more lively, cooler water. I simply bring 58 up this experience to add to what Mr. Mather has said. Mr. Mather: There are three mill ponds. In the upper one, the trout about the first of April and along through April are quite edible; from the first of May, after the rains get started in, the trout taste muddy, taste like good fresh water fish out of a muddy pond. In regard to the natural food, of course there is enough natural food in almost all the streams to sup- port a limited number of trout; but the point of my remarks and my paper was this—that where you have ten thousand trout, say in a little artificial pond, per- haps not over twenty-five feet by ten feet and a couple of feet deep, and they are about as thick as they can stand and swim, they have got to have a good deal more food than will go into the water naturally; you cannot breed in any such pond as I undertook to work this last year. Mr. Titcomb: You must have a greater water area? Mr. Mather: Yes, sir. Mr. Annin: I would like to say a few words. I agree with Mr. Mather. Ido not think it is possible for any one to breed naturally food enough to run more than a small pond, where you are rearing ten or twelve or twenty thousand small fish, and to sup- port them. You have got to have them artificially fed. You see in the fish business the rule is to make money, sell trout; and upon inquiring into the circumstances connected with it, invariably you will find that they have a big pond, and a pond that is breeding natural food itself, and does it to such an extent as to produce natural food enough, so as to carry lots of trout. I think you would find in many cases that they can raise natural food to run through and feed your fish, so that you can produce enough of them to make it 59 pay. Mr. Hansen, in Wisconsin, is feeding natural food, that is, allowing natural food to pass through the pond. He gets the benefit of that, and he also is feed- ing them. He is feeding everything that he can find in the way of artificial food. Mr. Whitaker: There is a misconception regard- ing the point we are getting at; at least so far as my remarks are concerned. I would not suggest for a moment that this matter of natural food should be gone into in connection with fish culture in ponds. That is not the point. We can carry all the stock fish we want under present conditions with liver fed fish ; but that is not the question. The question is about rearing fish for market by the individual. ‘There is no question that with the proper amount of air and with the proper installation of aquatic plants in ponds, you can very largely, and perhaps altogether, furnish the amount of food that is necessary for the sustaining of trout and to bring them into excellent condition. But what, it seems to me, we ought to look into is the question of adding, if 1t can be, to what these persons who have been experimenting in this line claim to have done here. I believe that something still may be added, and that is one of the things we ought to give attention to. I agree with Mr. Annin in his remarks and with Mr. Mather; but I believe that Mr. Annin admits that no fish culturist who carries his stock fish in ponds can be bothered or embarrassed with aquatic plants or anything else. He must have his pond in such order that he can handle them, and they must be liver fed. The writer of the paper said he was so hungry he could eat a jackass, and did eat a fish that was partly raw. I do not believe it 1s necessary to pass judgment on that kind of an epicure, and therefore I shall have to dismiss that part of the subject, because he carries a stock in his pool. 60 Mr. Cheney: I do not know who the foreigner is that Mr. Mather referred to, but it may be Mr. F. Lugrin, of Switzerland. His. process has been pub- lished in the bulletin of the United States Fish Com- mission and also in the proceedings of this Society, that is, so much of it as is known to any one but the inventor. I think it was copied into our records two or three years ago. There is a gentleman now in Europe who has been investigating Mr. Lugrin’s methods. He cultivates about one hundred thousand yearling trout annually, and he rears his trout on small insects, daphnia, cyclops, and fresh water shrimp. The gentleman re- ferred to who is abroad investigating the matter is a director of the Adirondack League Club, and is ex- pected home within the next month, when he will bring home with him all that he has been able to learn about the matter. The inventor of this process, if it may be called so, and he does call it a secret process, declares the details of rearing the trout food has never been given out toany one. Visitors have come, observed, and gone away ; but he has never had occasion to give its details to any one. I am waiting with considerable interest to see what the New York investigator will report when he returns. He writes that the plant can be enlarged. It is a mere question of adding to the rearing troughs or basins. Lugrin’s plant provides for rearing only 100,000 trout a year, as that is all there is demand for in Geneva, but he claims that it is only a matter of increasing the number of food basins to enlarge the plant to a million or more fish, as the basins create their own food. ‘There is another for- eign experimenter whose methods are similar in one particular at least to those followed by Mr. Mather in his experiment, and this is Carl von Scheidlier, an Austrian fish breeder, but he professes to have several methods. All of these secrets all grouped under what 61 is called the von Scheidlin-Rakus system. As near as I can learn from correspondence this system is en- tirely different from the method followed by Lugrin. Mr. Thompson: I have had a little experience with trout fry, and I believe it is the same with trout fry as with a child, horse, cow, or any other living thing. ‘Taking trout fry in quantities such as a man will have to raise for a state hatchery or marketable purposes, it is impossible to get the amount of natural food out of any place where you can put the fry to grow them. ‘Take a child or a colt aad starve it in its youth, and it will be a starved man or horse to the day it dies. It is the same thing with trout. You can take trout fry and feed them and take care of them and grow them; I don’t care what the food is you feed them, provided it agrees with them and they get enough of it to live on, they will go ahead. Of course, if you can give them natural food, so much the better. But my experience has been within the past few years, and I have had quite a little—and I can show you this year’s trout three inches long— Mewehenceye Three imches / Mr. Thompson: Yes, sir. I will do it tomorrow, if any gentleman cares to come with me. I will show this year’s fry three inches long. ‘They have not re- ceived any artificial food so far, and I will show you thousands of others that are fed and taken care of, running from one half to two inches long, and I will show you year old trout weighing one quarter, three eighths, and a half-pound. They are fed from a series of ponds. I will show you 20,000 fish in a pond not much larger than this room, very little, if any. I will show you a fish that will average from a quarter to a half-pound. This fish has been fed regularly. When a man says that he cannot raise trout, and raise them profitably, in my opinion it is because he does not pay attention to it. 62 If you will feed a child once a day, it may live and get along in a certain way, but if you feed it three or four times a day it grows better ; and if you will devote the same attention to fish, and feed them often, I think you can raise fish fast and profitably. The place I have reference to is on Long Island, - well known to very many here, I presume. We do not feed to the fish which we eat any artificial food whatever. We grow a fish until it is half an inch, and then turn it down to the lower pond, and they do not get any more artificial food. We do not feed any arti- ficial food during the month of October, when we pre- pare to turn them out to spawn and let them go down to the lower pond. In the upper pond we feed and grow our fish as fast as we can, until we get them a size large enough to catch, and then we let them down to take care of themselves. In that pond we have the tide water. The only thing between our lower pond and the tide water is an inch mesh screen. The tide ebbs and flows into that pond the same as in Long Island Sound. We have a pond about one hundred feet wide and twelve hundred feet long, and in it there are about 20,000 fish; and I guarantee that you cannot catch a poor fish in it, one that is not in flavor and condition equal to any fish, I do not care where you look for them. ‘This has been our experience, and I would like to have any gentleman in this room visit the place and take a look at it. : Regarding this animal food, etc., I cannot talk from experience with our fry. It is getting this ant- mal food. There is a little spot where I put down a six-inch pipe and get fifty gallons of water a minute, just as clear as air, and there I have my fry. They are doing well. It certainly is not from the manure that washes down or anything of that kind. I will show you fry that have never had a particle of artificial food; and I say that they are away ahead of those that 63 are fed. Of course, there are not so many in the same space; but in a space four feet wide, twice the length of this room, there are probably two thousand that are left there, that I did not get into the artificial strip and hatch. I believe with a hatchery eight feet wide and four hundred feet long, with plenty of spring water, all that isnecessary is to pull up the screen, and simply let enough fish goin in two hours. I put in six inches deep ‘of clean, white beach gravel, and let them go in and deposit their eggs. I let about two thousand fish go inthere. Of course, we do not get as many fish as some other fisheries do. We calculate only to raise about ten thousand fish a year, which is as much as we care to have; and we have, perhaps, thirty thou- sand fry that are fed artificially. The natural fed fish are certainly ahead, but it is true that they have a little more space. Ido not care how much you feed artificially, I do not think it affects the flavor of the fish in its early stages of growth. You should feed them for the first year, and get them so that they will be a good size. ‘The first consideration for any ‘person who wants to raise fish for market is to get size on them, and then there is enough natural food to be had for fish. If aman raises fish for the market on the border of the seacoast he can get any quantity of min- nows and shrimp. I have found a good way to grow fry—it may not be convenient for you all to do this— but I can find any quantity of large minnows, almost as large as your finger, and you can catch a bushel of these, put them in a barrel, and run in a little jet of steam; and in about an hour you can steam them so that the meat will peal off from the bones, and you can give the natural food to your fish. You can take and do the same thing with your large fish, and you can grow them and grow them profitably. A man can grow fish for the New York market and make money. 64 Mr. H. Whitaker: You advocate taking as much care of them as possible for the first year, to give them size, and then turning them out for natural food ? Mr. Thompson: Yes, sir; I agree with Mr. Mather that liver tastes good sometimes, but we do not believe in paying a dollar a pound, and you and I and any man knows we can buy liver for less. We like good calf’s liver, but we like other things with it, a little salt and pepper, butter, and a nice piece of bacon fried with it, and then it may be very good, provided we are hungry; but when we go into a place and sit down and pay a dollar for lunch, we do not care to have liver fed fish. We like a natural trout. I can easily detect the difference between a liver-fed fish and a fish fed naturally from a river. Mr. Titcomb: You have spring water, and food naturally coming from the water, as I understand it, out of the ground? Mr. Thompson: It bubbles right up. Mr. Titcomb: Apparently a natural spring? Mr. Thompson: An artesian well. We feed that artificially. : Mr. Titcomb: I thought you said they got their own food. Mr. Thompson: ‘There are some on the side pond. I will refer to an experiment we have been trying this year. We thought that probably we took a little too much pains to clean our ponds out too well. I found a little place that was madeja@ year/ago.; I tuedete grow some there, but did not have as good success, and did not grow them as fast as I did this year, and the place has not been cleaned within the year, there being a certain growth of fungus that comes up, water grass, etc., and we let it stand and it stores more food for us than in years before. Mr. Annin: Ithink it would be right to correct one opinion that might go out in this discussion. I 65 think all the old fish culturists are acquainted with the fact that there is no water in the United States so good to grow brook trout as the water on Long Island. There are no waters that are tide waters that have got the amount of natural food, and where the temperature is so favorable, and the trout will make such growth, as they will there. Going up into Western New York or Michigan, it is impossible to bring fish to that size in the same length of time, I do not care how much you feed them. Mr. Thompson: You will have an opportunity tomorrow to see your old fish that will measure nine inches in length. Mr. Annin: I donot doubt that in the least. Ten years ago I saw trout near Jamaica that weighed half a pound, and was only one year old. I would not believe it until I was satisfied the man was telling me what was the truth. After that I investigated more about the growth of trout on Long Island and I am satisfied they cannot say too much about them. Mr. Thompson: I raised a fish and sold it to Mr. Blackford a number of years ago—the first time I met the gentleman. I went into the experiment some fif- teen years ago, and sold him a brook trout weighing four pounds ten ounces, just three years old, raised from the egg. Mr. H. Whitaker: Mr. Annin’s remarks are quite applicable. I have a vivid remembrance of our visit to the South Club on Long Island, something like two years ago. The fish shown there were a revelation to me. I never saw anything to compare with their year- ling fish and two and three years old fish. They were marvelous. Inthe interior it 1s impossible to do it. There is no question that fish having the advantage of going to tidal water have a far greater growth than fish that are confined entirely in fresh water. ‘That 66 accounts for the marvelous growth that Mr. Thompson refers to, undoubtedly. Mr. Mather: While on this subject, I was in hopes that somebody from the United States Fish Commission would be here today who could tell us about Mr. Page’s success. He is advocating the feed- ing of mush; I think he uses middlings, mixes it with his liver and other things. He is the only one who has advocated the feeding of any vegetable food to trout, and I should like to hear from some one who knows something on that subject. Mr. Thompson: I can answer the question of my friend in regard to feeding mush. I had a gentleman ask me that question, what I was feeding my fish on, and I told him Indian meal. Iwas doing nothing of the kind. He hada pond with a number of fish in it, and that man went home and boiled Indian meal and fed his fish on it, and he is feeding it today; and I have to state that he has as fine fish as any in the state of New York. (Laughter.) That man supplied the Waldorf with trout grown and fed on Indian meal. It is a fact. I will tell you what he did with it:3/idle did not feed liver, and I have never fed a pound of liver in my life. I take clean beef hearts and lean beef and grind it up as fine as I can. He took these beef hearts and ground them up, and would put probably four beef hearts in a large kettle that he had, and boil it thor- oughly, and after he got it thoroughly boiled, thicken it with Indian meal. I never saw fish, as many in the same space, that grew as these fish did. Mr. Annin: I used Indian meal in two places for one year. I cooked the meal separately, but it is not a success unless you cook it rather thick. When it is cool and it is not thick, it will give with the water; a big fish will strike at a chunk, and what he gets in his mouth he will take, but the rest will settle down. It is a bad thing for a small pond. I have given it up. 67 Mr. Thompson: This gentleman has not given it up. He feeds it every day, and has done it for the last two years. One year he reared about thirty thousand fish in a pond certainly not more than twice the size of this room. He is still feeding the Indian meal. Dr. Bean: I can answer one of Mr. Mather’s questions about the result attained by Mr. Page in feeding rainbow trout with mush made of mill mid- dlings and mixed with liver. I have been at Mr. Page’s station, Neosho, Missouri, and have seen there hun- dreds of rainbow trout twelve months old, which would average pretty nearly twelve inches in length. That is, I think, rather unusual. He gets larger fish, but these, I am quite certain, averaged as much as twelve inches at twelve months old. Ido not believe that any other trout than the rainbow will take this diet and thrive upon it equally well. It may be that the brook trout will eat it, but Mr. Page did n’t succeed in getting such results with any other than the rainbow trout. He cooked the middlings thick, mixed raw liver with it afterwards, and fed it thick. I have seen the trout rush at it as if it were gammarus and daphnia, or any- thing they are supposed to like better than any other food. Mr. Annin: I fed fry two months old, and used bolted middlings, same cooked separately, and passed it through the finest blade in the meat chopper, thirty- second of an inch blade, mixed with the liver, and when it came out it was thoroughly mixed. We would feed our two months old fry on it. That did very well, but we had to be careful about the troughs. It would slime the whole bottom of the trough. Mr. H. Whitaker: We do not know what can be done until we find out. Mr. Thompson is a benefactor to his race, but he did not know it at the time. On the question of feeding meal middlings, my attention was called two years ago to an experiment made by a 68 man who had nothing to do with fish culture; and in some place down in Indiana—and Indiana’s waters are not first-class—was the owner of a grist mill. Under conditions that were purely artificial he introduced into his pond white fish, and he has been feeding them on cooked middlings, I think, mixed with liver or something else, at any rate, largely middlings, and it is claimed to be a great success; so that we do not know what we can do until we try. Dr. Bean: That is Thompson, at Warren, Indiana. Mr. Whitaker: I understand that it is a fact. 69 NEW METHOD OF POND CULTURE.* BY DR. JOUSSET DE BELLESME. (TRANSLATED BY DR. TARLETON H. BEAN, DIRECTOR OF THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM, BY PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR, AND READ AT THE 25TH ANNUAL MEETING OF AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY.) [At the solicitation of Count de Briey, President of the Central Society for the Protection of Fresh Water Fisheries of Belgium, M. de Bruyn, Minister of Agri- culture, requested Doctor Jousset de Bellesme, Director of Fish Culture of Paris, to deliver a lecture on pond culture at the Exposition of Fisheries and Fish Cul- ture at Antwerp in 1894. ‘That lecture was published in the journal of the Belgian Society mentioned, in January, February, and March, 1895. Dr. Jousset de Bellesme had previously published a brief account of his new method of pond culture in Comptes Rendus Acad. Sc., Paris, Nov. 26, 1894. A paper upon the same subject was published in a French newspaper, Le Gau/ozs, by A. de Marcillac in March, 1895, criticising the method proposed by Dr. Jousset de Bellesme, and in Revue des Sciences Natur- elles Appliquées, Paris, No. 17, December, 1895, M. Jules de Guerne takes exception to the statements made by the Director in terms unnecessarily severe ; * Nouvelle Méthode de Culture des Etangs, Par le Docteur Jousset de Bellesme, Péche et Pisciculture, Brussels, Nos. 1, 2, 3, Jan.—Mar., 1895, pp. 2-11, 28-40, 50-54. 70 indeed, in such a manner as to arouse suspicion of an unworthy motive. There is no question as to the value of the expert- ments herein described, and however much American fish culturists may differ from some of the distin- guished author’s opinions, they cannot fail to find in the article many useful hints for their guidance. We have to thank him for the information that the quin- nat salmon will reproduce without going to sea when three years old and weighing thirteen to fifteen pounds, and that they can be successfully and profitably reared in ponds.—T. H. B.] In Belgium, as well as in France, ponds have not taken the rank to which they are entitled in increas- ing the food supply and supporting industries because, instead of constantly improving their system of cul- ture, the breeders of fish have remained hypnotized by obsolete methods, and have found nothing better than the indefinite perpetuation of the carp, which has been practiced from the thirteenth century. It is desirable to abandon this plan and in this pro- gressive age to give up ancient errors. After I have shown the result of the extended researches which I have made into this interesting subject, I hope all your doubts will be removed and you will be convinced, as I am myself, that pond culture is susceptible of taking its place in the first rank of fish cultural industries. At present it is rare that a pond suitably located yields sixty francs per hectare of surface, and again how often they do not give more than a revenue of thirty or forty francs per hectare every two or three years. It will be admitted that with such meagre re- turns this industry will be greatly neglected. I hope to demonstrate to you that if this had been differently managed the culture of the pond might be made to yield seven hundred, eight hundred, or even a thousand francs per hectare. (ol I will divide my subject into two parts : First: Iwill give a rapid survey of the present state of pond culture. Second: I will have the honor to show you the new method which I have evolved from experiments continued about ten years at the Aquarium of the Trocadéro in the rearing and reproduction of the Sal- monide. Be oF of of ce i # # # I have often asked myself why the monks espe- cially selected the carp among the numerous fishes which inhabit our fresh waters. Of course we can offer nothing but conjecture upon this point. My be- lef is that the carp of the fourteenth century was not exactly the fish which we know today, and that it was distinguished then from other species by qualities which it no longer possesses. oH oS of ik cK of oo I fear that what Iam going to say will excite con- tradiction, and I will be sorry if any one attributes to me bad intentions with regard to a fish which gives pleasure to the angler and is sought after by many people; but the love of truth leads me to state that from the culinary point of view and as a food the carp is far from occupying the first place among the fresh water fishes which are offered in our markets. It ranks in the quality of its flesh below the salmon, trout, eel, and frequently even the perch, gudgeon, and barb. If any one disbelieves this statement it can be sustained by a glance at the list of prices of fish in our markets. It will be seen that while a kilogram of salmon costs ten francs, of trout eight francs, of eel seven francs, and of gudgeon five francs, a kilogram of carp costs about three francs. ‘These are the average prices of the Paris market. Three francs a kilogram ! Who hopes to establish that at this price the carp is an advantageous food? Leaving out the always dis- 72 puted question of taste, the food value of the fish must be considered : Buy a carp of one kilogram; cook it; it will not weigh morethan . . oid gh U1) Soo eovemcmars Remov e the skin and weigh it: “it is 96.90 grams Take out the viscera, which weigh 379.76 ‘' Carefully remove the skeleton . 201 by fla 678.44 There remains of fleshonly . . . . 312.36 grams Thus, from this fish for w aah we ae paid three francs, we obtain only three hundred and twelve grams of Hen - that is for the flesh almost at the rate of ten francs per kilogram. If we take a salmon or a trout of one kilogram, see what we obtain ; after cooking it weighs . . 965.70 grams RATES pes Os fe ee oct ee UO aeelttaS Wiscera !is-32- Fl He eal Srgeisewrs mkelenin); G2) 4.2: rote. Vell ay see trom 372 SO eee Plesh. sis ghey Be Meta, he ee ee, eee It is unnecessary to emphasize further the inferi- ority of the carp. How then comes it that, in spite of this inferiority, which has doubtless been remarked and commented upon by many other persons than myself, the carp still continues to be the only fish cultivated in ponds? There are several reasons for this; the carp really pos- sesses several valuable qualities from the point of view of the fish breeder. Of all our fresh water fishes its growth is the most rapid. At four years it weighs two kilograms, and frequently arrives at this weight earlier. It is extremely hardy and is not injured by freez- ing nor by impurities in the water. Its culture is attended with uniform results; finally, the carp re- quires less care than other fishes. Its food is vegeta- ble, and one may really say that this fish raises itself. This, indeed, is the principal cause of its success ; many proprietors are satisfied with small results upon the condition that they do not cost any trouble. io I said at the commencement that this method is to be abandoned. Every medal has its reverse. We may say that the hardiness of the carp has been the origin of its degeneration as a species. The fish cul- turist grows careless about the selection of the breed- ing fish, and very often before having his attention called to it the carp have spawned in the pond quite promiscuously. Nevertheless he sells the young for re-stocking at the same price as if they had been of a good race; also through this negligence the pond deter- iorates, asin Sologne, where the carp has greatly degen- erated and has acquired a factitious quality of repro- ducing too early. The Sologne people have remarked upon this without comprehending its significance. They say in this connection that the carp is preco- cious. As a result, it frequently happens that the alevins placed in a pond to grow begin to breed before they have reached a marketable size, and they have no com- mercial value. ‘This characteristic has been acquired by living many generations in ponds which are too warm, and has become fixed by heredity. High tem- perature stimulates the reproductive functions and the animal becomes incapable of growing large. Is it advisable to cultivate such a mediocre fish? Here are some figures which will answer this question, and without burdening you with a long and detailed enumeration I will furnish the two extreme terms of this series. First, the minimum. In 1892, in Sologne, the proprietors of ponds had difficulty to sell carp at seventy centimes a kilogram. After deducting four per cent. and the expenses of fish- ing, which would give about fifty-two centimes a kilo- gram, and as a hectare produced an average of not more than eighty kilograms, this is a yield of about forty-five francs a hectare; but it should be noted in 74 this regard that the ponds are not fished oftener than once in two or three years. Certainly this is small, and indeed some ponds return sixty, seventy, and even eighty francs per hectare. The most highly esteemed carp establishments are those of Dubisch in Silesia, which have frequently been mentioned of late years, and have given the best results. A hectare has yielded, according to official reports, as high as one hundred and thirty-two francs, a result which has never been exceeded; but this method involves much care and labor. ‘This is a very excellent result, but how insignificant compared with a yield of seven hundred francs per hectare, which I have mentioned in the beginning. Truth compels me to say that it is not with the carp that this climax is reached, but with another fish. I have thought from the beginning that it would be possible to replace the carp by another of our fresh water fish, such as the eel or trout, the prices of which are much higher. For the culture of the eel special conditions are essential, and the habits ofthe fish are such as to make its culture in ponds uncertain and undesirable. On account of its high price the trout has already been made the subject of many experiments, but of all those I have seen undertaken I have not observed a single one which has been a success from a commercial point of view. The reason can be easily stated: First, the ordinary pond rarely contains water of a temperature during the summer sufficiently low to suit the trout or even to keep it alive, for this fish will not endure a temperature above 18° centigrade ; besides, the calm and stagnant water of the pond is not calcu- lated to please it. It is a fish of rapid streams, of waters incessantly moving and aerated, of the rapid cascades which it ascends joyfully even when they boil like a cauldron ; (6) finally, it 1s a carnivorous fish, a great feeder, and when at liberty in a water-course it has the habit of migrating if a sufficient supply of food is not present and establishing itself elsewhere. In a pond the trout is a prisoner and it must submit to the conditions im- posed upon it, and these do not agree with its inde- pendent spirit. When the small fish available for it are exhausted, and they are rapidly exhausted, the young come to a standstill and the fish are reduced to insect food, scarcely sustaining themselves, and do not grow any more. Add to this the fact that the breeders who have made these attempts and who have favorable conditions for the fish have made a mistake by attempting to cul- tivate the trout by methods which they apply to the carp. This is a fundamental error; a carnivorous ani- mal will never accommodate itself to the mode of life or conditions which are suitable for herbivorous ones. For all these reasons the rearing of the trout in ponds, though often attempted, has not become current among fish culturists. Still I am convinced that under favor- able conditions this rearing will be possible, but it will be necessary to follow a totally different method. I have in my experiments here been greatly aided by the importation of Salmonidz, which have fur- nished the means necessary to resolve this problem by having placed in my hands a fish of superior delicacy of flesh and combining all the qualities desirable for pond culture. In 1879, the Aquarium of the Trocadéro received, through the courtesy of the U. S. Fish Commission and at the request of the National Society of Acclima- tization, the eggs of three species of salmon success- fully cultivated in America. I devoted myself ardently to the rearing of these fish with the object of introducing and acclimatizing them in the waters of France. I have rested my hopes 76 upon two of them, for I have not been misled as to the difficulties inherent in this experiment. But the way being prepared I have not lost sight of pond cul- ture, and as I gradually learned more of the habits and characteristics of these new species I have not been slow to remark that one of them combines the qualities which make it suitable for simple and eco- uomic culture, and that by modifying the methods one may secure a new pond fish, the cultivation of which will be infinitely more remunerative than that of the carp. Without entering more into details I will give the names of the three species of fish. First: California Salmon. Its technical name is Sa/mo guinnat, and it is called the California salmon because it is very abundant in the rivers of California. Its form is elongate, its sides silvery white, the back greenish gray or blueish and spotted with numerous brown spots ; the head is large, mouth wide, caudal fin deeply forked and pointed at the extremities. It has no red spots on the side like the trout. Its size is large, individuals weighing twenty kilograms having been taken. Its flesh is ex- tremely delicate, of a yellowish apricot color, sometimes deeply pink. It spawns in October. Second: ‘The Rainbow Trout, Salmo trideus. This is also from California. In general form it resembles the common trout (Sa/mo fario). It sides are yellowish white, the back brown, marked with elon- gated spots descending very low on the body; the caudal fin is truncate, but the fish is especially distin- guished by a beautiful rose band, which extends along the sides from the opercle to the caudal fin. The oper- cle itself is strongly tinged with pink. The rainbow trout does not reach the proportions of the California salmon. It does not exceed fifty to sixty centimeters (twenty to twenty-four inches); its flesh is sometimes TG white with a tinge of yellow, sometimes pink, accord- ing to surroundings, less delicate than that of the Cal- ifornia salmon. It spawns in April. Third: The Brook Trout, or Salmo fontinalis. Its form resembles that of the trout; it is a very pretty fish. Its fins are margined with white, which, with its dark sides, spotted with white, give it a strik- ing resemblance to the ombre-chevalier. Like the rain- bow trout it does not reach a great size. These three kinds of fish have been made the sub- ject of many experiments in the Trocadéro Aquarium. I have studied their habits, their characteristics, in order to appreciate their qualities and their advantages, and have endeavored to learn thoroughly their repro- duction and rearing. The qualities which radically distinguish these species from our native Salmonide are important. First, their growth is more rapid. It is possible in ten months to bring them to a weight of three hundred grams. At three years they may measure twenty- eight to thirty-two inches and weigh from thirteen to fifteen pounds. They do not offer any difficulties on account of purity of the water, and accept surroundings to which our trout would not submit. They endure high temperature; they will live in roily water of a temperature of 25° centigrade, while the trout suc- cumbs at 18°. Finally, these salmon, in spite of their name of salmon, are not obliged to go to sea to prepare for their reproduction. ‘They can live and reproduce in fresh water. So, although zddlogically they are salmon, from the culinary standpoint they are trout. It is true that in California Sa/mo guznnat descends the Sacramento, but this journey is not obligatory. In the tanks of the Trocadéro the quinnat reproduces wonderfully, and after five generations its spawning is today as ample as at the beginning. In studying their qualities I have observed among 78 these three species certain differences, which caused me to become attached especially to the California salmon. Its. flesh is very superior in quality, as has been remarked by certain authors, to that of the rain- bow trout, and this is an important thing to be taken into consideration in its acclimatization. In order to make the comparison it is necessary to eat- fish of the same age, raised under the same conditions, and at liberty. It will be seen then that the rainbow trout is far from having the same delicacy as the California salmon. Its flesh is a little hard and dry, resembling that of the white fish, while the quinnat has fine, tender, and creamy flesh like the Scotch trout or the very young salmon. The California salmon has another advantage over its two congeners—its reproductive period is very ad- vanced. It spawns in the second half of October, while the brook trout spawns in December, and the rainbow not until April. This peculiarity is of the highest importance ; it is that upon which is based my preference for the California.salmon in the method of culture which we are to explain. In the enumeration of these qualities there has been less question about the brook trout than the other two species. ‘This is because the fish has not the same adaptability to artificial culture; it is more capricious in its habits; it is oftener subject to inexplicable mor- tality, and on these accounts I have relegated it to the third place, at least for|the present. | In that which follows I will confine myself ‘to the California salmon. In the first place we must ask ourselves the ques- tion whether the California salmon is susceptible of culture in ponds. On this subject I have made numer- ous experiments, which have furnished precise and conclusive results, and which prove that it lives very well in ponds, thriving in them remarkably well. 79 Without fatiguing you with all these experiments, I will cite two which were undertaken in a small and a large pond. Dr. Léon Lefort, Vice-President of the Society of Acclimatization of Paris, has raised California salmon and rainbow trout in a pond of a hectare and a half in Sologne. The alevins were furnished by the Troca- déro Aquarium. They were about eight centimeters long when they were placed in this pond of compara- tiv ely high temperature. After two years’ sojourn in the pond the oh reached an average size of twenty- four inches. With the assistance of the Fishery Society of Langres (Haute-Marne) I made a rearing experiment in the pond of Leiz, situated near that town. This is a body of water covering two hundred hectares and has no streams flowing into it. We were therefore assured that no predaceous fish would destroy the alevins which we placed there. Under these conditions before the third year the California salmon reached a weight of six to seven kilograms and a length of thirty-one inches, and some of them reproduced. It is therefore shown by our experiments that the American Salmonide live very well in a pond and grow rapidly. Let us inquire before leaving this sub- ject how it is possible to rear these fishes as regularly as carp are raised. In taking carp culture as a type we do not expect the same results, and it is partly by having misunderstood this principle that the attempts made with trout have been unsuccessful. Fish culture should be a methodical process, pro- ducing returns with certainty and regularity. Carp culture has for its object the bringing of this fish to a size advantageous for market purposes, but the carp is not marketable until it reaches a minimum weight of ne kilogram, and it finds a better sale when it reaches a Reso of two, three, or four kilograms. If we wish 80 to keep them long enough in a pond to attain this weight and the best perfection possible, we must arrange the ponds in such a way as to secure this as rapidly as possible. The case is by no means the same either with trout or California salmon. ‘These fish are marketable when they have attained the weight of two hundred grams, and it is to be observed that they bring a better return at this weight than those weighing two, three, four, or more kilograms. As a matter of fact in the Paris market the large trout bring eight francs, while the small ones of two hundred grams are sold at ten francs. But a carp weighing two hundred grams is not edi- ble. It is precisely this difference between the Cali- fornia salmon and the carp which serves as a basis for organizing the new method of culture, which I have the honor to explain. We seek merely to obtain small Salmonide, and this permits us to secure an annual return, a thing which the carp rarely furnishes. Doubtless this difference in the method of culture will incommode not a little the fish culturist who 1s in the habit of raising carp. But pond culture of the California salmon as I shall explain it is very simple. As in all intensive culture this requires care, fre- quently greater care than with the carp; but we shall see that it yields nearly ten times as much as carp culture. We will now for greater clearness inquire succes- sively into the different conditions which may present themselves in pond culture. Suppose, in the first place, a property contains many ponds, some with warm water, others with cold water, a condition of frequent occurrence, how shall these ponds be arranged for use in the culture of the Salmonide ? The principal prerequisite for a pond culturist 81 should be to insure abundant nourishment for the fish. In the culture of the carp, which is herbivorous, the ponds must be well supplied with certain species of aquatic plants. I have insisted so strongly upon this point in my recommendations for the last ten years that many proprietors of ponds begin to recognize its value. At present we seek to raise carnivorous fishes, and all our efforts should lead primarily towards securing an abundant supply of animal food. Certain special- ists have believed that they could solve this problem by an unlimited supply of crustaceans; this is the sys- tem of Lugrin. I have demonstrated in experiments made at the Trocadéro Aquarium that feeding by means of daphnia is simply a dangerous illusion. These little animals possess very small value as food, and fish which are subjected to this regime do not grow. But it is important to the fish culturist that his prod- ucts grow as quickly as possible, and to accomplish this we must not forsake food materials of rich quality, like meat, blood, ete. We employ the two series of ponds, of warm water and cold water, for different purposes. The warm ponds in which fish reproduce and grow rapidly, because plants grow in them, are used to raise herbivorous fish of rapid growth, like the carp, tench, and roach. In this new method of culture the carp and its rearing does not entirely disappear. It is simply rele- gated to the second place, and cultivated, not for the purpose of obtaining fish of marketable size, but for the fry, which are intended for feeding the Salmonide. . Carp, roach, and tench, hardy fishes of which the multiplication is unlimited and the growth rapid, will be grown in warm ponds, but produced in such a man- ner as to remain small, and in order to obtain this result we allow the breeding ponds to be overstocked with eggs, a thing which was avoided carefully under 82 the old methods, but which on the contrary we seek to attain, because we desire nothing but to produce fry smaller than the carnivorous fish which are to feed upon them. Besides, the American Salmonide, and particularly the California salmon, develop much more rapidly and much earlier than the fry of the Cyprinidae. In August the young carp measure scarcely four centi- metres, and at the same time the California salmon are ten centimetres long at least if they have been properly raised. Thus, the new method of culture is based upon the abundant production of minnows with a view to their transformation into flesh of the Salmonide, and in the two series of ponds we conduct two methods of rearing, each of which is equally important. It is clear that each type of pond will be differently man- aged. ‘The warm ponds should have the banks sloping, should be shallow and well exposed to the sun. The bottom should be furnished with an abundance of plants of suitable height. The choice of these plants should not be left to chance, but made with judgment, according to the dif- ferent species of fish which are to inhabit the ponds. As these aquatic plants are not well known to fish culturists, I will mention those which are useful for ponds intended for the cultivation of carp, tench, and roach. At the end of February or the beginning of March the breeding fish are placed in the pond according to custom, but in double the usual number, in order to insure a surplus production of fry, the securing of a very great quantity of eggs here being the sole object of the operation. Spawning will take place at the end of May, and the pond will contain a considerable number of alevins, which will be three or four centimetres long, in August. It will be easy to catch them with fine seines and to 83 transport them quickly to the cold ponds devoted to the rearing of Salmonide. The fish culturist must proportion the number of young of the Cyprinide which he will need to the number of Salmonidze which he desires to feed, and experience will quickly teach him this proportion, which will of course vary with the surrounding condi- tions and the additional nourishment, more or less, which can be obtained from the worms and insect larvee in the pond; besides, if there should be a surplus of food for the Salmonide he can easily sell it to other fish culturists. As a general rule, the young carp and tench will be eaten up before they have reached the length of eight centimetres. No advantage is to be derived from allowing them to grow larger. Every year the fish culturist will then secure a new production of fry. There is nothing in this which is either complicated or calculated to embarrass the fish breeder. Let us proceed now to the arrangement of the cold ponds (I repeat that by cold ponds I mean ponds in which the water is not more than 16%, centigrade), Nevertheless, since we have to do here with California salmon, we may consider as cold ponds those in which the temperature rises to 24°,centigrade during the heat of summer, that is to say, a truly cold pond of the ordi- nary kind for Salmonide is not a necessity in this method of culture, which has succeeded marvelously in regions provided almost entirely with warm ponds, as at Sologne. Since a locality always contains some ponds which are cooler than others, I recommend to the fish cul- turist to give the cooler ones the preference in rearing the California salmon. ‘There are a number of reasons for this which I will not enter into here. It will be well to arrange beside these ponds one or two moderately large elongate basins, in which the 84 water can be circulated. These basins are intended for the rearing of the salmon alevins, and in this way time may be saved, because the young increase much more rapidly in them than if they were at liberty in a pond. The rearing basins, dug in the soil, should have a depth of at least half a metre to one and one fifth metres, and the banks should be sloping. A width of a metre and a half will be very practicable. They need not be fully stocked with aquatic plants; a few clumps may be placed in them, which can be arranged in pots buried in the gravelly bottom. ‘The plants which should have the preference are the large- leafed Potamogetons and the Menuphars; at first they will serve to oxygenate the water and later to furnish shade for the young. The breeder may have recourse either to eggs or to alevins; the latter are always high priced and difficult to transport. It is, therefore, much more practical to procure the eggs, and, from another point of view, it almost always happens that alevins which are pur- chased have been injured and have not been properly fed. It is well to know that in this case the inevitable result will be an arrest of development. ‘They will not become large, no matter how favorable the conditions in which they are placed. Preference should be given to eggs, which involves a slight complication, it is true, because it will be necessary to hatch them; but nothing is easier, and we have today hatching apparatus so simple and practical that hatching is merely a pleasure. The price of fertilized eggs of California salmon is about eighteen to twenty francs a thousand. After hatching, the fry are transported to the rear- ing basin, and at the end of about fifteen days, without waiting for the complete absorption of the yolk sack— I insist especially upon this point—the feeding should be commenced. ‘The food should be suspended daily 85 in the water by means of a zinc vessel placed about twenty centimetres from the bottom. The general principles of rearing fry should be followed rigorously. In feeding them one should not seek for variations or for imaginary improvements. It should be our aim to eTow the alevins rapidly and give them the richest and most easily assimilated food. For more than ten years I have employed for this purpose the spleen of beef, calf, or horse, the price of which is low and its preparation very simple, because it is given raw and its nutritive properties are very great. This substance has been employed for food of the youngest salmon at the Aquarium of the Trocadéro almost exclusively since 1883, and many fish culturists have followed our example. Blood is also an excellent and cheap food. It should be slightly cooked in hot water. One may ignore all other forms of nourish- ment, particularly daphnia and the prepared foods which are so extensively advertised. What number of alevins can be reared per hectare? Experience has shown me that if the conditions are favorable one may raise without danger in a hectare of water, with an average depth of one and one half metres, two hundred kilograms of Salinonide at least. iG then, the fish culturist follows my advice by raising California salmon to the weight of two hundred grams, he will place one thousand alevins in a hectare. If he desires to raise fish of a larger size he must use fewer per hectare. Here are, in this respect, the approxi- mate numbers : 1000 salmon of 200 grams per hectare. ce ee ce 500 *“ 400 200 ‘1 kilogram ‘ a 125 ce 1% ee ce ce These numbers are the results of numerous experi- ments which I have made upon this point, and I have taken pains to give the minimum, which may often be surpassed under favorable conditions, 86 At what time should we place the alevins in the pond, and in what time may we expect them to reach marketable size? The spawning of the California salmon takes place very early, and on account of this precocity it is chosen as the basis for pond culture. With it we are able to complete the culture in one year, a very great advantage which one cannot realize either with the common trout or the rainbow trout, because the former grows very slowly and the latter does not spawn until April. The eggs of the California salmon, deposited at the end of Octo- ber, hatch im the middle of December “It theyre placed at this time in the rearing basin and properly fed, they will measure on an average twelve centi- metres by the middle of July, and will then be very suitable for liberating in the pond. If the temperature of the year has been very high, and the spawning of the carp takes place early, we may doubtless place the salmon in the pond earlier. By all means the young salmon should be placed in the pond not later than in August. At this time a great many of the Cyprinide will be sufficiently devel- oped to answer for their food. ‘The fish culturist then proceeds to seine the alevins with a fine net and to place the salmon in the pond which has been well furnished with its food. The breeder from this moment should exercise a continual supervision over the pond and assure himself | that there is constantly an excess of small fish, for it is essential, in order that the salmon may grow rapidly, that they should find a superabundance of nourish- ment. Besides, one should be careful not to place too many in the pond at a time and thus cause difficulty. These young Cyprinidz do not find favorable con- ditions for their existence in the salmon pond and will become sickly and furnish indifferent food for the young salmon. ~ Fy 8 Beginning from the commencement of August, in what time may we hope that the salmon will attain to the weight of two hundred grams? Herein the super- lority of the California salmon over other fishes is demonstrated. I do not know any other of which the growth is so rapid when placed under favorable condi- tions. It does not require more than six months for a young salmon of twelve centimetres, placed in a pond at the end of July, to acquire the weight of half a pound. One may obtain even better results by placing these fish under certain conditions, but this is about the average with current methods. We may, therefore, at the end of January market our salmon. It will be seen that pond culture by the method which I have indicated can be made to give a very gratifying annual return. If the breeder desires to obtain larger salmon, instead of catching them at the end of January he should continue the rearing in the same manner, and at the end of the second year he will obtain salmon measuring forty-five to fifty centimetres. I need not add that if one cultivates fish of greater weight than two hundred grams, the number per hectare ought to be reduced in proportion to their size. Upon this sub- ject I refer to a table which I have given above. As far as my experience permits me to judge, the breeder should limit himself to the average weight of two hundred kilograms per hectare under ordinary conditions. I have reference to a hectare of standing water, for if the pond is traversed by a sufficiently rapid current, such as would be furnished by abundant springs, it is evident that this proportion may be increased. I, therefore, give the amount of two hun- dred kilograms as a good average, rather low, but it may serve as a rule in the majority of cases. If one exceeds this amount very much, he will experience disastrous results, which should be avoided at all cost. 88 DISCUSSION ON THE PAPER OF DR. TARLETON H. BEAN. Mr. Cheney: The reference to daphnia as fish food in Dr. Bean’s translation seems to be in direct contradiction to the experience of the late Mr. Thos. Andrews, of England, and of Mr. Chas. G. Atkins in this country, in that Dr. Jousset de Bellesme condemns the little crustacean and Mr. Andrews and other fish breeders highly approve of it as food for fishes. This is explainable, perhaps, when it is understood that the French fish breeder desires to obtain quick results in rearing fish for market, while Mr. Andrews and Mr. Atkins commend the daphnia for very young fish, to be reared for breeding, and not for the table, and I think the daphnia should not be condemned as fish food simply because it is not food on which to rear fish to half a pound weight in a given time, for undoubt- edly daphnia constitutes a large portion of the food of our young fishes in wild waters. Dr. Bean: I ought not to take the floor any fur- ther, but I think I may not have made it perfectly clear that I have seen California salmon reared by Dr. Jousset de Bellesme—and I think probably there are others of our members who have seen them too—in the Trocadéro Aquarium, and even as early as July, when our own trout would be at the most three or four inches long, he had fish six inches long, and he raised them in the way he described. It appeared to me that I had never seen handsomer or bigger fish than he had in the Aquarium. In that little place, where he has only four pools for all his experiments with salmon, he gets sixty thousand eggs of the California salmon every year, hatches them, and raises thirty thousand fry. The whole place is run at an expense of twenty-five hun- dred dollars a year. 89 Mr. H. Whitaker: Itis avery difficult thing to dis- cuss a paper of the scope of this paper on the spur of the moment, and it must be left for larger considera- tion until we have had time to read and digest it. There are some things which the writer states that are certainly antagonistic to the views that are com- monly held. Not more than a year or two ago, a very skilled physician, Dr. Feurth, of Germany, settled in Detroit. A year or so after he came to Detroit to reside, he came and introduced himself as a gentleman who had been interested in fish culture abroad, and since that time I have found reason to know that he was a practical man in fish culture. I found also that he was familiar with the literature of this country regarding fisheries and fish culture. There was noth- ing, apparently, that had not been brought to his atten- tion. There is a remark in this paper that is entirely opposed to what Dr. Feurth told me with regard to the brown trout. His familiarity with the subject was such that I inquired of him what temperature of water they were best calculated to be put into. He assured me and urged me to have some put into our rivers in the extreme southern portion of the state, and he instanced one or two places in Germany where the brown trout had been introduced into water at a tem- perature of 70° in summer, and he said they thrived beyond all expectation. We have made the expert- ment this year, and yet the writer of the paper says they will not thrive in warm water. It makes no dif- ference about the exact temperature ; the writer in- tended to intimate that they were not calculated for warm waters, irrespective of exact degree. Dr. Bean: ‘This paper refers to California salmon. Mr. H. Whitaker: I am speaking of the brown trout. Ifthe remarks meant anything, it is that they are better adapted to cold than to warm waters. But 90 this gentleman from Germany, who has lived there all his life and is well informed, assured me that the brown trout was doing exceedingly well in waters of 70° im Summer ; So ‘there is: a’ diflerence—of scomme doctors disagree. There is a very interesting point in connection with this paper—the marvelous statement of this gen- tleman who says carp are to be despised, because they are socheap. The price of carp here rivals the price of our better fish in our markets, and in some cases far exceeds it. Let me say a word for the much despised and much disparaged carp. Of all the varieties of for- eign fish attempted to be put in American waters, I look upon the carp as one of the most successful and desirable. ‘This may be the rankest heresy, but I tell you it is a fact, and the future 1s going to show that it will occupy a distinct place in our domestic economy. Its strongest feature will be as a food for the poorer peo- ple. I do not know, taking into consideration the prices current as given in the Fishing Gazette, but that it will be too high for the common people, because the wholesale prices reported. in the Fishing Gazette, which I have had collated for more than two years, show a wholesale price, I think, a little over six cents a pound, and there are some other men to make a profit out of it still. It is an edible fish. A great mistake regarding carp in this country is that the general belief of the people has been that it is a rare fish, and that it is a rival of the trout or the white fish, or some other desirable fish. Nobody ever introduced it with that idea. I do not believe it, although it is highly esteemed with the food fish of Germany, surrounded by the glamor of the romance of the royal dish for the king ; at the same time it is a good fish and must enter into our domestic economy. One word with regard to the fry. In Michigan we have not attempted to introduce the carp into our Great 91 system, and the result was that a year ago last fall a Frenchman was fishing at Point Mouille, on Lake Erie, and he “‘cot seventy-fiv de barl of carb” and did n’t know what it was. To showthe importance of that in our locality, I had our statistical agent take two days and go through our markets and make inquiry of the fish dealers as to what value the carp was, what mag- nitude the sales were, and the sales last year in the Detroit market were seventy tons, which is quite a considerable amount for a fish which introduced itself. Lake system, and have put it into very few rivers. But nature takes care of that thing. The fishermen are robbing our lakes of all the good fish, irrespective of size, and the question is, what is going to become of our waters, and in a measure the carp is solving the question for us. We have a great many applications for fish, as all commissions have. A man wants fish, and will take carp if he cannot get anything else, and some take it out of preference. He builds himself what he calls a pond, and the average farmer thinks he has exerted himself far enough if he throws up a bank of soil that will hold water in the dry season. Fortunately, the freshets of spring and summer time come along, and they wash out his pond as a matter of course. The result is that the connecting stream is stocked with carp, that stream enters into the Lake But above and beyond all that, he must occupy another position, and in that respect I agree with the writer of the paper. I was talking the matter over with Dr. Bean yesterday. It is going to be the food, or should be the food, of our better varieties of fish, as suggested here. They are prolific and the young are an edible fish, and you simply convert the carp into a better fish, sothat you have the carp as a valuable factor there. There is one more remark I want to make in connection with this paper. You will observe that he 92 suggests the planting of fish before they lose their sac, which I entirely agree with, and which I have reason to believe is a good thing. For the last two years we have been planting our trout before the sac has been fully absorbed. The result is that you get a good, strong, healthy fish, and when he swims out he is able to take his natural food. ‘To discover when fish begin to feed, we have instituted some experiments in regard to white fish. We have taken them as soon as hatched and put them into receptacles, so arranged as to permit the free ingress of water with the natural food it car- ries, and we then made exanzinations under the micro- scope of the contents of the stomach of these fish. On the third day our commission was engaged, and we did not give the matter attention, but at the end of the fourth day they found that some of the young fish were taking the daphnia and that sort of thing from the water. At the end of the sixth day they found that food in the stomach of every one, and the sac was not yet absorbed. This was with white fish. Mr. Cheney: How about trout? Mr. Whitaker: We never tried it with trout. Mr. Cheney: Would you plant the trout before the sac is absorbed ? Mr. Whitaker: We do, and have done for the last two years. The result is that in taking fish out at that age we have lost almost nothing in transportation. We believe, beyond all doubt, that it 1s a good thing. There are some other points in connection with the paper that come to mind, but I will not occupy the time of the meeting any further. I think the thanks of the Society are due to Dr. Bean for submitting the translation of this paper to us, and when we have opportunity to look it over we shall be glad to do so. Mr. Titcomb: One subject that has been referred to by Mr. Whitaker has somewhat shattered my hopes. Up to this year it has been the custom of the fish com- 93 mission in our state to plant the fry before the sac was quite absorbed. The result was that we had to plant them before the conditions were right. This year we hatched our fry in spring water. They were all hatched in April, and fed in April, up to the last of April. At that time our streams were full of floods and the snow was not out of them until the first of May, and the result was that we fed our fry a month before planting them, and, in fact, we have not planted them all yet. We have been distributing the last two weeks, and in every instance where we put them out the applicants have been very enthusiastic about the _ condition in which the fry have been received, and we have greater hopes of the future results of these plans than in cases where we planted previously with the sac nearly absorbed, and before the streams were in proper condition to receive them. I have come to the conclu- sion that the time to plant them is after the sac is absorbed. Dr. James: I think this Society ought to feel thankful if an experiment of this kind has been made to succeed, even if it goes a little in opposition to the ordinarily accepted views and experiments of former observers. It seems to me that it is a very long step in the direction of furnishing a better food to the people at a more moderate rate, comparing the amount of actual nutrition which is obtained in the same length of time, say two or three years, so that looking forward from the standpoint which I take in this mat- ter in the way of protecting the fish, in order that a greater amount of value may be obtained from it for the people, I think it is a valuable experiment, and I am glad to see it has so well succeeded. With regard to the carp, I want to say that the thing Mr. Whitaker spoke of occurred to me some years ago, when I owned a farm with two or three ponds uponit. I obtained the carp from the United 94 States Fisheries, at their propagating grounds at Wash- ington, and planted them, and on both occasions through the heavy rains, notwithstanding that I took, as I thought, ample precautions, I lost all my carp after they had pretty well grown; and in the large stream right near there, about half a mile below where my ponds were, connected by a stream, two years after that they were finding an abundance of carp, and the boys around the neighborhood were much rejoiced to catch large carp in the main stream. I think some of my neighbors, likewise, lost their fish in the same way ; so that I think we were instrumental in quite largely populating the Vancouver stream, on which my farm was located, and in the surplus water of which we undertook to propagate fish, was. pretty well filled with the carp. ie) Or INTER-STATE PROTECTION OF FOOD FISHES. BY DR. BUSHROD W. JAMES—-PHILADELPHIA FISH PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION. Some years ago the subject of the United States Government exercising a certain fish protecting con- trol, or at least supervision over the rivers which run through two or more states, and which are frequented by shad, herring, salmon, trout, bass, and other species of food fishes, was presented before this American Fisheries, or Fish Protective Society, by the late United States Fish Commissioner Marshall MacDonald, and it was ably defended by some members of this Society, the United States Fish Commission, I think, generally supporting it; but the majority of opinion outside seemed, at that time, to be unfavorable to the measure. The proposition was made for the purpose of secur- ing protection to the fish along the coast and also when they are in the act of passing across the state lines in order to enter their spawning grounds in the upper rivers and their tributaries. Each part of the discus- sion was clearly in favor either of United States super- vision or of state supremacy, but decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States have been made that the measure would be unconstitutional, so that each state maintains its exclusive right over its fishing streams, except in a few instances, such as the states of 96 Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, where these states have entered into an inter-state protective agree- ment, which still remains imperfect, however, until Delaware joins in the compact. This agreement specially relates to the shad, which, running up on our eastern coast, and into their habitat rivers and streams, attain the perfection of flavor and superiority of quality in the waters of the Delaware River. For many miles the four states herein mentioned have exclusive rights to this desirable fish, and it having been proven that non-protection would finally result in extermination, the wisdom of inter-state legislation was acknowledged and joint-protection laws adopted. Del- aware doubtless holds the law under protracted consid- eration because of the vast numbers of fish that have annually fallen into her nets, but when she becomes satisfied that the proposed legislation will actually produce better effects for the fisheries of her own domain, as well as that of her sister states, she will, I have no doubt, accept the proposed legislation without further demur. It stands to reason that if a co-operative law guards the fish during the spawning season, the number will increase in surprising ratio. Another thing to be considered is the unpalatable- ness of fishes that are hurrying into shallow waters in order to deposit their ora. The flesh is soft and some- what flavorless, and of late years particularly the roe alone of spawning shad is regarded as valuable. In some of our markets the body of the fish can be pur- chased for a small sum in comparison to the price paid for the crisp, bright flesh of the male, while the roes bring fancy prices according to the wealth of the pur- chasers. I must confess to an idea that a single debate is not sufficient in such a matter, but that we should urge it from time to time, until all the individual states thus 97 interested arrive at some suitable inter-state legislation, that will produce lasting benefit to all concerned. We would refer in this connection to the acknowl- edged benefit accruing from the fish hatcheries that have deposited several varieties of young fish in the upper streams of many of our important rivers. If artificially hatched fry produce such commendable re- sults, 1s it not easy to understand how protection of the breeding fishes and their young must necessarily amount to still greater good, because of the very much larger number that would be produced through the natural course of fish spawning, increased production meaning increased revenue? We must consider that it is the bounden duty of the states to provide in every possible honorable man- ner for the increase of every industry within the limits of their jurisdiction, and that the supplying of food fish is and always has been a very prominent industry in our coast and lake bordering states particularly. We have had it demonstrated to our perfect conviction that indiscriminate fishing with the numerous devices of modern invention has very nearly ruined the food fish- ing interests in certain waters, and that whole towns and bays have been nearly impoverished by the lack of supply for home consumption, as well as for trade. We have also had very satisfactory demonstration of the astonishing benefit already derived by the pro- tective systems recently adopted by several states, espe- cially in reference to the Delaware River. Therefore, we cannot but express the firm conviction that the governments of the respective states should act in such a manner as to make mutual state laws to suit the various localities, not taking the laws of Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey as the text, but let the leg- islation for each part of the country be consistent with the requisites of each. New York and Pennsylvania may well be satisfied with the outcome of their legis- 98 lation thus far, and the example of each might well serve as a beacon for all other states. But year after year passes and border waters still remain unguarded to a very great extent. Maryland is now making efforts through her State Fish Protective Association and her commissioners to join with Pennsylvania in protecting the Susque- hanna and its great tributary branches. They have already succeeded in exterminating all authorized means for fishing in this great river which runs through Maryland territory, where the objectionable pounds and wiers once almost depopulated the upper waters of this valuable fish, the shad, just as it was aiming to reach the breeding places along the upper branches of the Susquehanna. The Potomac is yet but partially guarded. Mary- land has passed a law, which applies to the Potomac and its tributary rivers, forbidding fishing from April 15th to June rst, but it has thus far only received the co-operation of Virginia, and the law cannot be prop- erly enforced until West Virginia laws concur in the | project. Thus two inter-state laws are held somewhat inoperative, each because of the non-concurrence of one single state for each in a compact which would in real- ity receive equal advantage if they would but study the matter with unbiased consideration. Delaware evi- dently holds back because she has the opportunity of access to the large schools of fish as they turn with unwavering instinct toward the calm, pure, shallow waters of the upper Delaware River and its communi- cating streams in Southern New York and Northern Pennsylvania. But can the state of Delaware claim the same commercial value for the fish as she takes them, and the same fish as taken in the upper stream under the protective laws of the three adjoining states? I think prices will and must speak; and this very season we have some proof. Before the legalized sea- 99 son in Pennsylvania it was possible to buy large roe shad for from twenty-five to thirty-five cents, while the males sold for much less. Some of the fish were quite satisfactory, but most were soft, devoid of their usual rich flavor, and objectionable, though undoubtedly fresh. Then came a week or two when right fresh shad could not be had in any quantity, and then came the “real fine Delaware shad,” no larger than the for- mer, but possessing the true, rich flavor peculiar to the perfect up-river fish with its firm white flesh, and these were entirely unattainable in the market at retail under forty-five or fifty cents for the smaller, while the choice specimens ran up to a higher price. Now, if the more southern states were content to legislate with the northern, and permit the spawning fish to ascend the streams unmolested on certain days of each week, the shad season would not begin so early in the year, but the catch would be more valuable in the end. We think it would be wise to teach those who are inter- ested in the fisheries that when a roe shad is large and flabby and the eggs quite large and distinct from one another, that the flesh thereof is really quite unfit for good food, and that in selfishly taking the roe, the increase of the number of fishes by spawning for the next season is lessened by many thousands, for each large roe fish that is caught and eaten diminishes the spawn supply accordingly, when indiscriminate fishing is permitted. Another thing that is to be taught is that all roe fishes that ascend with the schools in the running season do not deposit eggs, and therefore it does not preclude the possibility of obtaining the desir- able dainty fish to wait until the spawning fishes have gone to their haunts. When these questions are fully understood, Delaware and West Virginia, as well as all the other states, will doubtless see the plausibility, in fact, the necessity for this inter-state legislation. But while states in juxtaposition may be prevailed 100 upon to pass joint laws, it cannot be looked upon as a certainty that they will always maintain them, when it is found that the interests of one state comes into apparent opposition to those of its neighbors which border on the same waters. Hence, is seen the proof of the positive requirement of good conjoint laws. They must not be too restrictive upon one territory, not be too lenient with another, and yet they must be of such a nature as to be the means of adding many hundreds of thousands of dollars of increased revenue, to each state interested, to the already present value of | the food fish industry. Another view to take of this very important subject is the probability that when the people of these states are more enlightened upon the subject, and take the matter into practical consideration, each state will be willing to co-operate, knowing that self-interest alone cannot make the best laws for all. This subject must naturally arouse some doubt in the minds of legislators of neighboring states, when each state is allowed to legislate only in its own way upon that which is truly a mutual affair. . The dissatisfaction that will surely exhibit itself in making inter-state laws, at first, will soon melt away before the proofs of the success of such agreements. The increased number and value of the food fishes which have been hatched in the different authorized fish hatcheries through the country, the fry from which have been deposited in rivers in many parts of different states, show the value of the plan too plainly to ever allow it to fall into disuse, but when the spawn- ing fish are so protected that they also will produce more largely, the industry will once more become peculiarly lucrative, not only to individuals, but to states and the country. Wealth always begets wealth if properly directed, and our state governments are not so rich as to be 101 indifferent to augmenting their revenues. Therefore, let us still keep it before the eyes of the proper author- ities that state legislation positively requires conjoint laws to improve the present situation. DISCUSSION ON THE PAPER OF DR. JAMES. Mr. Amsden: Any remarks on this paper just read by the gentleman from Pennsylvania must call to ~ mind one thing. ‘There is almost due, if not past due, a report from the joint commission appointed by the United States and Great Britain, of which Mr. Rath- bourne was one, which commission was to look up this subject of the depletion of .the Great Lakes, the cause, and make such recommendations for the future as were deemed wise. I have been looking many months for that report. I think it 1s now in the hands of the printer. That covers the same ground as the paper just read—this interesting matter of protection. I do not believe that we will ever get any national legisla- tion on this fish question, on account of the jealousy between the states and the state right question. It seems to me that this Association might be of great service in that direction, and do something more than meet once a year, and the thought occurred to me while the paper was being read why this Association could not authorize its President during the next year to take this subject up and go before the Legislatures of the states that stand out, like Delaware and West Virginia, and let him appear before them, and in argu- ment bring them around in line with the other states. The same condition exists on the Great Lakes. There the states do not act in unison, and never have. ‘Then the question of jurisdiction comes up that the states cannot act to form any treaty act between themselves 102 and the Dominion of Canada; it is only the United States that can join in any treaty, so that it makes it a difficult question to solve. ‘That thought occurred to me, why this Society cannot be of some benefit in bringing about joint state action, not only on the rivers, but the Great Lakes. Mr. Mather: The suggestion that Mr. Amsden makes, that the President of this Association do that, is a good one; but just exactly how the President of the Association shall do it, or where his funds are going to come from, I do not understand. Mr. H. Whitaker: His expenses to be paid from - his salary as President. Mr. Mather: This Association certainly cannot bear the expense of it, unless the President does it out of his salary as President. .(Laughter.) Mr. Dickerson: Ido not believe it is practicable to change the Constitutions of the several states so that the laws could be uniform, as suggested. I think that would be impossible to bring about. It occurs to me that the only way to do it is to go a little further than the gentleman has suggested, and that is, appoint a committee—I speak now of the lakes bordering on fresh water, the salt water lakes we have nothing to do with—but we need a uniform law for the protection of game and fish in all states bordering on fresh water lakes, and it seems to me the only way to do that is to appoint a committee of three or five, which shall draft a bill, which shall be uniform in all states bordering on the Great Lakes, and then let the fish commis- sioners of the various states ‘see that the bill is intro- duced, and if possible put through their Legislature. In our Legislature last year, if there was one, there were a dozen or more members said to me, ““When you can get Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania to join in a bill that shall be the same as ours, that shall be un1- form on all the Great Lakes, then we shall unite in 108 anything the Commission of Michigan may suggest.” I also have assurances from the authorities in Canada that in any bill we may agree upon they will meet us half way; and it seems to me that the only feasible way to do this is to appoint a committee to draft a bill, and have it uniform in all states, and put it through the various state Legislatures to which they belong. Mr. H. Whitaker: The suggestion contained in the paper of Dr. James is a very familiar one. There is no doubt that it does not lie in the authority of the United States to enforce any law to preserve the fish- eries interest. The thing has been re-affirmed by the United States Courts, and no later than sixty days ago, that the police power of regulating these things lies in the state authorities. We have got to forsake this idea of appealing to the General Government for a redress of our grievances. When we attempt it we admit the weakness of the state to enforce its police regulation. ‘The states have power, they do not lack power, but the difficulty in their way is the same that the United States would have to confront if they sought to have a law established, if it were possible, and that is the invested interest of money and means in the fisheries. The United States do not begin to be as able to cope with that sort of a question as the men who reside in the different states. The thing that will bring about better results than anything else is a conference between the states inter- ested in the matter and an agreement upon a uniform law to be passed, and for each state not only to bind itself that it will submit such a law to its Legislature, but that it will insist on its passage and enforcement. There is no question in the world that the fisheries of the Great Lake System, with which Iam more familiar than any other, are bound to be exterminated within the course of a very few years. I was called up onthe telephone by a wholesale fish dealer, from his house in 104 Detroit, within the last month. I asked him what he wanted. He said, ‘‘Come down here, I want to show you a barrel of fish. Itisad shame. We have fish here of your planting, and a dozen of them will not give a half-pound.”’ Mr. Amsden: Where were those fish taken? Mr. Whitaker: At Grand Haven. ‘They would not average a half-pound to each white fish. There were from two thousand to twenty-five hundred white fish in a barrel. There were some heavy (?), and if not heavy (?) were too small to be caught. I told the dealer I would like to have his bill and letter. He said I could have them both, and he gave them to me. Unfortunately, in our state, the administration of the fishery laws does not reside in the commission, but is given to a separate bureau. Fortunately, however, we have an active and efficient wardman there just now, and after bringing this matter to his attention, and in view of the fact that we have had eight years of ward- manship there, and there had never been an enforce- ment of the fisheries laws, he has taken steps to have this matter investigated. The man said, in his letter, that he could furnish a thousand pounds of fish a day of this kind, and as two dealers were supplying them there was sixty to seventy thousand pounds of white fish a month, not within two years of the spawning age. Mr. Amsden: What is the violation of law for which the nets may be taken up? Mr. Whitaker: ‘The only law we have in Michigan waters protecting white fish'is a regulation we had passed eight years ago regulating the size of the mesh. We have nothing regulating the size of the fish. Mr. Amsden: What were the sizes of the nets? Mr. Whitaker: ‘The nets were seized because the lowest size we permit is two and one half inch mesh, and these were two and one fourth inches. As soon as 105 these men were arrested, the Associated Press dis- patches said there was to beariot inthe city. The business of these men was being ruined. What was their business? To violate the law. The dispatches said their business was being ruined and hundreds of families thrown out of means of support. Within forty-eight hours from that time—they did not have any riot, but the men were arrested all right—the nets were seized, not confiscated. Within forty-eight hours I received a communication from the committing magistrate and every Democrat and Republican of prominence in the locality, thinking they would have some influence with the Board, asking us to give these men permission to fish with their nets until the end of the year, and they would be good and not violate the law again, and would inform on their neighbors. I knew that we had no authority to grant this request, and with a knowledge of the history of the thing, as we understood it, we would not have granted it if we had. I called the Board together by telegraph, so that these men might not say that their petition had not received careful attention. We informed them that there was no provision in the statute in the State of Michigan that we knew of giving the fish commission power to waive the force and effect of the statute. Their next application was to the game warden for the same thing. After consultation with us, he gave them the same answer. On Friday of that week the Goy- ernor of the state happened to be in town, and I was informed that the fishermen went to him with their friends to make a personal application to the Governor. The Governor asked Mr. Dickerson and myself, who are the resident members, to come in and consult with him, and we did so. ‘The Governor has a backbone like a crowbar. He treated the matter with civility and heard these men, and in their petition to us that they stated that they were not to blame for those 106 imaginary Associated Press dispatches, and that the American Net and Twine Company representative induced them to have nets made of that size, and that they were not to blame. Inthe meeting at the Rus- sell House, where the Governor was present, these men openly and frankly admitted that they did order these nets of the size they were fishing with, and the repre- sentative of another net and twine company said that he had informed some of those identical men that they were fishing with nets whose meshes were of an illegal size. } That is the sort of thing we have to run up against in Michigan, and I say to you that Grand Haven is not a single instance. They are doing it all over the state, and the returns we get from our statistical agent last year show that nearly two thirds of the fish caught in Michigan waters are No. 2, which never get to a spawning age. It will be remembered that a year ago I suggested that authority be given to have a meeting called of the representatives of the Lake States, and it ought to be enlarged to take in all other.states, because a question of uniformity in one direction is just as important in another. I think that meeting would have been called last year, but there are several Lake States which have biennial sessions of the Legislature, and which do not meet until the first of January, 1897. If it is possible to do so, a meeting of that kind will undoubtedly be called somewhere on the Great Lake system for con- sultation this fall, and see if we cannot come to some agreement that will, at least on the Great Lakes, give us a uniform law. We cannot admit the weakness of the state in this thing, because the state must be able to enforce its laws in one direction equally as well as the other. You have got to meet invested capital every time, and it is a hard thing to fight. It is not the disposition of a single fish commission to injure a 107 man’s business, but his business may not come within the law; and moreover, the act that the fisherman exercises is a privilege and not a right. ‘The fisheries are the fisheries of the people, and whatever tends to injure the interest of the people in these fisheries, and which may lead to their extermination, must be re- sisted by the American Fisheries Society. ‘The statis- tical agent of our state told me he went into a fish dealer’s house on Mackinaw Island, and kicked open a keg of white fish, which contained fish of a size to require eight to make a pound, two ounces apiece. What do you think of that? Murder in the first de- gree. These fishermen are standing in their own light when they do anything like that. The fish which the dealer brought to my attention in Detroit, he said he got a half-cent a pound for. I asked him how much he would get if they were left in the water for two years, and he said six cents a pound. There is the thing in a nutshell. The people are expecting too much when they expect the fisheries are going to be renewed or sustained when you permit the parent fish to be taken out, and not only that, but you take the little fellows out before they have come near having the disposition or ability to spawn; and these things are matters which it is in the province of this Society to take cognizance of and correct. Mr. Douredoure: Can you form some idea of what it cost to put this fish in the water—how much per pound? Mr. Whitaker: I cannot tell you what it cost per pound. I can tell you what it cost the state of Michi- gan for the two years that we figured up, two years ago. Our total cost of fry put in was something like twelve cents anda half per thousand. In two locali- ties on the Great Lakes, at least, we have the state- ments of the fishermen that they are catching our fish. The dealer told me the other fish were not ours. ° 108 Those were in Lake Erie. There are certain charac- teristics of the Lake Erie fish which cause them to differ from Lake Michigan fish. They have a hump on their back, and can easily be told by a Lake Michi- gan fisherman. In the Detroit River a great number of fish have been put in the past year. The report shows that in the west end of Lake Erie they had better white fish last fall than for a number of years, and it only shows that they are beginning to feel the effects of the restrictions which we have placed upon the fishing. Mr. Amsden: It seems to me if there is any one subject the Society can take up and discuss with great benefit to the country at large it is this, and for the Society to meet once a year and publish its transactions, with a limited circulation, does not accom- plish what it should accomplish. Wecomplain because our membership is not larger and more interest 1s not taken in the Society. I think if we took hold of a sub- ject like this and acted on it forcibly, we would enlarge the membership of our Society and accomplish some- _thing. To my mind, the food fish is of very much more importance than the game fish, and as to the expense of doing this, which Mr. Mather questions, I am willing to pay a good deal larger dues, if necessary, so that it can be done. These transactions that we publish do not reach the quarters we desire them to reach, and it seems to me that when the Legislatures meet it would not be very expensive for our President and one or two of our members to go right there before the committees and argue the matter and convince them of these facts. It is the only way that I see in which you can do it. Mr. Gunckel: A word with reference to Western Ohio, as to these small fish. Ohio is in the position which has been stated here. They will say, we can- not do anything either, unless Michigan and Pennsyl- 109 vania will jointly do something. I was personally acquainted with some of the leading fish commis- sioners. When Major McKinley was Governor he came to Toledo and sent for me, and asked me whether I would go on the fish commission. I told him no, I would not. I will tell you why. The Ohio Legisla- ture does not recognize the five fish commissioners. Last summer they appointed a committee to go to Toledo, to go to Vermilion, to go to Port Clinton and Sandusky, to examine the fisheries. They ignored the fish commission, they ignored men who are con- nected with the American Fisheries Society in the position I am for the protection of fish, and they went to these places and were banqueted by these commer- cial men who are interested financially in the subject— the committee was banqueted and taken care of and not permitted to see any one that represented a class of men whose interests in the fisheries were on a higher plane than financial considerations—and this class of men is backed by all the newspapers of the city of Toledo, and the committee went home and arranged matters to suit the commercial interests. Congress- man Southard, from our district, has brought the mat- ter up again, aud says he is in communication with Governor. Bushnell, and has his approval; and we want to follow this thing up closely, and we want to know whether a reorganization of the fish commission of Ohio will not do something. I have been correspond- ing with Mr. Southard, and told him that the Legisla- ture should recognize the commission, or else throw the commission out and begin anew. The resolution that was passed here a little while ago appointing a member of this Society from each state to take an interest in this thing and see that the fish commissioners are recognized, if I remember cor- rectly, I think would do a great deal of good. The last two or three months I have taken a personal inter- 110 est in the American Fisheries Society. I have all the papers in Toledo back of this Society, and I think we are a little bit slow in waiting one year before pushing this thing. Let us begin now and start the thing where it belongs and will do the most good. I may be wrong, but these are things I observe from the outside, and I know I can bring the entire press of Northwest- ern Ohio in favor of anything that this Society may recommend. I am a member of the Press Club in Toledo, and I come with authority from them that they stand ready to aid you allin their power. I met the editor of the Commercial just before I left, and he said to me, “Mr. Gunckel, this paper stands ready at any time to back up the American Fisheries Society in their efforts for the protection of fish.” My attention was called some time ago to several barrels of fish from Toledo, of, pickerel, perch, and white fish, that they had to take back and dump into the bay for want of a market. They were too small to sell. The papers all had accounts shortly after that the shores were covered with dead fish, and it was this fish that had been dumped in the bay, because it was too small to sell in the market. Is the American Fisheries Society going to permit anything like that? Are not they smart enough to get around this business, and get hold of the-thing, check it? I have been stirred up very much over this subject, at times, and we should make a stand and prosecute this work. You have the good will of Major McKinley, the good will and backing of Governor Bushnell, and with such men as Mr. Whitaker in Michigan,'I don’t see why we can- not push things and make it go. Mr. H. Whitaker: I want to say a word right in line with the paper read by Dr. James, and that is on the question of government control. The greatest mistake that Ohio ever made in this world was when she relinquished her interest in the propagation of fish vee to others. She lost caste and standing in her own state, and I tell you nobody can watch the interests of a state so well as her own citizens. (Applause.) We came near falling into the same trap in Michigan, but we saw it in time to avert the disaster. The propo- sition plainly was this—let us take possession of your fisheries and we will take sixty per cent. and give you forty per cent. Why should not the state of Michigan have the hundred per cent.? It isa good deal like the arrangement of the planter with the negro. He said to the darkey, ‘I will give you so much land to work, I will furnish you the seed, and you shall do the work and have one third of the crop.” In the fall the darkey came around and said, “I come to see you now about settling up.” “What do you mean, you black cuss?” “The cotton crop is in, massa, and I thought I would come and settle up.” ‘What do you mean?” “You know, massa, I was to get one third of the crop.” “Why,” he says, ‘You black rascal, we did n’t raise but two thirds of a crop; your third was u’t raised.” (Laughter.) That is about the way the thing sums itself up. CONCERNING THE WORK OF THE FISHERIES, GAME, AND FOREST COMMISSION OF ‘FHE STATE OF NEW YORK. BY A. N. CHENEY) STATE FISH CULTURISIL. So far as the Fisheries, Game, and Forest Commis- sion of New York is concerned, the request of Dr. Bean, Recording Secretary of this Society, for a report showing results of work accomplished during the past year, may be summarized as follows : Applications were received from the people of the state for planting in public waters, for brook trout, 10,- 864,200; brown trout, 1,380,600; rainbow trout, 155,- 500; lake trout, 6,110,000; pike perch, 12)147;000% black bass, 1,136,075; white fish, 30,000,000; ciscoes, 34,000,000 ; frost fish, 2,000,000 ; total, 98,789,375. To fill their applications, the state hatched and had for the spring distribution fry as follows: Brook trout, 4,315,000; brown trout, 900,000; rainbow trout, 100,- 000; lake trout, 3,255,000; frost fish, 10,000,000 ; cis- COES, 32,000,000; white: fish, 11,750,000;5 / total, "o2e 320,000. In addition, 265,000 brook trout, 81,000 brown trout, 57,000 lake trout, 10,000 rainbow trout, 15,000 land- locked salmon, 3,000 sea trout from Europe, or a total of 431,000 fry, were retained at the hatchery stations to be reared to eight and twelve months of age before planting in wild waters. 113 The work of hatching and planting the spring spawning fishes is not yet completed, but it will be observed that of the various species of trout 18,510,000 fry were asked for, and only 8,560,000 were on hand to fill the applications. There was a shortage of 18,250,- 000 white fish, 2,000,000 of ciscoes, and a surplus of 8,000,000 of frost fish, which is the round white fish found in Adirondack waters. Among the fish not enu- merated, 76,000,000 of tom cods and 35,000,000 smelts were hatched and planted in Long Island waters; 50,- 000 eggs of the Atlantic salmon were received from the United States Fish Commission, and the fry hatched and planted in the head waters of the Hudson River, and 302,000 lobsters in Long Island waters. 100,000 eggs of the steelhead trout were also received from the United States Fish Commission, and hatched at the Caledonia and Cold Spring Harbor stations. It is the policy of the commission to give its atten- tion chiefly to what are termed commercial fishes, and in furtherance of,this policy 90,000,000 pike perch were hatched and planted as against 41,205,000 in 1895. This work of hatching commercial fishes has its limits, however, like all other fish cultural work, and the boundary point is the number of eggs that can be obtained. It is the policy of the commission also to rear as many of the salmon family to eight and twelve months of age before planting, as the facilities of the stations will permit. Heretofore these facilities have been very limited indeed, and in 1895 but 12,750 fingerlings of eight months, and yearlings of twelve months (I say yearlings of twelve months, for fingerlings of eight months are frequently called “ yearlings” by courtesy), including brook, brown, rainbow trout, and landlocked salmon, were distributed from the state hatcheries, and none were reared or planted previous to the organ- 114 ization of this commission. As I have already shown, 431,000 are now being reared, and arrangements have been made for building rearing ponds and boxes so that the output will be 1,000,000 in the nearby future. The experiment was made during the spring of changing trout fry and eggs from the water and food of one hatchery to that of another, much as members of the human family are moved from mountain to sea air, or vice versa, as a tonic, and the result, whether owing to the change alone or from other causes, has been the strongest, most vigorous fry turned out in years by the state, if the testimony of the hatchery men and the people who have received the fry is com- petent. Not a single complaint has been received that the fry were sick or weak or in poor condition. Yearling trout have been reared the past year that were nine inches long. I moved one lot of yearling trout, receiving them from a hatchery messenger after a journey of two hundred miles, and taking them seventy-five miles further without the loss of a fish, and there was scarcely one that was under the legal length of six inches. By legal length I mean the length exceeding which trout may be killed by statute when caught. The planting of trout over six inches in length will tend to render the efforts of the commis- sion void in stocking streams to make them self-sustain- ing, as every one of such fish planted in the spring may be legally caught and killed before they have an opportunity to spawn. It is for that and other reasons allied to it that the commissioners sought to obtain the power possessed by the New Hampshire Commission, and perhaps other state fish commissions, to enable them to close planted streams until the fish become established, or until they have had the opportunity to spawn at least once before they can be legally killed. As the law now stands it presents the curious anomaly of practically nullifying the efforts of the commission 115 to make the planted waters in a measure, at least, self-sustaining, and so far the Legislature has not seen fitto grant to the commission the power it seeks to close such waters for a time. The great number of applications for fish of various kinds are carefully examined by the commis- sion, and those for private waters are thrown out. If applicants describe waters that are unsuitable for the fish asked for, their applications are also thrown out or filled with fish suitable for the water in question. The commission has issued a circular, a copy of which is sent to each person applying for fish, describing the proper way to handle and care for fry until they are deposited. At the time the table from which I have quoted, showing the number of fish applied for, was made up, 1,136,075 black bass were asked for. This is a fish, as every one here knows, that is not yet hatched arti- ficially, and the state can supply them only by netting waters in one part of the state to supply waters in another, or by purchase from waters without the state. Last year with an expenditure of $500 the commission purchased and caught for distribution 1,810 adult black bass, and 18,300 fingerlings about two inches long, a greater number than ever before distributed by the state in one year. The law of the state opens the black bass fishing on May 30; and as black bass spawn all through the month of June and the brood of young bass require the care of the parent fish for some time after they are hatched, it seems like wasting at the bung and filling at the spigot to expect the commission to keep up the supply of black bass with the few that they can buy. In fact, I have suggested to the commissioners, informally, that until the close time is changed to cover the breeding season it might be wise to distribute no black bass whatever, for no commission can perform the impossible, and 18,000 116 two-inch bass—less than one five-pound bass would rear if all eggs and fry survived—will go but a very little way toward supplying the waste of a whole month of fishing during the breeding season. Another law that the commission has to contend with to keep up the supply of one of the most import- ant of food fishes is the shad law. Before the con- struction of the Erie Canal in 1825, which necessitated building a dam across the Hudson River at Troy, shad ran up the Hudson to Bakers Falls at Sandy Hill, fifty miles above Troy, and furnished food to a community to which shad is now a comparative rarity. In that day many a farmer came to the river below Bakers Falls and camped until he had secured and salted down a supply of shad for the winter. The Troy dam checked the upward migration of the shad from the time it was built until this day, but good catches of shad were made just below the dam up to within, say, ten or fifteen years ago. Within a few days just passed I have questioned the net fishermen who have applied to the commission for license to net the river at or near Albany for herring, and they tell me it would not pay them to set a net for shad. The pres- ent shad law relating to the Hudson provides an open season between March 14 and June 15 for netting shad, ‘but said nets shall not be drawn nor fish taken there- from between sunset on Saturday night and sunrise on Monday morning, unless by reason of the inclemency of the weather said nets cannot be drawn prior to sun- set on Saturday night, in which case it shall be lawful to take fish therefrom as soon.as the weather will per- mit.” With this law in force the commission has been unable to secure a sufficient number of ripe shad at Catskill to keep up the supply of this species of fish in the river without assistance from the United States Fish Commission. It was thought advisable by the commission to amend this section of the law at the ses- 117 sion of the Legislature during the past winter, and a bill was introduced which required that shad nets be taken up at sunset Friday night and not fished until sunrise Monday, and it also provided that nets should not be operated by boats propelled by steam. This amendment was for the purpose of opening the river a reasonable time each week to enable a sufficient number of breeding shad to reach their spawning grounds and keep up the stock, in case aid from outside sources should fail. The steamboat clause was for the purpose of putting all the fishermen on the same footing. ‘This bill passed the Senate, but was defeated in the Assembly. In 1895 unusual efforts were made by this commis- sion to obtain shad eggs in the Hudson, and 3,087,000 fry were hatched and planted, and 4,900,000 contrib- uted to the Hudson by the United States Fish Com- mission. From 1883 to 1895, both years inclusive, the state planted in the Hudson 33,522,500 shad fry, and during the same period the United States Fish Com- mission contributed to the Hudson 54,511,000 shad fry from other rivers, or 20,988,500 more than the state was able to supply from the river itself. With these figures, taken from the reports of this comimission and furnished to me by Commissioner Brice from the books of the United States Fish Commission, as a basis, one can imagine what the condition of the shad fishing in the Hudson would have become had it not been for contributions of fry from the Delaware and Susque- hanna Rivers. This year the shad work of this com- mission is not completed, but the United States Fish Commission has already contributed to the Hudson 3,000,000 shad fry from the Susquehanna and 2,000,000 from the Delaware. Contributions of shad fry from other rivers doubt- less do more than aid to keep up the supply of fish in the Hudson, as the fresh blood must invigorate and improve the stock. 118 Since 1882 the greatest number of shad fry the state has been able to plant in the river from eggs obtained from the shad of the river was in 1889, when 6,000,000 were planted. The next best seasons were 1887, 1888, and 1895, when something over 3,000,000 were planted each year. In 1891 the United States contributed 9,348,000 fry, and six other years from 4,200,000 up to 7,414,000 annually. As to the importance of the shad fisheries of the Hudson and the value of the product, the commission caused an investigation to be made last year covering all the fishing stations from Sandy Hook to Castleton, nine miles below Albany. It was found that 3,471 nets were operated and 1,155,610 shad were taken during the season of 1895. New Jersey is credited with 1,666 nets, operated at eleven stations, and taking 417,829 shad. New York is credited with 1,805 nets, operated at sixty-seven stations, and taking 737,781 fish. The greatest number of nets at a single station is 703, at Alpine, N. J., taking 94,100 shad. Fort Lee, N. J., operates 337 nets, taking 114,300 shad. The greatest number of nets operated from New York stations was 306 at Sing Sing, taking 16,400 shad, and 313 at Nyack, taking 3,853. ‘The nets gradually peter out up stream, until Castleton, with one net, is credited with 500 shad. At Catskill, where the work of this commission is carried on, six nets were operated, taking 5,000 shad. To get at the weight and value of the shad catch in the Hudson, I asked Ex-Commissioner Blackford to give the average figures of fish received at Fulton Market. He wrote me: “Regarding the Hudson River shad, I would say that 100 buck shad will weigh 308 pounds, and 100 roe shad will weigh 412 pounds. This, you see, will make their average a little over three and one half pounds. The proportion of bucks to roe shad this season has 119 been sixty per cent. roe shad to forty per cent. buck shad. The average price for the entire season has been twenty cents for roe shad and ten cents for buck shad. The lowest price they have sold for on any one day was ten cents for roe shad and five cents for bucks. For quality and size, the Hudson River shad has been good—rather better than for the last two or three years.” With these figures as a basis, I find that the catch of shad in the Hudson River in 1895 weighed 4,044,635 pounds, and that 693,366 roe shad brought $138,673.20, and 462,244 buck shad brought $46,224.40, or a total for the entire catch of $184,897.60. The mascalonge work at Chautauqua Lake is in progress at this time, and probably 3,000,000 fry of this species will be planted by the state. The masca- longe of Chautauqua Lake, while structurally like the St. Lawrence River fish, is differently marked, and wholly lacks the round brown spots of the latter. The Chautauqua fish is blotched or banded on the sides with rich brown on a light ground. I believe that no other commission has attempted to cultivate the masca- longe artificially. A number of experiments were made in this work before the hatching of mascalonge was successful. The eggs were tried in the hatching jar and in shad boxes in running water, but finally the eggs were placed in boxes with double screens top and bottom to prevent the eggs being eaten by minnows and other fish, and the boxes were sunk in the lake in still water. It is difficult to obtain all the eggs from a fish at one handling, but 265,000 eggs have been taken at one time from a female of thirty-two pounds. Only one maskallonge was killed last year of all that were hand- led. After milting the eggs separate in three quarters of an hour, and about ninety-seven per cent. of impreg- nated eggs are hatched. With water at 55° Fahrenheit the fry hatch in about fifteen days, and it requires 120 about the same length of time to absorb the umbilical sac. The fry of the mascalonge when first hatched are very helpless, and apparently a prey to every liv- ing thing. This commission is giving considerable thought to the questiou of providing food for fishes in wild waters, as it believes that many failures to stock lakes and streams are directly chargeable to a lack of proper food for the planted fish. This subject is treated at some length in the annual report of the commission now in the hands of the printer. The steelhead trout men- tioned in this paper are the first to be brought to New York, and they will be planted in one of the large lakes in Northern New York and in Long Island streams flowing into the sea. The Scotch sea trout are the first to be brought to this country and will not be distributed at present. The total output of fish, of all kinds, will be consid- erably larger this year, when all the work is finished, than last year, when under the old Fishery Commission and the new Fisheries, Game, and Forest Commission combined a grand total of 196,247,840 were planted. 12] WASTE OF FOOD FISHES. BY L. D. HUNTINGTON, EX-PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK FISH COMMISSION. The yearly waste of food fish along our coast is a subject deserving the consideration of all interested in the supply of healthful food. The subject should espe- cially receive the careful attention of the citizens of the seaboard states. The waste from the indiscrimi- nate use of the purse net by the menhaden fishermen, along our coast from Maine to North Carolina, demands proper attention and careful consideration. This industry, the products of which are guano and oil (from fish), is one of considerable importance; it is organized under the title of the “United States Men- haden Oil and Guano Association,” with a capital of about two million dollars, employing from two thousand to twenty-five hundred men, with annual products of about five or six hundred thousand dollars in guano, and about four hundred thousand dollars in oil, the capital, number of men employed, and value of prod- ucts varying somewhat yearly; this enterprise should receive proper consideration as a business venture, but not be allowed to trespass upon the rights and privileges of the citizens of the seaboard states, by wasting the food products of the waters of the coast by converting them into guano. In the prosecution of their business (catching menhaden with purse nets) they not only 122 intrude upon the rights of the citizens of the seaboard states, in catching and converting valuable food fishes into guano, but drive the food fish from their natural feeding grounds and prevent the parent fish occupying their natural spawning beds and reproducing their kind. While it is often denied by those interested in catching menhaden with purse nets that they catch any food fish worth mentioning, I will briefly state one or two of the many items of evidence of the catching and of the. wanton waste of food fish by them. In 1892 a bill in the interest of the menhaden fishermen, known as the Laphan Bill, was before Congress, the provisions of which gave them the right to use the purse net all along the coast, in the bays, estuaries, and rivers, limited only beyond the influence of the tide, the law, habits, or customs of any state to the contrary notwithstanding. Strenuous efforts were made to secure this law, which fortunately failed, but, nevertheless, furnishes the plainest evidence of their disposition to override all state laws for the protection of food fish, etc., in their pursuit of the menhaden. At a hearing on this bill before a Senate Com- mittee the following instances of the waste of food fish were brought out: Mr. S. B. Miller, a fish dealer, in answer to questions asked him, stated that he received at one time 70,000 pounds of food fish, mostly weak fish, from one of Daniel Church’s steamers, 10,000 pounds of which went on the market; the balance, 60,000 pounds, went to the guano factory on Barren Island. Healso stated that at another time he received from the same source another large lot of food fish from out of which he selected about 10,000 pounds; that the balance of the lot were heated and unfit for sale, and that he told the captain of the boat to haul right out; of course these fish went to the factories; he further stated that with their (meaning the men- 123 haden fishermen) manner of handling fish, the fish after being covered eight inches with other fish as they are dumped in the hold of their vessels would heat and be unfit for use for foodin three hours or less. Mr. E. G. Blackford, the well-known fish dealer of Fulton Market, before same committee stated that from his own knowledge every year those fishes which feed upon menhaden grow more scarce, that there had been several instances which had been spoken of there of his own knowledge where the menhaden vessels have taken large schools of food fish and have brought them to market; the very large catch of 1891, about a year ago, just about that time of the year, was principally of weak fish. Some four or more vessels came up to Fulton Market with a cargo or quantity of at least 200,000 pounds, nearly all weak fish, and out of that 200,000 pounds about one quarter were marketed; the balance of these cargoes was sent to the factories and rendered into oil and scrap. Mr. Blackford further stated that in his opinion the effect of the great amount of fishing that is carried on for menhaden all along the coast breaks up the schools of fish which are fol- lowed by the striped bass and blue-fish, and has a tendency to make these fish seek other feeding grounds. Mr. George Hildreth of New Jersey, formerly a menhaden fisherman, in answer to the following ques- tion, z. é., ‘“Well, on the average would there be a considerable food fish?” replied, ‘‘ There would some- times be quite a number of food fish among them (meaning menhaden), and other times very little— whatever there was within the bounds of the net.” In connection with the latter part of Mr. Hiuldreth’s answer, that the purse net caught whatever there was within its bounds, I will quote Prof. G. Brown Goode endorsement (Mis. Doc. 49, Second Session Forty-fifth Congress, page 117). He says, “The purse seine is doubtless more effective than any other fishing appa- 124 ratus ever devised; by its use a school of almost any size can be secured without the loss of a single fish.” The enormous demand of the oil factories can be met only by fisheries conducted upon the grandest scale, and the purse seine is used by the factory fleet to the exclusion of all other nets. The purse net, as Prof. G. Brown Goode and Mr. Hildreth say, takes all fish within its enclosure or bounds, which must necessarily include the taking of a very large quantity of food fish in its use in taking the average yearly catch of 500,000,000 of menhaden. Agreeable to statement compiled by Hugh M. Smith, and published in the United States Fish Com- mission bulletin, the number of hauls made by two men- haden steamers for one season is given as 1078, and the proportion of the catch as one twentieth of the menhaden taken for that time; this would give a total of 21,560 hauls made in a season from the best avail- able data on the subject. The average length of the purse nets used by the menhaden fishermen is about 1360 feet; taking the average length of the nets used as 1350 feet, each haul would enclose 3 32-100 acres, which makes an aggregate of 61,589 acres of water along our coasts, bays, and estuaries upon the feeding and spawning grounds of many of our valuable food fishes thoroughly screened of the food fish yearly. The food fish so taken, hastily dumped by steam power by scoops holding five barrels each, in a mass in the hold of the vessel (precluding the possibility of detecting the various species of fish taken with the menhaden, “even if desired”), where they soon sour and become unfit for food, are taken to the factories and rendered into oil and guano. As before stated, it is claimed by many interested in the menhaden fishery that they take but few, if any, food fish with the purse net, while taking yearly about 500,000,000 menhaden. Those who are familiar with the purse net, and not 125 interested in the menhaden oil and guano business, have yet to learn how it is possible for the net to take the menhaden without taking the food fish it encloses, especially when the depth of the water does not exceed that of the net used; so that it reaches to the bottom and encloses a certain space of water, forming a flexible wall from the surface to the bottom, then being pursed up along the bottom, I would ask how is it possible for the food fish to escape and the menhaden only be taken ? Aside from the waste of the food fish so taken, the indiscriminate use of the purse net in the shallow waters along the coast, in the bays, inlets, and estuaries, the natural feeding and spawning grounds of many of our valuable food fish, drives them to other localities and seriously affects their natural reproduction. From such statements of the value of the yearly products as I have seen in print, the proportion gives about sixty per cent. in guano and about forty per cent. in oil. Food fish rendered may not add to the product of oil, but do to the product of guano. The subject of coast food fish supply is one that should especially interest the hundreds of thousands of citizens of the seaboard states; that the present waste of food fish from the indiscriminate use of the purse net by the menhaden fishermen, within the three-mile limit, is an abuse of the rights of all citizens. No business is justified in using food fish, which were intended for food for the people, for the purpose of manufacturing into fertilizers; nor is any business justified the prose- cution of which, in any way, interferes with the peo- ple’s supply of food fish. ‘There should be proper restrictions that would be just to all, to the menhaden industry, as well as to millions of hard working citi- zens who depend upon the continual food fish supply for a livelihood, the many thousands who at times take fish for food for their families, the many thousands who, of choice, prefer to catch their supply of food fish 126 from the waters adjacent to them, instead of from the market, as well as thousands who resort to the waters along our coasts for food fish as well as for recreation and health; the food fish should be protected within the three-mile limit before it is too late. If the use of the purse net was properly restricted, or prohibited within a reasonable distance from the shores, and used only in waters beyond the depth of the net used, it would go far to stop the present waste and to ensure a continued supply, now so seriously threatened. I would most respectfully ask the consideration of the members of this Society, and especially those who are commissioners of fisheries of the respective sea- board states, to this important question. THE PROPAGATION OF SMALL MOUTH BLACK BASS. BY SEYMOUR BOWER, SUPERINTENDENT MICHIGAN FISH COMMISSION. At Cascade Springs, Kent County, near the banks of the Thornapple River, is located an experimental black bass station of the Michigan Fish Commission. The present is the third and most successful season of its operation. ‘The water supply to the experimental ponds is derived from spring sources, not far removed, and is, therefore, too cold for bass work as it reaches the ponds, but the supply 1s so limited in volume that the area of pond exposure is sufficient to nearly equal- ize the temperature with that of the Thornapple River. The Thornapple 1s well stocked with small mouth bass. Their spawning beds are found all along in front, and for a considerable distance above and below our experimental ponds, thus affording an excellent opportunity, in connection with the pond work, of observing their natural spawning habits and the results. This station was not established with any idea of permanency, nor with the expectation of hatching any considerable number of bass—the water supply is too limited for that—but rather to acquire practical knowl- edge by experience, experiment, and observation, so that when funds are available for a large plant they may be expended wisely and efficiently. 128 Having no special fund for even experimental pur- poses, the work has necessarily been limited to a small scale of operations. In the summer of 1893 two ponds were excavated. The upper pond was to be used for experimenting in the direction of artificial propagation ; the lower, and much the larger, pond was to be devoted to pond culture. During the fall a stock of about 150 adult bass was collected from the Thornapple and placed in these ponds. ‘The fish carried well the fol- lowing and subsequent winters, and also in the sum- mer, although the temperature in the lower pond rises to ninety degrees at times. No losses of any conse- quence have. occurred, except as a result of handling during the spawning season. In the larger pond the fish have not been disturbed during the breeding season. In the month of May, 1894, ten beds were made in this pond, from which 32,000 fry were taken as they rose in schools. This does not represent the number hatched, but the number saved, as a part of some of the schools had dispersed before it was discovered that they had risen. The following spring, or one year ago, this pond was unproductive. Owing to extreme dry weather the supplying springs nearly failed at times, and the water in this pond became stagnant and quite foul and roily. When it cleared up a few beds were observed, and it is quite probable that a few fish spawned notwith- standing the unfavorable conditions, but if they did the beds were undoubtedly cleaned out by a large snapping-turtle that was discovered in the ponds at the time. There is no doubt that turtles have a special fondness for the eggs and fry, as by actual observation two beds in the river are known to have been despoiled in this way. The present season the shoal margin around the upper end of this pond is literally “peppered” with beds, and the outlook is most promising. There are 129 sixty adult fish in the pond and eighteen beds are in sight. Five of these beds are non-productive, but the other thirteen will yield about 70,000 fry, 60,000 hav- ing already been collected from eleven of the thirteen beds. The fish in the upper pond were reserved for exper- iments in the line of artificial propagation. Beginning with the first spawning season, 1894, they were not disturbed until they had commenced to prepare the beds; they were then seined up from time to time and examined. Early in the season one ripe female was found and a portion of her eggs were taken, but there were no ripe males in the pond, so a male was opened, the spermaries removed and pressed out 1n water which was poured over the eggs. Number of eggs taken 2100; number hatched 700, or thirty-three per cent. A number of the females were quite soft when first handled, but hardened up with further handling and failed to spawn at all. Bedding was also discontinued, and interference with the natural spawning was tesented to that. extent that they made no further effort to spawn in a natural way. Not a fish was hatched in the pond and only 700 by artificial propa- gation. So this experiment was a failure. A few days later a pair of bass were seined from their bed in the river as they were at the point of spawning, but no eggs or milt could be obtained. They were held in a tank seven days, then removed to a small pond with gravel bottom, but they made no effort to spawn, and finally fungused and died. An- other pair was captured in the river while in the act of spawning, a few eggs having been cast; the eggs came freely, but as no. milt could be pressed out, only 500 were taken. By opening the male a very little milt was procured, and about 200 fish were hatched from the lot. The next spring, or one year ago, a small side 130 pond about nine feet by twelve was excavated and connected by a short raceway with the pond in which the failure of the preceding year had occurred. ‘This side pond carried only eighteen inches of water, a favorite depth selected by the fish in the river for spawning; and being much shoaler it would also grow much warmer, and, therefore, more attractive for the spawners than its larger and deeper consort. The bottom was covered with gravel and small cobble stones, and everything done to make the little annex as invit- ing as possible. No one but the attendants was allowed to approach the pond during the spawning season. A “blind” was provided near by, from behind which all the proceedings, from the initial step of pre- paring the beds, to the final rising of the young fish, could be observed without intrusion. The result more than justified expectations. There were no indications of bedding in the deeper pond, but in two instances, at least, the males literally fought over the possession of the bed in the little annex. Eight beds were made—there was n’t room for any more. Three pairs were lifted from the beds, of which one was spawning at the time, but as usual no milt could be pressed out, or only a minute “speck” or fraction of a drop. No further effort to handle the spawners was made. As the last three pairs handled had not been touched or disturbed in any way, or at any time, until they were at the point or in the very act of spawning, we concluded that while occasionally, under peculiar or accidental conditions, a few eggs might be taken and fertilized, all efforts to reduce the business to a success- ful working basis would prove useless and futile; fur- ther experiments might be interesting, but would result in no practical benefit. There is probably an appreciable space of time during which the spawn may be taken and fertilized, 131 but this time is not known, and it would not be prac- tical any way to isolate each pair, as it would be necessary to do, and provide the constant surveillance necessary to insure seizing the opportunity. Moreover, it would be unwise to take the eggs artificially even if it were entirely practical to do so, as we could never hope to equal the natural hatching percentage. Given protection against turtles and water snakes—the male bass will take care of all other intruders—and the natural hatching percentage will often be as high as ninety. Artificial manipulation of adhesive eggs has never reached that figure, and probably never will. Although to some extent a repetition of the above, I quote from my report in writing to the Board, filed shortly after the close of last season’s bass work: ‘Previous experiments and a careful observation of the conduct of the parent fish prior to and during the act of spawning, lead to the conclusion that the arti- ficial taking and impregnation of bass eggs is possible only when undertaken at exactly the right moment, or within the limits of a period so brief as to admit of success only on rare occasions. A preliminary coax- ing and caressing by the male seems imperative, not only to bring the female to the point of spawning, but also to develop the milt. These preliminary proceed- ings are sometimes carried on for several hours, and again for only a few moments; if interrupted or handled at this time, or prior to the orgasmic stage, neither the eggs nor milt will flow; so that artificial impregnation may be accomplished only during the few moments of actual spawning, or after the natural spawning has begun. Under the strictest surveillance the opportunity is too seldom presented or known for practical operations in this direction. In any event, however, we would lose instead of gain by the artificial handling of bass eggs, owing to the relatively high percentage of natural results in protected ponds and 132 the relatively low percentage of results by artificial treatment of adhesive eggs.” To refer back tothe annex pond: After concluding to allow the natural spawning to proceed without inter- ruption, the fish continued bedding, and when the fry were nearly at the point of rising, the fish that remained to guard the beds were driven out and the pond screened against the parent fish and to prevent the escape of the young. After rising and scattering they were scapped up as wanted for shipment. Total results of this pond for the season, 16,000 fry, all taken _, from five beds, as three beds were unproductive. mh This year there are eight beds in the annex and one in the connecting raceway. Six of these beds are now black with fry, and will yield 20,000 to 30,000. There are thirty adult bass inthe pond. The water is a little colder in this pond than in the lower one, hence the fry are a little later in rising. The perfect success of the little side pond, both last year and this, indicates the style or system of ponds best adapted to the culture of small mouth bass. ‘The storage pond should be quite large and of good depth— say four to eight or ten feet deep. Plenty of boulders should be provided, for shade during the summer and to hover around, as the bass is wont to do while in the torpid condition of its winter retirement. This pond should have no gravelly shoals or margin to encourage bedding, but should be nearly surrounded with small shoal ponds, each connected with the main pond by a short raceway, and made as inviting as possible for spawning purposes. No fear need be entertained that the fish will not seek the side ponds at the proper time. It is demonstrated that, with a suitable water supply, the question of propagating small mouth bass on a scale to provide for large and effective distribu- tions, is reduced to the simple proposition of providing the ponds and breeders. 133 A few scattering notes in connection with the sub- ject of bass propagation may be of interest, and, there- fore, are submitted. In the Thornapple River the beds are made along the shores in from one to three feet of water, and where the current is very moderate—never in rapid water. A circular ridge of sand and gravel is thrown up and the bottom of the hollow thus formed—alw ays of gravel and pebbles or small cobble stones—is swept brigh it and clean. This work is almost invariably done by the male, though in a few instances the female was present —which is not usual—and was seen to render some assistance; but this occurs only when the female is under great stress of haste tospawn. In such cases the preparation of the beds had been delayed too long; or they may have been driven from their own beds, duly prepared, by a pair whose bed had likewise been usurped. Mr. Dwight Lydell, who is in charge of the bass work during the spawning season, and a careful and intelligent observer, was recently an eye witness to an incident of this nature. While watching a pair of bass going through the preliminary manceuvring that pre- cedes the actual spawning, another pair approached the bed with the evident intention of appropriating it. The males at once begana fight that grew quite furious at times, and lasted about an hour. ‘The females took no part, but rushed about in great apparent distress. The rightful owner of the bed, although much the smaller, proved the victor, for the would-be usurpers finally dropped down stream about ten feet and imme- diately commenced to whip out a bed of their own. They worked rapidly and in forty minutes the bed was ready. Then, after a few moments of sexual sparring the spawning was begun and completed in five or six minutes. Meantime, the other pair resumed business and in forty-five minutes had completed preliminaries and finished spawning. 134 The preparation of beds is usually begun in the latter part of April or early in May, though the spawn- ing does not follow, as a rule, until several days later. This year the males began working on the beds in the annex pond on April 30; the first spawning there was ou May 8. At the beginning of the season the males work on the beds only occasionally, and suspend work entirely during a cold storm or a spell of cold weather; but as the season advances matters are hastened and preliminaries shortened. When the bed is ready and the male has induced a female to accompany him to it, there follows a series of movements quite impossible to describe. Generally the female is coy and diffident at first, and inclined to leave, but after much manceuvring and persuasion by the male, is rounded up and reluctantly remains. The male grows more active and ardent; his movements indicate strong sexual excitement and a desire to induce excitement in the female; coaxing and caress- ing alternate with bunting and biting various parts of the body, but chiefly around the vent. Then the male glides slowly over the bed with a peculiar, trembling, fluttering movement, while careened over nearly on his side. Soon the pair crosses the bed slowly, duplicating the spasmodic flutterings, each leaning over outward, thus bringing their vents close together, although the female is always slightly in advance. ‘The bed is crossed in like manner at intervals of ten to twenty seconds until the spawn is all cast, which usually takes from five to ten minutes. The preliminaries that lead up to the spawning last much longer, as a rule, than the act of spawning, and sometimes fail altogether. In one instance a male was seen, after an hour’s ineffectual effort to induce spawning, to drive the female back to the main pond and return in a short time with another. While the female is spawning the entire body is strongly mottled, but resumes its normal 135 appearance soon after spawning and leaving the bed. In a paper presented before this Society at its seventeenth annual meeting, Mr. C. S. Holt stated that the male and female bass prepared the bed jointly, and that the female guards the young; but he has since acknowledged to me that later observations have convinced him that he was in error. It is positively known that, except under circumstances heretofore noted, the male bass assumes both of these duties. A number of fish have been captured while performing either function, and the identity of the sex established by removing the spermaries. In size and color the eggs of the small mouth bass correspond very closely with those of the fresh water herring, being, perhaps, the least trifle smaller in size and a little deeper in color. They will approximate 80,000 to the quart. The number of eggs per female will range from 2,000 to 10,000 or more. It is quite rare that so few as a thousand fry rise from a bed, and as many as 8,000 have been taken from a single bed in the river, but 3,000 to 6,000 1s the usual number. The length of the hatching period, so far as obser- vations have been made, varies from seventy hours, at an average temperature of sixty-six degrees, to one hundred hours. A merely casual inspection will fail to detect the hatching point, as the fish at first is all sac, which is of the same size as the egg and looks just like it; but on closer examination it will be noticed that the sphere is slightly elongated and a very faint, shadowy line will be seen to extend about one third the way around the sac. But the development is very rapid, and in from six to fourteen days, according to temperature conditions, ‘the sac that is all sac” has become a black, vigorous, young fish. The black blanket of fry that now covers the bottom of the bed is ready to rise, and they begin to swim up and form a 136 school, which usually holds together two to four days- but may break up in two or three hours if the temper, ature is very high. On the other hand, the schools have been seen to settle back on the beds and remain a few days longer when there is a sudden and marked change to colder weather. They also usually settle back on the bed at night for the first two or three nights. : In the river the schools do not at first disperse in all directions; they head up stream, some barely hold- ing even with the current, some dropping back, and others forging ahead and making some headway; thus gradually stringing along out in thinly scattered lines. In addition to the small mouth bass fry furnished by the Cascade ponds, 20,000 were collected from beds in the Thornapple during the season of 1894, 73,000 in the season of 1895, and 62,000 so far this season. We also collected and distributed last season 145,000 fry of big mouth bass, all taken from beds around the margin of Laraway’s Lake, near Cascade. So far this season 12,000 have been taken from the same lake. The beds of the big mouth bass are found on and among the roots of pond lilies and various water plants and grasses. Referring again to the pond feature of the present season’s work, it should be noted that a total of ninety adult male and female bass in two ponds have so far produced 60,000 fry for shipment, with 30,000 to 40,000 nore in sight. 137 FISH AND GAME PROTECTION IN NEW JERSEY, BY H. P. FROTHINGHAM. I have been asked to present to you my views on the progress made in the protection of fish and game in the state of New Jersey, and I shall do so in as brief and still as comprehensive a manner as possible. It would be useless for me to say anything to you, gentle- men, on the necessity of such protection, and, conse- quently, I shall at once proceed to give you my views as to why fish and game are not better protected in New Jersey, and I feel confident that a great deal of what I shall say pertaining to New Jersey will apply to a considerable extent also to other states. The average citizen generally pictures to himself as the worst enemy of fish and game the man who goes skulking through the forest looking after traps, or, armed with a gun having a calibre of a ten-pound cannon destroys everything that presents itself in fur or feathers. ‘Then we also hear of the man who sneaks to the river shore at night with huge nets, and with one sweep captures enough fish to supply the fish markets of New York for a week. Again the picture is presented to us of the farmer who jealously guards his property against all trespassers, in order that his revenue may be increased by unsportsmanlike methods of taking fish and game. From still another quarter comes a cry that if fish wardens were more vigilant 138 violators of the law would be fewer in number. To offset this there arises a cry that wardens are unmer- ciful and frequently enforce the laws to the letter, where common sense would dictate the exercise of clemency. Now, I have no doubt whatever that if we could do away with all these objectionable features there would be more fish and game, and more happiness generally ; but in my opinion we must look further for the causes which tend at the present day towards the decrease of fish and game, and among the first and greatest of these causes I should class injudicious leg- islation. In the halls of our Legislatures protection to fish and game is not always the impulse which actuates the law-makers in passing laws pertaining to the pro- tection of fish and game. ‘Too frequently laws are introduced and passed for the purpose of attaining some private end, or for the purpose of gratifying some particular friend of one of the legislators, and although these laws as applied in the particular cases which gave rise to their enactment may be harmless, they too frequently do mischief in localities for which they were not intended. Then again, there is at times a disposition on the part of the law-makers to go too far, to provide penalties out of all proportion to the char- acter of the offense sought to be punished. What is to be thought of a law, for instance, which provides that corporations which disturb the habits of fish shall be imprisoned for two years, and which gives every Jus- tice of the Peace in the state the right to impose this penalty? Under this law a Justice of the Peace in Squedunkville was empowered to send to state prison the Erie Railroad Company, the Standard Oil Com- pany, or any other corporation, officers, directors, stockholders, agents, and all for having interfered with the spawning of asucker. Still this law existed on the statute books of New Jersey during the present 139 generation, and the commissioners and wardens were, by virtue of their oaths of office, supposed to enforce it. I might call attention to other laws equally ridiculous which you will find on the statute books of some of the states, but I trust that there is no need of my citing any others for the purpose of explaining my meaning. A law in order to be properly enforced must be respected ; it must be free from those absurdities which frequently serve as a justification on the part of the general pub- lic for a continued violation of a great many of our laws. The public is very quick to perceive the motive of a law, and if this motive does not command respect you cannot hope that the law will doso. If a law is passed for the benefit of a certain individual, or a class of individuals, or if its enactment is dictated by poli- tics, it at once becomes inoperative to a certain degree, and, what is worse, the odium attaching to one law is apt to taint all others. Friends of proper fish and game legislation may camp out in the corridors of our state capitols, within easy gunshot of the Senate, the House of Assembly, and the Executive Chamber, but in spite of all their watchfulness some obnoxious features are almost sure to creep into laws pertaining to fish and game. Eternal vigilance may be the price of liberty, but you cannot obtain consistent fish and game laws at the same bargain. The next evil concerning which I desire to say a few words is the direct result of the foregoing. Incon- sistent legislation conveys the idea to the mind of the casual observer that fish and game laws are passed for the benefit of a very few, and to the injury of the masses. ‘Thus, in New Jersey a great deal of fault is found with the laws governing the taking of fish by the use of nets in the inland tide waters. These laws are more numerous even than the bodies of water to which they apply, for some of the creeks have different laws every few miles, and what is lawful on the north 140 shore of a bay may be criminal on the south shore. This inequality of regulation gives rise to numerous complaints, and I cannot say that the majority of these complaints are not well founded. ‘The commission at the last session of the Legislature attempted to secure the passage of a uniform law concerning tide water; our wardens had ascertained the desires of the people living along the sea coast, and it was presumed that the proposed measure would meet with little opposition. We felt confident that the vast majority of those directly interested approved of the law as suggesed by the commission, but it was this large majority that remained at home, confident that their interests would be taken care of; on the other hand, each individual who wanted some privilege not enjoyed by his neigh- bors, under the old laws, and each man who thought he knew all about salt water fish and their habits, because, perhaps, he might have smoked herring or made fish barrels for a year or two, hurried to Trenton, and altogether there was such a din of opposition that the legislators buried the measure in committee. The result 1s that particular localities and certain indi- viduals enjoy privileges not common to all, and the impression continues that our fish and game laws are not made for the benefit of everybody, but that they confer special rights on a favored few. Our laws per- taining to shad prohibit the taking of this fish on Sundays, and the law is a very wholesome one, as it permits the shad to ascend to their spawning ground unmolested for one day in the week. This law is objected to by some, because Delaware, our neighboring state, has no such restrictive legislation. Jerseymen complain that they are not accorded the rights enjoyed by their competitors in Delaware. They seem unmindful of the fact that the circumstances in New Jersey are wholly different from those in Delaware, that the shad water over which the latter has control 141 is small compared to the Delaware River, and that laws which apply to the bay would not be suited as well to the river. Still there is here an apparent inconsistency, sufficient to afford an opportunity to the carping critic. Unfortunately, the faults in the fish and game laws are ever being paraded before the pub- lic. What is true of the law protecting food fish is also true, in a measure, of the laws protecting fish whose principal use is to afford sport for the angler, and what is true of fish is also true of game. Thus, in New Jersey, on account of its geographical position, there is a continual contention between the gunners of the northern and of the southern part. The former want an early open season, and the latter prefer to do their shooting later, and both are right, for there is a difference of two or three weeks in the seasons between the two sections. No matter how the law is framed it will be partial to one or the other. It 1s consequently not at all a matter of surprise that people should argue that fish and game laws are made for certain localities and individuals, and not until people alter their opin- ions and are taught to believe that fish and game laws are passed for the benefit of all, that they are not intended to be restrictive of the liberty of any person or class of persons, but that their sole object is the preservation of animals for the enjoyment of all who love nature and sport, will our fish and game laws receive that support to which they are justly entitled. Another evil working against the proper enforce- ment of the law, and one bearing a close relationship to the foregoing, is the method of conducting politics at the present time. Too frequently are laws dictated by political influence, aud too frequently are appoint- ments interfered with in the same manner. Men who are appointed to office, and who are desirous of doing all in their power for the protection of fish and game, are hampered by the power of politics, and this is fre- 142 quently too great to be ignored. Concessions to those in high political authority are necessary at times, and men entrusted with the enforcement of the laws are required at times to wander from what they recognize as the strict path of duty, for the purpose of placating a power which, if offended, might wipe out the entire machinery of fish and game protection. This may not be a pleasing statement to make, but Iam willing to leave it to any one who has had experience in the enforcement of laws whether he has not at times felt the influence of the political boss, and whether such influence was not prejudicial to the cause of sport. In connection with legislation and the enforcement of the laws, I desire to say a few words concerning the attitude of the newspaper press of the state, and I say, with perfect frankness, that the newspapers have been with us on general principles, and opposed to us in nearly every particular. This may seem strange, but it is easy of explanation. The average human being desires to see the perpetuation of useful animals of all kinds, and, consequently, favors such restrictive or prohibitive legislation as may be necessary to attain that end. It ison this account that the press supports laws and measures advocated by the commission, and we have no better friends than editors and reporters. But let a violator of the law be brought to book and another tale unfolds itself. ‘The idea of protecting fish and game is all right, but the man who is called upon to pay twenty dollars for having killed a rabbit ora song bird is certain to have the sympathy of a great many people, and this sympathy is almost always reflected in the columns of newspapers. The general principle is lost sight of in the extending of sympathy ; the warden’s side of the story is not sought for, but everything that may extenuate the circumstances of the offense is dwelt upon, and in nine cases out of ten it is made to appear that the prosecution was unjust 145 and uncalled for. The editors of newspapers and great many other people seem to be in the position of the character in the play who was in favor of the law, but against its enforcement. In relation to the men who violate the letter of the law I shall have very little to say. The wardens appointed by the commission have been doing some very good missionary work; their general terms are twenty dollars a lesson, although the price charged varies with the conditions of the occasion. I have known cases where wardens, out of sympathy for some poverty-stricken offender, contributed towards the pay- ment of the fine and costs; and I have known cases where unusually stupid pupils were “kept in” for ninety days. Perhaps two little stories just recurring to my mind may give you some idea as to the charac- ter of violators of the law in New Jersey. A warden had made a complaint against a man for having taken three trout under the legal size; the accused promptly admitted his guilt and inquired of the Justice how much his experience would cost him. “Sixty dollars and the costs of prosecution,” was the reply. ‘That is rather a high price to pay for three little trout,” replied the offender, as he reached down into his pocket for his wallet. “I should say so,” chimed in one of those individuals who are so frequently found in courts of justice; “I tell you these fish and game laws are nothing but outrages on the public; they are made for some brownstone front dudes with silver thingum-ma- jigs to go fishing, and they are nothing but robbery as far as the poor man is concerned.” ‘The defendant stopped for just one instant in the exploration of his pocket, apparently astonished at the interference, and then produced the necessary funds and liquidated his indebtedness to the state. Then turning to his would- be-defender, he said: “I think, my friend, you are mistaken. ‘The fish and game laws are all right, and 144 I should have known better. Even if there were no law against the taking of small trout I ought to have known better, for I am old enough and have fished enough to know that if all the little fellows are taken out there will never be any big ones. The game laws are made for the poor more than for the rich, for the rich can go to Canada or the Adirondacks and get all the fishing and hunting they want. But the poor have to stay at home, and these men,” pointing to the warden, ‘“‘are trying to preserve some fishing for the poor man. It serves me just right, and I know you are wrong. Come, warden, havea drink with me.” In another case a warden was called upon by a well-known guide from Greenwood Lake, who said to him: “Mr. Warden, I wish that you would prosecute me. I have been keeping a set-line in the water, and I don’t want you to arrest me.” “Had you not better wait until I secure the evidence?” inquired the warden. ‘Oh, no,’ was the reply; “I have done wrong and I am willing to pay for it; besides that, you will get the evidence fast enough, and then I'll have the bother of going through this when, perhaps, I have less time than I have now. Besides that, I don’t want to have those fellows up there say that I have been arrested, and so I want to square up now.’ ‘The warden did not exactly like the turn affairs had taken, but the guide insisted, and so the warden accepted the amount of the fine and costs. On the following morning he appeared before the Justice of the Peace and as warden complained that a certain guide had violated the law; as attorney for the accused heentered a plea of guilty and paid the penalty stipulated by law. I have said, gentlemen, that our wardens have done some missionary work, and I think you will agree with me as to the quality of this work when you see that it made a defender of the laws out of a man who was paying sixty dollars, and that it touched the conscience 145 of a Greenwood Lake guide. ‘The violators of the law, gentlemen, are with us; now, 1f we can convince the people that fish and game laws are passed for the ben- efit of all, and that the faults of these laws are not due to their principle, if we can induce the politicians to keep their hands off, and if we can persuade the press to give us a consistent support, the cause of protection for fish and game will be materially advanced. A campaign of education among the masses will be more fruitful of good results than the application of the rigors of the law to the offenders. 146 LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY: Honorary Members. Hon. Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, Wash- ington,.D. C. Hon. J. Sterling Morton, Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, Big Ge *Gov. Levi P. Morton, New York. Gov. John E. Richards, Montana. Gov. John H. McGraw, Washington. Gov. Wm. McKinley, Ohio. Gov. Chas. H. Sheldon, South Dakota. Gov. Chas. A. Culberson, Texas. Gov. Claude Matthews, Indiana. Gov. Elias Carr, North Carolina. Gov. Frank D. Jackson, Iowa. Gov. Frank Brown, Maryland. Gov. Urban A. Woodbury, Vermont. Gov. Henry B. Cleaves, Maine. Gov. O. Vincent Coffin, Connecticut. Gov. Wm. J. Stone, Missouri. *At the meeting of this Society in 1895 it was resolved that the Governors of the sev- eral states of the United States be made honorary members of the American Fisheries Society, and accordingly all the Governors of the states and territories then in office were notified of their election, and the names of so many of the Governors as have accepted election to such membership are given in the list herewith printed. 147 Gov. Wm. Paine Lord, Oregon. Gov. Jas. H. Budd, California. Gov. Wm. C. Renfrew, Oklahoma Ter. Gov. Chas, T. O’Ferrall, Virginia. Gov. Silas A. Holcomb, Nebraska. Gov. James Sheakley, Alaska Ter. Borodine, Nicolas, Delegate of the Russian Association of Pisci- culture and Fisheries, Uralsk, Russia. Jones, John D., 51 Wall St., New York City. Southside Sportsmen’s Club, Oakdale, Long Island. New York Association for the Protection of Fish and Game, New York City. St. Clair Flats Shooting and Fishing Club, Detroit, Mich. Woodmont Rod and Gun Club, Washington, D. C. Fish Protective Association of Eastern Pennsylvania, 1020 Arch St., Philadelphia, Pa. Corresponding Members. Apostolides, Prof. Nicoly Chr., Athens, Greece. Benecke, Prof. B., Commissioner of Fisheries, Konigsberg, Germany. Birkbeck, Edward, Esq., M. P., London, England. Brady, Thos. F., Esq., Inspector of Fisheries, Dublin Castle, Dublin, Ireland. Feddersen, Arthur Viborg, Denmark. Giglioli, Prof. H. H., Florence, Italy. Ito, K., Member of the Fisheries Department of Hokkaido and President of the Fisheries Society of Northern Japan, Sapporo, Japan. Juel, Capt. N., R. N., President of the Society for the Develop- ment of Norwegian Fisheries, Bergen, Norway. Landmark, A., Inspector of Norwegian Fresh Water Fisheries, Bergen, Norway. Lundberg, Dr. Rudolph, Inspector of Fisheries, Stockholm, Sweden. 148 Macleay, William, President of the Fisheries Commission of New South Wales, Sydney, N.S. W. Maitland, Sir Jas. Ramsay Gibson, Bart., Howietoun, Stirling, Scotland. Malmgren, Prof. A. J., Helsingfors, Finland. Marston, R. B., Esq., Editor of the Fishing Gazette, London, England. Olsen, O. T., Grimsby, England. Sars, Prof. G. O., Government Inspector of Fisheries, Chris- tiania, Norway. Smitt, Prof. F. A., Stockholm, Sweden. Sola, Don Francisco Garcia, Secretary of the Spanish Fisheries Society, Madrid, Spain. Solsky, Baron N. de, Director of the Imperial Agricultural Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. Trybom, Dr. Filip, Stockholm, Sweden. Walpole, Hon. Spencer, Governor of the Isle of Man. Wattel, M. Raveret, Secretary of the Société d’Acclimatation, Paris, France. Young, Archibald, Esq., Inspector of Salmon Fisheries, Edin- burgh, Scotland. Deceased Members. Andrews, Thomas. Bart eR. Ss Baird, Prof. Spencer F. Endicott, Francis. Behr, Dr. E. Von. Frederick III., Emperor Ger- Borne, Max von dem. many. Bowles, B. F. Garlick, Dr. Theodatus. Carman, G. Goode, Prof. G. Brown. Chambers, W. Oldham. Green, Seth. Chappel, George. Habershaw, Frederick. Chase, Oren M. Huxley, Prof. Thos. Henry. Coup, Wm. C. Kimball, W. S. Days Ar. Prameis whe: Lawrence, Alfred N. Develin, John E. McDonald, Marshall. 149 Milner, Prof. Jas. W. Ryer, F. R. McGovern, H. D. Sherman, Gen. R. U. Page, Geo. Shepherd. Shultz, Theodore. Parker, W. F. Smith, Greene. Parker, W. R. Slack, Dr. J. Hi. Pease, Charles. Sterling, Dr. Elisha. Redding, B. B. Stilwell, E. M. Redding, Geo. H. Stuart, Robert L. Rice, Prof. H. J. Whitcher, W. F. Rogers, W. H. Active Members. Adams, EK. W., 114 Wall St., New York. Adirondack Reserve Association (J. Yealden, Treas.), 11 Pine St., New York. Amsden, F. J., Rochester, N. Y. Alexander, L. D., 50 Broadway, New York. Anderson, J. F., 240 11th St., Jersey City, N. J. Annin, James, Jr., Caledonia, N. Y. Ashe, John E., Fonda, N. Y. Atkins, Chas. G., East Orland, Maine. Ayer, F. W., Bangor, Maine. Babcock, C. H., Rochester, N. Y. Barclett, Dros. P.,“Oumey, 1. Bean, Dr. T. H., Battery Park Aquarium, New York. Belmont, Hon. Perry, 19 Nassau St., New York. Benkard, Jas., Union Club, New York. Bickmore, Prof. A. S., American Mus. of Nat. Hist., New York. Bissell, J. H., Detroit, Mich. Blackford, E. G., Fulton Market, N. Y. Booth, A., Cor. Lake and State Sts., Chicago, III. Bottemanne, C. J., Bergen op. Zoom, Holland. Bower, Seymour, 234 Joseph Chapman Ave., Detroit, Mich. Bowman, W. H., Rochester, N. Y. Bradley, Dr. E., 19 West 30th St., New York. 150 Brush, Dr. E. F., Mount Vernon, N. Y. Buller, N. R., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Cary, Ores Lacie Ceoreda: Chamberlayne, C. F., Buzzards Bay, Mass. Cheney, A. N., Glens Falls, N. Y. Clark, Frank N., Northville, Mich. Corwin, D. P., 413 Wood St., Pittsburg, Pa. Crook, Abel, 99 Nassau St., New York. Crosby, HH. F.; P.O: Box'2714, New Mork Dale, J. As; York, Pa. Davis, B: H.,,Palmyta, N.Y. Davis, H. W., Grandville, Mich. Dean, Dr. Bashford, Columbia College, New York. Dean, HD: Cape Vincent-- Ne x Demuth, H, C., 114 East King St., Lancaster, Pa. Dickerson, F. B., Detroit, Mich. Douredoure, B. L., 103 Walnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. Doyle, E. P., Port Richmond, N. Y. Ebel, Hon: F. W_., Harrisburg, Pa. Ellis, J. F., U. S. Fish Commission, Washington, D. C. Emerick, H. F., San Francisco, Cal. Foggin, Frank, Port Richmond, N. Y. Friesmuth, C. N., Jr., 151 North 3d St., Philadelphia, Pa. Frothingham, H. P., Mount Arlington, N. J. Cayitt WS) yous: iy. Green, M. A., Rochester, N. Y. Griffith, C. E., Port Richmond, N. Y. Gunckel, J. E., Toledo, Ohio. Hackney, D.G., Fort Plain, N. Y. Hagert, Edwin, 32 North 6th St., Philadelphia, Pa. Haley, Caleb, Fulton Market, N. Y. Hamilton, Robert, Greenwich, N. Y. Hansen, G., Osceola, Wis. Hartley, R. M., 627 Walnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. Harris, J. N., Fulton Market, New York. Henshall, Dr. J. A., U.S. Fish Commission, Washington, D. C. Hessell, Rudolph, U. S. Fish Commission, Washington, D. C, 151 Hill, J. L., 115 Broadway, New York. Hinchman, C. C., Detroit, Mich. Holden, H. S., Syracuse, N. Y. Hoxie, J. W., Carolina, Rhode Island. Hughes, T. W. B., 258 Broadway, New York. Hulbert, H. F.; 5 Lincoln St., Lynn, Mass. Huntington, L. D., New Rochelle, N. Y. Huntington, W. R., Cleveland, Ohio. Hutchinson, E. S., Washington, D. C. Hyneman, A. A., 55 West 33d St., New York. James, Dr. B. W., N. E. Cor. 18th and Greene Sts., Philadel- phia, Pa. Jennings, G. E., Fishing Gazette, New York. Johnson, S. M., Union Wharf, Boston, Mass. Jones, Alex., Woods Holl, Mass. Jones, Dr. O. L., 116 West 72d St., New York. Kauffman, S. H., Evening Star, Washington, D. C. Keene, J. H., Greenwich, N. Y. Kelly, P., 346 6th Ave., New York. Kilburn, F. D., Banking Dept., Albany, N. Y. Lyman, H. H., Oswego, N. Y. McGown, Hon. H. P., 108 Fulton St., New York. Mackay, R. M., 1517 N. 14th St., Philadelphia, Pa. Mallory, Chas., Burling Slip, New York. Manning, W. W., Marquette, Mich. Mansfield, Lt. Com. H. B., U. S. Navy, Washington, D. Mather, Fred, 63 Linden St., Brooklyn, N. Y. May, W. L., Omaha, Neb. Meehan, W. E., Public Ledger, Philadelphia, Pa. Merrill, F. H. J., State Museum, Albany, N. Y. Milbank, S. W., Union Club, New York. Miller, Ernest, Fulton Market, New York. Miller, S. B., Fulton Market, New York. Mills, G. T., Carson City, Nevada. Mohican Rod and Gun Club, Glens Falls, N. Y. Morrell, Daniel, Hartford, Conn. Mosher, Stafford, Fort Plain, N. Y. © 152 Murdock, W. C., San Francisco, Cal. Nash, Dr. S. M., 23 West 33d St., New Vork. Nevin, James, Madison, Wis. Oi Hage, Dr. Justus, St. Paul, Minn: Offensend, J. H., Fair Haven, Vt. Page, W. F., U. S. Fish Commission, Neosho, Mo. Page, P. W.;.West Summit, IN. J. Palmer, G. H. Parker, Dr.J.C., Grand: Rapids, Mich. Peabody, Geo. F., Appleton, Wis. Pfieffer, Geo., Jr., Camden, N. J. Post, Hoyt, Detroit, Mich. Powell, W. L., Harrisburg, Pa. Powers, J. A., Lansingburg, N. Y. Preston, Dr. H. G., 98 Lafayette Square, Brooklyn, N. Y. Rathbone, Wiz PF: Dc Hy: Ro, Albany, N.Y: Rathbun, R., U. S. National Museum, Washington, D. C. Reynolds, C. B., 346 Broadway, New York. Ricardo, Geo., Hackensack, N. J. Ravenel, W. deC., U. S. Fish Commission, Washington, D. C. Rowinville, E. T., East Freetown, Mass. Schaffer, Geo. H., 15 Centre St., New York. Sherwin, H. A., 100 Canal St., Cleveland, Ohio. Smiley, C. W., 943 Mass. Ave., N. W., Washington, D. C. Spensley, C., Mineral Point, Wis. Steers, Ed. P., 2076 5th Ave., New York. Stelwagen, W., 525 Commerce St., Philadelphia, Pa. Stone, Livingston, Baird, Cal. Stranahan, J. J., Put-in-Bay, Ohio. Streuber, L., Erie, Pa. Sweeny, Dr. R. O., Duluth, Minn. Taylor, Alex., Jr., Mamaroneck, N.Y. Thompson, Edward, Northport, Long Island, N. Y. Titcomb, J. W., St. Johnsbury, Vt. Tomlin, W. D., Duluth, Minn. Upton, G. W., Warren, Ohio. Van ‘Cleet; J-s.,, Poughkeepsie, IN-NG Walker, E. Bryant. Walters, C. H., Cold Spring Harbor, N. Y. Walton, C. W., 1713 Spring Garden St., Philadelphia, Pa. Webb, W. Seward, 44th St. and Vanderbilt Ave., New York. Weed, W.R., Potsdam, N. Y. Whitaker, H., Detroit, Mich. Whitaker, E. G., 29 Broadway, New York. White, R. Tyson, 250 Adams St., Brooklyn, N. Y. Wilbur, E. H., 346 Broadway, New York. Wilbur, H. O., 235 3d St., Philadelphia, Pa. Willetts, J. C., 49 Wall St., New York. Wilmot, Samuel, Ottawa, Canada. Witherbee, W. C., Port Henry, N. Y. Zweighalt, S., 104 West 71st St., New York. a, ry v. “tas a : ‘ - Ts : - . 4 nS oe fs ADP rag we - adeta th a ic Darr a a Ni ia dias ahd Wht 2 Pea) ieee eT bie a} Gah f at ‘ \ ah “T1-).. 20" yl tie V7 Hite Tape. als Pore ai a ie a i" ‘i | 2a a ave ike aanee i UE, wa o in “Ai id ol ote i "iy ae ere: welt anh ey wh. 4 ea i ’ a, ay ee 2a Fo wal i mibz, its hee ee ~ Boalt | “hee, AEA Boy ae - : + Vi pbeeate TNL witbe Pan, () Pea Ow fv. weds CPR ilare i a & ; ' st AWE a :" a a = ye ‘Abgit pat. ae a) Oe: pa é On i / " } ) : > Hie ‘ + tn * = _ ‘ 4 Lt . - . i MINUTES OF THE AMERICAN FISHERIES SDOCIEIN AT LES TWENTY-SIXTH ANNUAL MEETING HELD AT THE RusSSELL HousE, DETROIT, MICHIGAN, ON THE I7TH, 18TH AND IgTH Days OF JUNE, 1897. SPEAKER PRINTING COMPANY, DETROIT. OFFICERS: FPOR®= 1807-Ge: President—WIiviamM L.- May, Omaha, Neb. Vice-President—G. F. PEABopy, Appleton, Wis. Treasurer—L. D. Huntineton, New Rochelle, N. Y. Recording Secretary HERSCHEL WHITAKER, Detroit, Mich. Corresponding Secretary—J. i. GUNCKEL, Toledo, O. > EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. James A. Date, York, Pa. E. E. Bryant, Madison, Wis. A. -N.. Caeney, Glens. Falls,=N: Y: J. W. Titrcomes, St. Johnsbury, Vt. J. L. Preston, Columbiaville, Mich. F. N. Crark, U.S. Fish Commission. H. A. SHERWIN, Cleveland, O. UN tx Be Or CON TENTS. Address of Welcome by Mr. Russel 5 : ; 6 Annual Address of President : : s : 8 New Members Elected . : : . 12-16-23 Treasurer’s Report. : : : : ; : : : 13 Report of Auditing Committee : ; : : : 19 Report of Secretary. : : ; ; : 20 Corresponding Members : : : 22 Paper of Prof. Birge E : : ee : 25 Discussion of above paper . : : m3 On40 Paper by Prof. Reighard : : ’ : : : 41 Discussion of above paper , ; 5 : : : ; 46-50 Report on Place of Next Meeting : ; : = ; , 51 Date of Next Meeting . F : : : : 51-53 Inter-State Action, Protect chee : : 54-56 Paper, Seymour Bower : ; : ; : 58 Discussion of same. : Se atere 5 3 63 Report of Committee on Necralany : ; ; : 63 Memorial of H. C.¥ ord . : : ; : : 66 Paper by J. W. Titcomb ; : : ; : , : é 73 Discussion of above paper : : : : ; 86-91 Report of Nominating Committee ; ‘ : : : : g! Election of Officers : : : : ‘ ; : : gI W. D. Tomlin’s Paper ; : : : : : : : 93 Discusson on same : : ; ; i 100-112 Paper by Dr. Bushrod W. James : : ; 113 Discussion of same : ‘ : : ; ; 116-120 Resolution of Mr. Post eee arding Fish Culture : : 18 fe) Discussion on Artificial Propagation of Fish F : : 120-125 Resolutions ; : : : : : : : ; ; 125 Paper, James Nevin . : : : : 126 Resolution regarding procecditins of eocieg : : ‘ 127 Paper, o. E. Land : : : : : 5 : é : 128 Constitution of Society . ; : : : : : ; 131 List.of Active Members. : : : : : E 132 List of Honorary Members . : : 5 : : : : 135 List of Corresponding Members ; : z : : ; 135 PROCEEDINGS OF AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY AT ITS REGULAR MEETING HELD AT THE RUSSELL HOUSE, DETROIT, MICH,., JUNE 17, 18 AND 19, 1897. FIRST DAY’S PROCEEDINGS. The Society was called to order by the President, Mr. Her- schel Whitaker, at 10 o’clock a. m., June 17th, and the follow- ing members were found to be present: J. E. Gunckel, Ohio; H. W. Davis, Michigan; H. A. Sher- win, Ohio; Prof. E. A, Birge, Wisconsin; Seymour Bower, Mich- igan; J. C. Parker, Michigan; W. J. Hunsaker, Michigan; Geo. F. Peabody, Wisconsin; F. N. Clark, Michigan; W. L. May, Nebraska; F. B. Dickerson, Michigan; Edwin E. Bryant, Wis- consin; Currie G. Bell, Wisconsin; W. D. Tomlin, Minnesota: James Nevin, Wisconsin; Henry Russel, Michigan; Herschel Whitaker, Michigan; Geo. B. Davis, Michigan; J. W. Titcomb, Vermont; J. J. Stranahan, Ohio; W. P. Manton, Michigan; Hoyt Post, Michigan; Bryant Walker, Michigan; John Bissell, Mich- igan; Jas. A. Dale, Pennsylvania. The President: Gentlemen of the American Fisheries Soci- ety: | am glad to welcome you here to the city to our Twenty- sixth Annual Meeting. We are laboring under a little disad- vantage this morning from the fact we haven’t the report of the Secretary. At the last moment I received a communication from him saying that a business engagement would prevent his coming, but that he would send on his report and the papers connected with his office. Those have not vet been received. We are also unfortunate in not having our Treasurer with us. He has forwarded me, however, his report, his vouchers, and all papers in connection with his office, which will be submitted at the proper time and referred to a committee. The asparagus has sprouted, gentlemen, green peaches are in the market, life is no longer a burden, the legislatures have adjourned, and there is a prospect that Congress will do the same soon, and | congratulate you upon the renewed chances of success in the country for these reasons. I hope that the meeting of the American Fisheries Society will be productive of much good to the participants, and that the papers will be as in- structive as they have been in the past. 6 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting It becomes my pleasure to introduce to you, on behalf of the gentlemen anglers of Detroit who are to entertain us during your stay here, a gentleman who, though old in experience, is not old in years, and who came to the TeAneAHOn after years of activity, that there were other things in life good for men to know besides business. He has developed into one of our most ac- complished anglers and it is unnecessary for me to say he is a most accomplished gentleman. He has left the small streams and brook trout as little side issues, and goes to the sal- mon streams for his sport. I have great pleasure in introducing to you Mr, Henry Russel, of Detroit, who will speak on behalf of the anglers of the city. Mr. Russel: Gentlemen, it is difficult for me to make tlie few formal remarks which I am expected to make after the glow- ing introduction of my friend Whitaker, but it seems to me in the few words of welcome | can give you I can congratulate you that you’ have no secretary or treasurer present. Those two offices seem to smack a little too much of business. And if you can dispense with them at this meeting and during your visit to our city, and if you will occupy your thought and attention with other things which we will endeavor to spread before you, I do not know but your meeting will be all the more profitable. Your President, and my friend, in whose great knowledge of fish and in whose skill as an angler we all take pride, notified me he would ask me to speak in behalf of the friends of angling and to welcome you to our city, and I assure you it is a great privilege to lay aside business cares, for the time at any rate, and extend to you our hospitality. To some of you whose names are household words in Michigan, I need not say anything in the way of welcome, for you know you are always welcome. Now, Mr. Herschel “Whitefish” Whitaker, as he is sometimes known—and I want to explain at the outset in respect to that, that he is so full of fishing lore, he has had so many experiences that many of us believe he is the man that took down the short- hand notes of St. Anthony’s sermon on fishes—we know he has a shorthand way of casting, and he brings to bear his great skill whenever he strikes a fish—Mr. Whitaker has not come to me in any way as a lawyer, railroad man, banker, or manufacturer, nor even as a representative business man to request me to ad- dress you this morning, and I wish to say to you I want you to American Fisheries Society. iv forget business, for I] am the Chairman of the Fontanalis Club, and | come before you to-day hoping that all my business delin- quencies will be forgotten. You come to the Land of Lakes, as the name of Michigan implies. The inland lakes and streams are more numerous in Michigan than in any other State in the Union. The State, as you are aware, is composed of two peninsulas, surrounded by lakes which are seas in their extent. Every variety of fresh water fish constitute the denizens of these inland waters, and it is a curious thing, not only in the experience of boyhood, but of manhood that every boy in Michigan all through the interior of the State grows up with a knowledge of the habits and is able to distinguish all the different sorts of fish. In this com- munity, in Michigan, fish has been so important an article of food, and there has been so much of a tendency to turn to fish- ing as a sport that the people in our community, far more than those of any other place, are able to know all the varieties and the habits and character of our fish, our black bass and whitefish and trout, and we have here what distinguishes us above other places, the rare and gentle grayling. Our State in the past has not been unmindful of the value of this, and both from the point of sport, and from the commercial point of view the state has fostered these fertile waters. It is true our state commission has, like all the rest of the industries, had a contest, but notwithstanding this they are “still in the ring.” But we know this, that in the state of Mich- igan with the results of the work of our commission before us and the feeling of the state of Michigan towards both the culti- vation and propagation of fish for sport and for food, there will be only a temporary abatement in the prosecution of the work of the distribution of fish and the development of our fisheries. They have done so much and the work has been so well done that we have no fear of the future. The greed of the destroying fishermen will overreach itself and | believe I speak with a knowledge of state affairs in stating that while a false economy may for a time restrain the work of the Fish Commission, there will be a change of sentiment pretty soon, and there will be a sowing upon the waters of this state which will be sure to bring forth a good harvest. Now, gentlemen, that you. are here we want you, as I have already intimated, to lay aside business as much as_ possible, we will endeavor to persuade you to do that, and we only ask 8 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting you to study the object lessons we shall give you. We propose this afternoon to get a couple of “fishing smacks” and take you to the great and famous bass grounds of this country, the Lake St. Clair fishing and shooting grounds; and from there, after supper, we will come down in the evening to the city, and to- morrow the town is yours and I may add the fullness thereof as well. (Applause.) To-morrow a “fish car!” train will be made up by the railroad and you will be hauled to Paris, and there you will spend the day and we trust you will come back in “fair round belly with good brook trout lined.” When you return from there, and not until after you return, you are expected to think of business. I read an anecdote the other day of Dr. Beale, the Bishop of Durham, which seems to me full of good sense. When writing one of his most important works he was asked when it would be finished, he replied, with great good humor and perfect sincer- ity, “Oh, I will undertake to take hold of that and push it to an accomplishment as rapidly as possible after the fly fishing season is over.” (Applause.) The Chair: It will become necessary for the Society to elect a temporary secretary and treasurer. The chair is prepared to entertain a motion to that end. Will some member make the motion? Dr. Parker: I move that Mr. May, of Omaha, Nebraska, be elected Secretary. The motion was supported and unanimously carried. On motion, duly seconded, Mr. Freeman B. Dickerson was elected Treasurer pro tem. The Chair: Gentlemen, you are probably as well aware as I am, that the duties of a President of this Society begin and end practically with the meeting. During the interim between the meetings there is little or no business to be transacted, therefore it does not become necessary for the President to submit a vol- uminous report. The year in fish culture has been about what it has been in former years, with perhaps the exception of the conditions in this state. Most of you are aware undoubtedly that the legislature in its unwisdom saw fit to very largely reduce the amount of money appropriated for the current expenses of the Board of Fish Commissioners of Michigan. I only refer to this here, as the matter is quite likely to come up in some shape here- American Fisheries Society. 9 after, so this society will be informed as to what the meaning of it is, provided it should prove to be a permanent thing. It nee not alone Michigan but the standing of all our interests in fish culture, because the circumstances that surround the temporary suspension of this work, which perhaps may become permanent, in my own judgment affects every single commission in existence in this country to-day, and to that extent the other commissions are interested in this subject. It is a question, I may say, without going into the matter very fully, which surrounds the success of fish peantine generally. It is a question of the proper protection of fish and in every sense affects the question of fish planting. JN proper administration and application of public funds should have in view the idea that the work done shall be followed with good results. That in a nutshell is the question, and I say it is fikely to come before you later on and it seems to me it is a matter that ought to interest us all. It will be necessary for us to make some recognition of the death of two very prominent members of this organization in the last year, the death of each of whom will cause vacancies in this society that it will be hard to fill. It falls with peculiar solemnity upon those of us who have long been members of this associa- tion and who had come to know such men as Mr. Ford, of Penn- sylvania, and Mr. Fitzhugh, of Michigan. Mr. Ford was one of the foremost men in the promotion of the interests of fish culture in his own State. He was one of the men who contrib- uted most largely to the success of this Association. He was a conscientious gentleman, an expert fish culturist, a man of broad views and a man who has given this society a standing in his own community and wherever he was known. It will become necessary for us to take some steps to properly recognize his death. I understand the gentleman from Pennsylvania has a memorial which will be offered at the proper time. We have also lost another member who was one of the finest characters | have ever known. He was a Michigan man; he was a gentleman angler, a man whose heart was as gentle and as good as a woman’s, a man whom it was a plesaure to know as a personal friend, a man who “wore his heart upon his sleeve’ for his friends, a gentleman who was connected more directly than any other man in the United States with the identification of what is now known as the Michigan grayling, Mr. D. H. Fitz- hugh, of Bay City. It was my pleasure to know him intimately, and his death came to me almost as a personal bereavement. | hope that a proper recognition will be made when the time comes 10 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting of the death of these two gentlemen. There are possibly others whose decease has not come to my knowledge, and if so it will be proper to take some action upon those. During the last year there have been, as will be revealed by the report of the Secretary, some resignations, and among them one to which I wish to call your attention and I would suggest that proper action be taken upon the same. Mr. Fred. Mather, one of the founders of the American Fisheries Society, a man who has probably contributed as largely to the success and inter- est of this Association as any man in this country, as most of you are aware, terminated his connection with the New York Commission something like two years ago. Certain personal rea- sons led Mr. Mather to feel that he should withdraw from the Society. My own judgment, and I believe that view will be sanctioned by every gentleman here who knows him, is that he is justly entitled to become a life member of this Association for what he has done for it. I would recommend in my suggestions to you that action be taken to this end, as it seems to me an emi- nently proper one. The question will come up with reference to the time and place of meeting, and it is customary to appoint at the first ses- sion committees on the place of ‘meeting and on nomination of officers. That will be in order pretty soon. fi I think Mr. Russel has outlined to you what the programme is here. At 2 o’clock, city time, we are expected to leave the foot of Third street on two private yachts, kindly donated by Mr. Smith and Mr. McMillan. I think an opportunity had better be offered at this point for the presentation of names for membership, as has been the cus- tom, and if any of you gentlemen have the names of persons to suggest now is the time and the Chair will be glad to hear them. I myself suggest the name of Dr. W. P. Manton, of Detroit. I have another list of proposed members which I have left at the office, but will bring in later. [ also propose the name of Mr. Henry Russel,-of Detroit. I think the first thing in order will be the appointment of a committee on membership to pass upon candidates. The con- stitution requires they shall be elected by a two-thirds vote. I think it is hardly necessary for a motion, and I will appoint as a committee on nominations for membership Dr, J. C. Parker, of Grand Rapids; Mr. Geo. Peabody, of Vermont, and Mr. F. N. Clark, of Northville. The Secretary will give them the names of candidates and they will report at once. American Fisheries Society. 11 While we are waiting for that committee I want to say one thing further which should have been in my verbal report of the proceedings of last year. At the meeting of the Association last year the following resolution was adopted: “Resolved, That the President appoint a committee of one member from each of the seaboard States, to whom the subject of Mr. Huntington’s paper shall be referred with power.” Mr. Huntington’s paper related to the protection of fish in the ocean along the seaboard States, and a resolution by Mr. Dickerson was offered in connection with it providing for the appointment of a like committee from the lake States. I subse- quently wrote Mr. Huntington for suggestions as to who the committee should be from the seaboard. He gave me the names of several gentlemen who were not members of the Society. While I had no particular objection to appointing these men, and have no doubt they would have acted cheerfully, at the same time | did not know what authority this Society had to nominate men to act upon a committee when they are not members of the Society, and I therefore declined to make those appointments. | think no injury has been worked, but it seems to me that the Society could not with any proper sense of dignity, nominate men on committees to act for it over whom they had no power even of membership, and after thinking the matter over | came to the conclusion it was a matter that had not been considered in that light at the time the resolution was offered, and I therefore made no appointments. That is the explanation of my non- action in that matter. We are a little embarrassed by the Secretary’s report not being here. I had supposed he had made up a list of papers to be read at this meeting, but if he has, it has not come to hand, and I think it is best now for the Secretary to take down a list of the papers and’ of the writers who are ready to read papers at this meeting and I hope that those who have papers will announce the subject and then we shall have it on the program for to- morrow. Prof. Birge, I believe you have a paper? Prof. Birge: I had expected to use about five or ten minutes on the subject of the “Vertical Distribution of Plants and Ani- mals in the Inland Lakes.” Dr. Parker: The following names have been examined by your committee. We find them satisfactory and the committee - 1s unanimous in recommending their election. 12 Twenty-sixth Annual M eeting The following persons were then unanimously elected mem- bers of the Society: Henry Russel, Detroit; Dr. W. P. Manton, Detroit; W. J. Hunsaker, Detroit; E. E. Bryant, Madison, Wis.; Prof. E. A. Birge, Madison, Wis.; Currie G. Bell, Bayfield, Wis.; Dr. A. W. Hoyt, 243 Wabash avenue, Chicago, Ill.; Geo. B. Davis, Utica, Mich.; W. J. O’Brien, South Bend, Neb.; Henry Sykes, Bayfield, Wis. On motion of Mr. Dale, Mr. Fred. Mather was elected a life member of the American Fisheries Society. Dr. Parker: I would like to ask if there is such a provision as that in the constitution? The Chair: There. is, Dr. Parker: What does it carry with it? The Chair: It carries with it the remission of dues. That will be covered by making him an honorary member. Dr. Parker: What is the standing of such a member? I would like to have Mr. Mather have a voice in the Society. The Chair: There is no reference to that in the constitution whatever, but it has been the custom to elect persons hon- orary members and that implies they are on the same footing as to participation in the proceedings as active members. Mr. Dale: I move that a committee be appointed to make some recognition of the death of members of the Society and to report to-morrow morning. The motion was seconded and unanimously adopted. Dr. Parker: I move that a committee of three be appointed to select and recommend to the Society a suitable place for our next meeting. The motion was seconded and unanimously adopted. The Chair: I will appoint on the committee to take cogni- zance of the death of members Mr. Dale, Dr. Parker and Mr. H. W. Davis. I will announce the committee to select the place of next meeting in the morning. Mr. Peabody: I move that a committee of five be appointed on nomination of candidates for officers of the American Fish- American Fisheries Society. 13 eries Society for the ensuing year, to report at to-morrow’s ses- sion. The motion was seconded and unanimously adopted. A letter from the Treasurer, Mr. L. D. Huntington, was then read regretting his enforced absence from the meetiug on account of illness in his family. Letters of regret at not being able to be present at the meet- ing were read from H. B. Mansfield, Dr. Bushrod W. Jaines, Bernard L. Douredore, A. N. Cheney and others. The Chair: If you are ready I think we will have the report of the Treasurer read. The Acting Treasurer will read the re- port. The report was as follows: TREASURER’S REPORT FOR YEAR 18%, L. D. Huntington, Treasurer, in account with American Fish- eries Society: Dr. June 20, 1896, to balance of year 1895, received irom, F.'J.~Amsden:,,... .., $141 32 June 20, 1896, dues collected by and re- GeivedMrOM Same esas 5 hes os aie . 69 00 —— $210 32 June 15, 1897, from dues collected for the year 1896 and for years prior thereto........... 372 00 r — $582 32 Gr July 3, 1896, T. H. Bean, late Secretary...... Spee oO July 3, 1896, Humphrey, printing andstationery 6 00 July 3, 1896, T. E. Crossman, stenographer... 41 00 July 23, 1896, Glens Falls Printing Co., print- MGR anidesttOMeky += rich. Kis. dias oe 2175 July 23, 1896, A. N. Cheney, Secretary...... 2 69 fulvetypewnting circulars... @'. 5° 2) ee 1 75 August. Humphrey, printing Treasurer’s re- COLD ES instars fens seers +. 22 8 etente ee ee ee e725 Mucust. Wy pewntine *circulatss. 0.0.05.) : /: Tas March. Forest and Stream, use of cut of the Pl Ome ay Potters. -sexet em Coe ge tee oie ¢ 2 50 March, A. .N; Cheney, :Seeretany: cae oi. +: 24 85 14 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting March. Glens Falls Printing Co., printing Proceedings Of “SOCiety:..; «2% cee teres ee 131 G2 Osta Pes pigincis aus he eee eae oe bh oe beans eee I1 48 Jaby..- Hamphrey; enyelopes + ao. 2 aereeus 1.50 254 55 June 15, 1897, balance in hands of Treasurer. $327 77 42 New street, New York City, June 14, 1897. To the Members of the American Fisheries Society: Gentlemen—lI find from the Treasurer’s books that it has been the custom of late years for the Treasurer to present at the annual meeting of the society a statement with balance, etc., but not a correct statement for the fiscal year, for which they were made, for the reason that a considerable amount of dues for and belonging to the then succeeding year, have been col- lected and credited to the year previous, to which they were due and belonged. For instance, in the statement for the year 1893 there were $138 of the dues of the year 1894 collected and cred- ited. In the statement of 1894 there was $30 of the year 1895 dues collected and credited to 1894 statement, and bills incurred and presented for that year to the amount of $156.70 not men- tioned in the statement, which were paid and charged in the year 1895 statement. The statement for the year 1893 shows a balance Cr. of $67.49, whereas the actual balance for that fiscal year was Dr. $70.51, $138 credited to 1893 were from dues of and belonging to 1894. The balance as shown for the year 1894 was ‘Cr. $80.65, whereas the figures on the Treasurer’s book for the fiscal year 1894 showed a balance Dr. of $66.29. The balance as shown by the statement for 1895 was Cr. $141.32, while the figures for the fiscal year of 1895 showed a balance of $328.02, the balance for June, 1894, having received the benefit of $186.70 belonging to the fiscal year of 1895. The statement herewith presented is for the fiscal year 1896; the receipts over expendi- tures being $186.45, which, added to the balance with the Treas- urer at the commencement of the year of $141.32, leaves the actual balance of $327.77 now in the treasury. Immediately after having been elected president of the soci- ety, June 12, 1895, | made an examination of the list of mem- bers as then of record on the Treasurer’s book with their re- - spective payment of dues, and took a verified copy of same; and with the assistance of Dr. Tarleton H. Bean, the then Secretary American Fisheries Society. 15 of the Society, we on several dates during the year 1895 prepared circulars and mailed a copy of same to all members then in ar- rears for dues, requesting prompt remittance of same to the then Treasurer, F. J. Amsden. Since May 20, 1896, when I was chosen Treasurer of the Society, I have at various times pre- pared and mailed four similar circulars to those who were in arrears at the dates of sending same. I attach hereto copies of the seven circulars above referred to. The results of the circu- lars so sent, as well as of numerous letters and personal requests are condensed in the tabulated statement herewith attached. This statement accounts only for the 276 names that were taken from the list of members as of record on the Treasurer’s book June, 1895; there having been 22 members elected in the year 1895, one of whom has since resigned. One claims that he is not now a member and one requests his name dropped from the list. There were fourteen members elected in- 1896 and there are at the present time of record on the Treasurer’s book agreeable to the provisions of the constitution, with dues generally paid to date about 145 members. The amount of dues collected in 1895 was $507, $354 being for the year 1895, $147 for dues of previous year, and $6 for dues of 1896. The amount of dues collected in the year 1896 was $441, $354 being for 1896 dues, and for dues of previous years, $87. Allow me to assure you that for two years last past, one year as President and one year as Treasurer, I have used my best efforts to collect all arrearages of dues and secure a correct list of members, with results as stated. Yours truly, ie Da HONE ENG LOIN: Ereasurer, In addition to the foregoing the Treasurer announced that the following named persons had paid all outstanding dues and had presented their resignations: A. Mitchell, C. H. Orvis, Dr. Bashford Dean, W. C. Clark, je AeLorine, 5. °K: Stone... Dean. ~~ On motion of Mr. Dickerson the resignations were accepted. Mr. Dickerson: I move that the report of the Treasurer be accepted, and an auditing committee of three be appointed to audit his accounts. The motion was seconded and unanimously adopted. 16 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting The Chair: I will appoint as auditing committee Mr. Peabody, Mr. W. H. Davis and Mr. F. N. Clark. I desire to propose the name of Senator J. L. Preston, of Lapeer, Michigan, as a member of this Society, and the name will be referred to the committee without further order and they will report at once. The membership committee, after a brief session, reported unanimously in favor of the election of Mr. Preston and he was duly elected a member of the Association. The Chair: I want to say a word in connection with the Treasurer's report. I am satisfied it has been a great disappoint- ment to him not to be present. He is a devoted member of the Society, and I have had long enough experience with the Society to know that he has made a most efficient Treasurer. He has looked after the dues, he has been very careful, and his report shows we are in very fair financial condition, and it is largely owing to his efforts that it is so. I regret as much as he does that he is not here. The name of William Osborn, of Duluth, Minnesota, was proposed by Mr. Tomlin as a member of the Society. The committee on membership reported in favor of Mr. Os- born, and he was duly elected. Mr. Gunckel: I desire to say a few words on the subject of which a committee has been appointed. I had a conference with Mr. Huntington before I left New York last year, and since then I have had correspondence with President McKinley and have had a conversation with him touching the subject, and he most heartily endorses anything this Society may recommend touch- ing the protection of fish not only upon the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, but in all the inland lakes, and he assured me he would give it his personal attention. I presume after the Dingley bull has passed he will do so. The Chair: I desire to say a few words with reference to the printed proceedings of last year. The stenographer’s report was, to say the least, a very poor one, and more care should be taken in the editing of the report. I myself opposed the return of the papers to authors after they were once in the hands of the Secre- tary, and made a motion by which the Secretary was authorized to retain in his possession such papers as were read at the meet- ing. The reason for that was that if the papers were returned to the writers, through the multiplicity of their own affairs they American Fisheries Society. Uiive forget to return them to the Secretary and thus delayed the re- port. But my expectation was that they would have an oppor- tunity to read and correct any extemporaneous remarks that were made. I speak for no one but myself, but there are certain things in the report, of things I said that would lead one to think that the entertainment had been too much for me. The secre- tary acted, perhaps, as best he could, but I dislike to be mis- Guoted in what I say, or have senseless language imputed to me because of the inefficiency of the man who took it down. Our reports go out, not only to our own members, but they go all over the country and some go abroad, and the greatest care should be taken in their publication. It is a garbled report, so far as my own remarks were concerned at any rate, and it is too bad it should be so. A great deal of care should be taken in editing the report, particularly the discussions. Sometimes a man does not express what he means, but if he does he should be reported correctly. Mr. Gunckle: I received several letters during the year on that same subject from members who attended the last meeting in New York, calling my attention to the remarks that they had made relating to arguments on some very important subjects, and it seems they were just the reverse of what they intended, and they wrote me that they did not think they would argue any more on any subject. The Chair: That is it precisely. Mr. Gunckle: And then also I noticed where they surely have misquoted, particularly the paper I read last year. There is no excuse for mistakes where you have it in black and white before you. Neither is there any excuse for having the report delayed so long as it was last year. I cannot see why this Soci- ety cannot afford to have a capable stenographer and have every- thing complete and let the Secretary select for publication just the things that are necessary for the advancement of the Society. The Chair: The long delay in getting out the report has become proverbial year after year, and it does seem as if the re- port of this year could be gotten out promptly. If there is any value in it, it should be had in a reasonable time after the meeting. Mr. Gunckle: Don’t you think it would be well for mem- bers who submit the papers to be allowed the privilege of read- ing their own proof? 18 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting Mr. Dickerson: It should be sent to them in galley proof. The Chair: And I think the Secretary, unless he receives a return of corrected proof in reasonable time should correct it according to his own judgment, and publish the report and not delay the work on account of the delinquencies of members. Mr. Gunckle: I understand that Dr. Bean, who read a for- eign paper last year, was in Europe and the Secretary had to send it over there to be corrected. I would also suggest that there be some provision made whereby the subjects of papers will be taken care of better. Now, last year in New York quite a number of gentlemen were present, and they did not report they would read papers, from the fact it takes up too much time and there is no inducement for a member to read his own paper except for the discussions that it arouses. I think there should be a provision requiring that just so many papers should be read, say five or ten, instead of depending on voluntary papers. How this should be done I will let the experienced men suggest. Mr. Clark: It has always occurred to me that the plan sug- gested would be a good one; that either the officers or a com- mittee should be appointed to arrange a plan for papers to be submitted by those interested in different subjects, papers on fish cultural matter by fish culturists, and scientific papers by scien- tists, and so on through, so that we would know a little some- thing of what we are going to have. I think there should be some program made out so that we would know we would have those papers. The Chair: I have not received any communication from the Secretary, so I cannot say how far he has gone in this matter, but I know he asked members a month ago for the titles of papers that were to be read, so I presume likely he intended to get out some sort of a program, but it has not arrived for some cause or other. It would be advisable to have a program issued in advance of the session. Mr. Peabody: I think Mr. Clark’s idea that a committee be appointed or the officers asked to solicit articles from men who are specially fitted to write articles on certain subjects is good. I quite agree with him. It seems to me, in order to be enduring we should take steps to that end. This should be a business or- ganization. Although a certain amount of pleasure should be attached to it there should be great care exercised not to have pleasure dominate too much. Two or three days ought to be American Fisheries Society. a profitably spent, a good share of the days, in the discussion of papers on subjects to advance fish culture. The Chair: I desire to say in this connection that the pres- ident took it upon himself to address several gentlemen who he believed were able and disposed to give this Society papers on some interesting theme. Among those gentlemen were Prof. Birge, who is present and expects to read a paper, and Prof. Keighard, of the University of Michigan, who will be here with a paper of interest to-morrow. He wrote to me asking me about when his paper would be due. [ fancy he is a very busy man these days, and has to husband his time, but there is no doubt he will be here. I also wrote to Prof. S. A. Forbes, of the Natu- ral History Observatory of Illinois, who promised us-a paper and intended to be here personally and read it, but on Friday last I received a communication from him saying that the legis- lature had laid an additional burden upon him in his work and he had another engagement which would prevent him from being here altogether, and so we are deprived of his paper. I think the suggestion is a very good one and it may crystallize perhaps into a proposition for a committee to consider the matter and report to-morrow, and then the body can act upon it as they see fit On motion an adjournment-was then had until next day at 9 o'clock. SECOND DAY’S PROCEEDINGS. Friday, June 18, 1897, 9 a. m. Chairman Whitaker: The Society will, come to order. I was authorized to appoint two committees yesterday, and I will do it now, so that they can get together and confer during the course of the morning and report here at their convenience. The committee on place of meeting will be Mr. H. W. Davis, Mr. Dale and Mr. Bower. The committee on nominations will be Mr. Peabody, Mr. Dickerson, Mr. Clark, Mr. Preston and Mr. Gunckle. The committee on auditing the report of the Treasurer is now prepared to report. We will listen to the report. Mr. Peabody: As chairman of the committee I would re- port we have found the Treasurer’s accounts correct and so report them and recommend the adoption of the report. 20 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting The motion was duly seconded and the report was unani- mously adopted. Chairman Whitaker: Since the close of yesterday’s meet- ing the report of the Secretary has come to hand, and the Secre- tary pro tem will read it. The report was then read as follows: Glens Falls, N. Y., June 14, 1897. American Fisheries Society: Gentlemen—I have the honor to present a brief statement of my duties as Recording Secretary of this Society. Two years ago a resolution was passed by the Society pro- viding that the transactions should be printed within sixty days after the Annual Meeting, and last year for reasons given by Dr. Bean in his report it was impossible to comply with the resolution. Upon adjournment of the Society last year I sought bids for printing the transactions and received two of $1.35 and $1.34 per page, both New York printers, in which place former transactions have been printed. Later, the first quoted bidder reduced his bid to $1.20 per page. It was not until the latter part of October that the Treasurer was able to furnish the list of members, etc., and a week later he sent in some corrections. I know, from my own duties allied to that of preparing a mem- bership list, how difficult it is to impress upon members the necessity for haste in the matter, and the Treasurer informs me that he used all diligence in correcting the list of members. In the meantime I had sought bids outside of New York City for printing the transactions, and received from the Glens Falls Printing Company a bid of 84 cents per page, which I accepted. The stenographic notes were sent to me in such a form, with so many blanks to fill, that it was the work of a number of days to prepare them for the printer, and even then I regret to say errors occurred. It was my idea that the proof sheets of the papers read should be submitted to the writers for cor- rection; but, through a misunderstanding of my letter on that subject to the President, it was not done. The printed transac- tions were received the evening of March 4, and the same even- ing I mailed copies to all active members, and on March 5, mailed the remainder to honorary and corresponding members. I have had a great many applications from those who are . not members for copies of the transactions, and these I have filled so far as I could. Dr. Bean turned over to me a consid- American Fisheries Society. 21 erable number of copies of transactions for the year 1895, and I found in Albany a large number of copies of transactions for 1894, left there by a former Secretary. When these have been asked for I have mailed them to those who applied after consult- ing with ex-Secretary Bean and the President. A number of public libraries have applied for complete sets of the transactions, but I believe there are not half a dozen in existence. My own set, after years of earnest searching after missing copies, is still lacking a few years. I would suggest that some formal action be taken by the Soci- ety upon the matter of furnishing copies of the transactions to thse who are not members. At the last meeting a resolution was passed restoring to the transactions a list of deceased members, and, after considerable correspondence I was able to secure a list of 24 names. In this matter I have received almost no assistance from the members in reply to my letters, and the list is made up chiefly from my own knowledge, after reading the lists of members in such copies of the proceedings as I have. I have found that the following names should have been added: Charles B. Evarts, George E. Ward, John A. Greusebach, Roland Redmond, B. L. Swan, Te Benjamin West and J. J. O’Connor. It is earnestly requested that the members of the Society co-operate in securing a complete list of deceased members. There may be some of the new members who are unaware that the American Fisheries Society was originally termed the American Fish Cultural Association. At that time the Associa- tion had a seal consisting of three crossed fishes, with the title of the Association inside of a circle. [| would recommend that action be taken to restore this seal with the amended title of the Society as now recognized. The address of T. H. Palmer, a member, is unknown to the minedsurer Of Secretary. The copies of the transactions mailed to Prof. B. Ben, Ger- many, and Don Francisco Garcia Sola, Spain, have been returned uncalled for, and-I have received corrections in addresses of other corresponding members, and of a few active members whose addresses have been changed since the transactions were printed. I must repeat what my predecessor had said, that the work of the Recording Secretary cannot be efficiently done without the assistance and co-operation of other members. There is con- 22 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting siderable correspondence connected with the office, and the work of preparing the transactions is not slight, but it is cheerfully rendered; and if members will assist in furnishing proper ad- dresses and missing records, the proceedings can be made per- fect and complete. I would suggest that, for convenience of the printer and Secretary, the stenographic reports of discus- sions following the reading of papers be made a part of the paper, and each paper with the discussion be complete in itself and not a part of the routine business. On March 27 I sent out the first notice of the annual meet- ing for this year, requesting members to send to the Secretary titles of papers to be read. On May 27 I sent out a second notice to all members, giving time and place of meeting in Detroit, with a summary of the program prepared by the local committee for the entertainment of the Society, and again asking that titles of papers should be sent in promptly. There are on hand several hundred copies of the transac- tions of the Society for the years 1894, 1895 and 1806. Respectfully, A. NELSON CHENEY, Recording Secretary. Chairman Whitaker: There are certain suggestions made in the report, and it seems to me it should be referred to a commit- tee, the suggestions be considered by them and reported upon. The Chair will entertain a motion for the appointment of such committee if desired. Mr. Clark: I move that such a committee be appointed, al- though I do not wish to be appointed on that committee. The motion was seconded and adopted unanimously. Chairman Whitaker: I will appoint as such committee Mr. Bryant, Mr. Dale and Mr. Bell, and the report of the Secretary will be turned over to that committee and they can consider and report on the recommendations therein contained. The following names were then presented in a letter from Mr. Cheney, the Secretary, for election as corresponding members of the Society: J. J. Armistead, Dumfries, Scotland; S. Jaffe, Osnabruck, Ger- many; Wm. Seinor, Fishing Editor, “London Field.” American Fisheries Society. 23 On motion of Mr. Titcomb, duly seconded, the gentlemen named were unanimously elected. Mr. Titcomb: For the interest of those who like good litera- ture on these subjects I would like to suggest that Mr. J. J. Armistead is the editor of “An Angler’s Paradise,” which is a most interesting book on that and kindred subjects. Chairman Whitaker: I quite agree with you, I think it is the most interesting book that has appeared on fish culture in a great many years. There is also a letter to the Secretary from Dr. James, whom we all know to be an active member of this Society and a gen- tleman who always contributes some paper, notifying the Sec- retary, that on account of the meeting of another body to which he belongs holding its meeting at this time, and being in charge of two of its sections, he is unable tobe here and ‘forwards a paper. Mr. Clark: I would like to ask if the names presented in that letter, for membership, are supposed to be in the hands of the committee on membership? Chairman Whitaker: They are in the committee’s hands, and there are two or three other names that will be referred to the committee. I will read these communications because the Sec- retary is busy. A letter from Mr. Cheney was read proposing for member- ship the following: Col. J. J. Brice, U.S. Fish Commissioner; C. C. Wood, Plymouth, Mass.; H. Seymour Bulkley, Odessa, Mass. Mr. Stranahan proposed the name of J. C. Fox, of Put-in-Bay, Ohio, for membership. The applications were referred to the committee on member- ship. Mr. C. B. Reynolds, of New York, tendered his resignation, which, on motion duly made, was accepted. Letters from the Chamber of Commerce, from the Mayor and Common Council of Nashville, Tenn., from the Governor of Tennessee, the Director-General of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition and the “American,” “The Banner” and the “Sun” newspapers of Nashville, were read inviting the Society to attend the Exposition in that city. 24 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting On motion duly seconded the invitations were accepted and placed on file. Mr. Clark: The committee on membership reported favor- ably on the names presented for membership, Hon. J. J. Brice, of Washington; C. C. Wood, of Plymouth, Mass.; H. C. M. Bulkley, of Odessa, N. Y., and J. C. Fox, of Ohio. Mr. Peabody: Is it not customary to have the United States Fish Commissioner elected as an honorary member. Chairman Whitaker: No, he is elected as an active member. You have heard the report of the committee that these gen- tlemen be elected to active membership; what will you do with the report? On motion, duly seconded, the above named candidates were elected members. Chairman Whitaker: I think, gentlemen, there are no other committees to report and there is no other routine business. We will now proceed to the reading of papers and the discus- sions. It is customary after each paper is read to take them up and discuss them. ‘The first paper will be a paper on the “Ver- tical Distribution of the Lower Plants and Animals in the Inland Lakes,” by Prof. E. A. Birge, of Wisconsin. VERTICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE LOWER PLANTS AND ANIMALS IN THE INLAND LAKES. By PROF. E. A. BIRGE, of Wisconsin. Prof. Birge: I did not expect to be called upon first and have not much to say. During the past three years I have been engaged in studying the history both of the distribution through- out the year and the vertical distribution of the small crustacea of the lake which immediately adjoins the University of Wis- consin, Lake Mendota. This lake is about six miles in length and from three to four miles in width, and, as you see, a rather large sheet of water as inland lakes go. It is a lake of some 85 feet in greatest depth, the greater portion of the lake being over 50 feet in depth. At a distance of about a quarter of a mile from the shore we reach a depth of about 60 feet and from that point on to the middle of the lake the increase in depth is quite slow, so that the greater portion of the lake is a plain varying only ten or fifteen feet from level. In studying the vertical distribution of these animals I em- ployed a kind of a dredge so constructed that it could be lowered to a given depth, opened under the water, and then raised through any desired distance and closed again when it had reached the proper height. In that way it was possible to obtain the living plants and animals between certain depths. It is opened at the bottom, is then raised, say ten feet, is then closed and brought to the top and the contents taken out. In that way it is possible to get the plants and animals of the lakes from each stratum. It is not my intention to go into the details of the distribu- tion, but to call attention to one point only which seems to me to have some practical bearing. In order to explain that, it is necessary to speak of the temperature of these lakes. As we all know, the temperature of the bottom of our great lakes or inland lakes is decidedly lower than the temperature at the surface. While in Lake Mendota, for example, the temperature at the surface during the summer is 75° or even 80° on the hottest days, the temperature at the bottom is quite constant, somewhere from 50 to 60 degrees, varying with the different seasons, at a depth anywhere from 50 to 80 feet. The decline in temper- ature from the surface to the bottom is by no means a regular 26 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting one. During the spring, the period when the lake is warming up, the decline of temperature from the surface to the bottom is more or less uniform. But when the season has advanced, from about the Ist of July, in Lake Mendota, to the latter part of September, we find a peculiar distribution of temperature. The upper water of the lake, varying from about 20 feet in thickness to some 45 feet, is very nearly uniform in tempera- ture. One may say, speaking roughly, that in the early morn- ing, before the sun has’had any effect, the upper stratum of the lake is practically uniform in temperature, falling, perhaps, in this distance of 20 to 4o feet, I or 2 or perhaps 3 degrees. Fah- renheit. Immediately under this stratum there comes a thin layer in which the temperature falls with great rapidity, sometimes falling as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit in a meter, at other times falling less rapidly than that. But there is always a zone imme- diately below the warm water in which the temperature falls very rapidly and below which the falling of the temperature is quite uniform and slow until the bottom is reached. This little chart which I have had drawn to go with the paper will illustrate this. This diagram shows the condition of temperature on August 12, 1896. In the diagram the horizontal lines represent depth in meters and the vertical lines temperature in degrees Fahren- heit. You will see that at the surface the temperature is about 79 and at the bottom a little above 59—a difference of 20 degrees between the top and bottom. But the line of tem- perature shows that the rapidity of the fall in temperature is very different at different depths. From the surface to 6 meters there is very little fall, somewhat more in the next two meters, while there is a drop of nearly 10 degrees from 8 to 10 meters, and a fall of only about 6 degrees in the lower 8 meters. It is plain that nearly one-half of the difference in temperature between the top and the bottom of the lake comes | in the two meters from 8 to 10. The effect of this is that the lake becomes divided into two parts, horizontally. There is what you may call a warm lake on the surface from 20 to 30 feet thick, or of even greater thickness than that. This lake is sub- jected to the action of the winds and the currents keep the water stirred up, so that the water may be brought to the surface by the action of the wind. Below lies another lake, say from 20 to 30 feet below the surface and extending to the bottom, which is entirely undisturbed by the wind, in which the temperature American Fisheries Society. 27 go° CA 5 peers «i 76° ga° cy Lifes Ab NT a ee ea Sey Con peeaeaie bem mage | A\----- hc es RS 4 A a a Bi ree @\|------]------|------|--= soe eyeeee PON 2 il | oe 19)----/-4------|------|------4------ 14\- ag ale Hl ae ees This Figure shows the temperature of the water of Lake Mendota on August 12, 1806. The vertical lines indicate temperature and the horizontal lines indicate depth in meters, For general purposes 3 meters may be reckoned as 10 feet. The heavy line going obliquely across the diagram indicates the temperature at the different depths, being 79° and a fraction at the surface, about 78° at 6 meters (20 feet), 65° at Io meters, etc. On this date there were only 5,500 crustacea per square meter of surface between 10 and 18 meters, 24,000 between 9 and Io meters, and 66,000 between S$ and 9 meters. ' | i 28 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting does not change except in connection with the zone where the warmth is working its way down very slowly as the season ad- vances through the late summer and early fall. During July the zone of rapid descent of temperature—the bottom of the upper and warm lake—lies from 25 to 30 feet below the sur- face, In August the warm water may become as much as 40 or more feet thick and in late September the entire mass of water becomes mingled and uniform in temperature. During the summer season, then, we have a warm lake on top subjected to the action of the winds, and a cold lake on which the wind has no influence. As a result we find that the bot- tom of the lake during the hot months of the year and during the months when most vegetation is found in all our lakes, is entirely cut off from immediate access to the air, and, further- more, everything that goes down there stays there. In Lake Mendota the water down in the lake becomes decidedly foul, not as foul as in some lakes on record, but as the minute plants and animals of the upper waters die and sink, there results an accumulation of decomposing matter in the lower water, and the deeper or cold water becomes distinctly foul. It smells like rotten eggs, to put it plainly, and it tastes like sulphur water, evidently from compounds arising from the decomposition of these small plants and animals. Asa result of this accumulation of decomposing matter the plants and animals of the lake which are the ultimate food supply of the open water, are unable to live in the lower water of the lake, and during -the months of July and August and the greater part of September all of the plankton life of the lake is confined to the upper water. You may say that 95 per cent. and more of the crus- tacea, and the proportion of plants would not be essentially different from that, are found in the warm water above, and less than 5 per cent are found in the cold waterin the lower part of the lake. It makes no difference whether you go to the shal- lower part of the lake or the deeper part. Where the lake is say 85 feet in depth there may be 50 feet of this water with practically nothing in it with the exception of a very few small animals and many of these are in a weak and dying condition. Apparently you get none of the smaller forms, except those that have become weak or are dying or have got stuck in moulting their shells, and in one manner or another become incapacitated and sink down there toward the bottom. The bottom of the warm water forms the lower limit of the plankton life and this life closely follows that limit as the warm American Fisheries Society. 29 water gradually increases in thickness during the summer and early autumn—in late August and September. Chairman Whitaker: To the bottom? Professor Birge: Towards the bottom. In October you may say in a general way the crustacea and the plants are distributed about uniformly through the whole depth of the water. I can illustrate the distribution of the animalcules on certain dates when they were accurately determined. For instance, figuring the crustacea on this particular day, August 12, 1896, below 10 meters there were in a column of water a meter in area, and 8 meters in depth, 5,500 crustacea. In the lower part of the warm water, in a cubic meter of warm water, there were 24,000. There were four times as many crustacea in the bottom meter of the warm water as there were in the whole 8 meters that lay below, In the next meter above there were 66,000.crustacea, so that the difference is simply enormous. On another date there were found 3,600 crustacea, from 11 to 18 meters, while in the next meter above (10 to 11) there were 20,000, and in the meter above, 43,000 crustacea in a single cubic meter. So that while in the 7 meters below the warm water there were only about 500 crustacea per cubic meter, in a single cubic meter above there were 20,000, and in the next above that twice as many more, Over 40,000. Now you can see the bearing of this. There are some insect larvae, not very numerous, that go right up and down through this stratum, and there are mollusks, Cyclas, that we find in the mud at the bottom, But you can see at once that the supply of food for fish in this bottom water under this condition of things must be extraordinarily smatl. Now, I imagine that one thing which all fishermen tell us, that the white fish in Lake Mendota congregate during the summer in the region of the springs, is possibly true (although I have never been able to locate those springs). It seems reasonably clear that if they spread themselves around the lake they must get short picking in the matter of food, because very little food is there. And so, again, it is possible that this scarcity of food is one of the causes which brings about the death in our region of a considerable number of white fish to- wards the latter part of the summer. The other point of practical importance is this: This accumu- lation of decomposing matter in the lower part of the lake may not be without a direct effect on the fish life that is present. Just about thirteen years ago, in 1884, we had in Lake Mendota a 30 wenty-sixth Annual Meeting very great mortality among the perch. There must have, on a moderate estimate, from five to eight million of perch died in the lake during the summer. You remember it very well, Gen. Bryant? They washed up there on the shore. The street superintendent buried from the city bank of Lake Mendota over 200 tons of these dead perch that washed up there, and that in- cludes, perhaps, only three miles of the front of the lake, which must be some twenty miles in circumference, and they were washed up like that all around the edge of the lake. You will find a report of this by Professor Forbes, who came up there to investigate the cause of the fish dying, He was sent there by the Fish Commissioner, and came there in the latter part of the mortality, and he found nothing as to the cause. I_ studied it all through the season, but was unable to discover any cause. Professor Forbes’ report is found in the eighth volume of the Bulletins of the U. S. Fish Commission, 1887. Chairman Whitaker: Were there any physica! appearances in the fish to indicate anything in the way of parasites? Professor Birge: You could see nothing; no, there was noth- ing in the way of parasites. You would find fish swimming around the surface. On a calm morning you could look out over the lake and you could see the lake eonied with these fish as far as the eye could reach; many of them dead, some of them feeble and wriggling around the surface. If you picked up one of those fish the blood from that slight pressure would simply strain out ever your hands, and on opening one, the intestines seemed to be drained of blood, it was all choked in their gills. If you examined them, you would find practically that all the blood of the body was in the gills and kidney. Now, I saw nothing to account for this. I studied the blood vessels and cut sections as well as I knew how, and I was still unable to find anything, Professor Forbes also worked at it and was unable to discover anything. Within the last two or three years, since finding this accumu- lation of decomposing matter in the bottom water, it has occurred as a possibility, but I would not give it as anything more than a possibility, that there may be poisonous senenente in the water which might be the cause of such epidemics, The stomachs of the fish were nearly empty, though sometimes they had insect larva in their stomachs, the regular food on which they lived, and there was nothing to apparently cause this epidemic. American Fisheries Society. 31 Chairman Whitaker: Then their condition did not show that it was from the effect of starvation? They had not gotten into this barren zone of water in the bottom and starved to death? Professor Birge: No, I saw no reason to believe that. The fish were reasonably fat, and food was in their stomachs, Mr. Clark: Were any other fish affected besides the perch? Professor Birge: The whitefish also. They die every year in certain numbers. I have never been able to get hold of a dying whitefish to see whether its gills show the same symptoms. Many more died this year than ever before. Chairman Whitaker: Have there been any recent physical changes in the character of the lake? Professor Birge: No. Chairman Whitaker: Have there been any artificial changes that would tend to contaminate the water at all? Professor Birge: No. At that time, I think, there was no sewerage discharged into the lake, and the lake, except for hav- ing a border of inhabitants, was in the same condition it had been since the dam was put in there 30 or 40 years ago, Chairman Whitaker: Has this great mortality been of fre- quent occurrence? Professor Birge: Never before, never since. Mr. Nevin: Last year in Barron County, Wis., the white- fish died in great numbers. Professor Birge: Those epidemics are only occasional. We do not often get a chance to study them, and it seems to me it would be well worth while, if one could get an opportunity to study it with reference to the condition of the bottom water of the lake, to see whether, under some exceptional conditions the bottom of the lake does not get exceptionally foul and thus accumulate poisonous material which may cause directly the death of these fish. I ought to add, however, that the Mendota epidemic ceased. about the middle of August, while the lower water must have been still foul. Mr. Clark: You did not examine to see if it affected the animalcules of the lake? Professor Birge: At that time I was not studying them, but it is quite evident that the crustacea do not live in that water. The 32 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting insect larvae will, as you know, stand almost anything in the way of foul water. The rotifers do not go down into the stagnant water. Chairman Whitaker: Over how long a period of time did your observations extend? Professor Birge: A space of two years. Chairman Whitaker: I meant as to season? Professor Birge: I have gone right through the summer and winter. I began in July, 1894, and went along from that time, making more numerous experiments during the summer. Taking the year through, nearly every other day, during the two years. Mr. Tomlin: Was it not very warm weather during all this time of the epidemic? Professor Birge: Not extremely hot. We were not doing any work on temperatures at that time, but whether the season is very hot or very cold makes very little difference in the tem- perature of the deep water. The temperature of the deep water depends a good deal more on the concurrence of the warm weather and alternate calms and high winds in the early spring than it does on anything that happens in the summer. After this middle zoue is established the bottom water does not get affected at all by warm weather. Chairman Whitaker: Does it not later in the season? Professor Birge: Not until September, and then the surface water hus cooled gradually before the bottom water gets affected. The temperature of the bottom water rises rapidly before the first of June, and then keeps very nearly uniform until late in September, when it goes up pretty rapidly in connection with the mixing of the temperatures by the wind, as the temperature on the surface of the water falls. Mr. Stranahan: Was this mortality confined to the portion of the lake over the deep water? Professor Birge: That is hard to answer _ specific- ally. These points all came to me years after the affair was over, and I did not take all the observations then that I would now, but it was generally true that the dying fish were out in the open lake. As I recollect it, 1 do not recall seeing any dying fish close to the shore, unless there was a strong wind American Fisheries Society. 33 bringing them in, and when you saw those fish they came from the surface out in the open lake, not from near the shore, Mr. Titcomb: I would like to inquire how the lake is sup- plied with water. Is it by springs? . Professor Birge: There is a small creek, but a good deal more water comes in from large springs at the part of the lake furthest removed from the city. Mr. Titcomb: In getting at the temperatures, of course the waters nearest those springs would remain coolest the year round, have an even temperature, would it not? Professor Birge: | have done very little work at that end of the lake. The temperature of the creek during winter and the bottom temperature of the lake, falls below the temperature of springs. It falls to 35 or 36 degrees at the bottom and it does not rise anywhere until after ‘the ice goes out in the spring, so that this inflow of water is not sufficient to raise the bottom tem- perature, through, say, three and a half months of the winter. Mr. Titcomb: I was making inquiries, because I have been taking observations of temperatures in the trout lakes of Vermont, and we have lakes fed there largely by springs, and the tempera- ture remains very even, within 20 feet below the surface. You go 20 feet belew the surface and you will get a temperature of 4o to 46 the year around. The lake is about 1,500 feet across azid two mies long. Professor Birge: The bottom temperature differs in differ- ent inland lakes more with reference to the area than in respect to the direct depth. In Oconomowoc Lake, which is perhaps a mile or a mile and a half long, the bottom temperature is about as you get it in Vermont, about 43 to 44 degrees, at 60 feet in depth, while in Lake Mendota, which has a greater area, the bot- tom temperature is 60 degrees, ~This peculiarity of the foulness of the bottom water is true only of lakes where there is a rich plankton. The other lakes of which I speak, Oconomowoc Lake and Pine Lake, are typically plankton poor lakes, where there is not one-twentieth as much of vegetable life as in Lake Mendota. In both those lakes crustacea go nearly or quite to the bottom: The foulness of the water is from the quantity of material dropped down there from the surface. 34 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting Mr. Titcomb: With reference to epidemics, I will say a word about our experience in Vermont. We have not had an oppor- tunity to study it there, but the Professor's remarks upon that thought are very interesting to me. We have one lake inhabited by trcut and bullheads—the bullheads were evidently artificially introduced. It is not a natural pond for them, but the bullheads ° throve there for years, until last year there was an epidemic. No trout died. The bullheads in that lake came to the surface and lined the shore in the same way you describe, only in less quan- tities. In another lake in Vermont we had an epidemic among the perch in the same way you describe, although not in any such quantities, and the third time, three years ago, we had still an- ether epidemic among bullheads in a sort of dead creek which is tributary to Lake Champlain. The bullheads in Lake Cham- plaia, in clear waters, are delicious food fish. We call them the “poor man’s fish” there, because they catch them all the time through the summer, night and day, but in this dead creek, one of those sluggish waters, they taste of the dirt and are foul. We never have investigated the causes of these epidemics. In fact, in the case of a trout pond, where an epidemic occurred, it is the soirce of water supply for quite a large town, and the corpora- tio1 officials are very careful to remove those fish as rapidly as possible, to keep the people of the town ignorant of the condi- tion. So, I did not get hold of it until afterwards, but if it is a question of foul water, it seems to me it endangers the sanitary ccr dition of the water supply of that town. Professor Birge: That is not necessarily true. — If you will look into the reports of the Massachusetts Water Commissioners, you will find that they say the water supply must be taken from the upper surface, that the lower water will be unfit to drink in later summer. Mr. Titcomb: There is a question that comes up in connec- tion with my investigations. I always thought, for the purpose of getting a constant water supply of large volume and even tem- perature, you must take the water from a large lake to which trout, for instance, are indigenous, and taking it from the lower depth or stratum, where the water remains at a constant tempera- ture of 48, you get a sufficient amount or sufficient volume to run a hatchery to an unlimited extent. Professor Birge: That would depend entirely upon your lake, If you have a large supply of spring water coming in American Fisheries Society. 35 there, and the amount of vegetation in the lake is small, it may do the work perfectly well. But if the conditions are as they are in Lake Mendota, and it is a great deal worse in some other lakes as reported by the Massachusetts Water Commissioners, you can readi!y see you could not run a hatchery with that water. If the bottom water is pure in late August and September, it would be all right at any time of the year, but it would have to be a matter of investigation with each individual lake. Chairman Whitaker: There are some things that have oc- curred to me in this connection, and I do not know but your last remarks explain it. Do you know whether this condition of affairs happens occasionally in a lake, or does it obtain in all your lakes in a measure? Professor Birge: These temperature: conditions belong to all lakes of any depth. Chairman Whitaker: I speak with reference to the foulness of the water. Professor Birge: It depends upon the amount of the float- ing plants and animals. There are various conditions in lakes in that regard. In Green Lake, in Wisconsin, which, you may know, is a lake of about the same size as Lake Mendota, though of different shape, but about 200 feet deep, at a time when the plankton vegetation is most abundant, there is not a fourth as much as there is in winter in Lake Mendota. It is not a question of bad water at all, but of the natural capacity of the lake to grow vegetation. Upon what that depends, I don’t know, but there is more difference in lakes in capacity to grow vegetation of different sorts, than there is between fields to grow grass, and in lakes abounding with this vegetation the water will be foul. Dr. Parker: Did you learn anything about the presence of female fish among those dead fish? Professor Birge: I made no observation on that, as far as I recollect. Dr. Parker: How was it in regard to the bullheads, Mr. Titcomb? Mr. Titcomb: The whole lake was cleared out of the dead fish and we could not investigate it, as we did not learn of it in time. I do not think there was anything abnormal in the weather; I am sure they had spawned, as this was along in July 36 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting and August, and the season was not a particularly abnormal one any way. Chairman Whitaker: May I ask a question of you? There are some things in connection with the paper that seem to me might have a bearing on the general movement of fish from one depth to another, in relation to fish food. If I understand you right, as the season progresses, up to September and October, the conditions of temperature are reversed, the top growing cooler as it nears the fall months, and the temperature gradually rising at the bottom. Professor Birge: That is not quite correct. The story is rather a long one. In one lake which has been investi- gated, that is 60 feet deep, the bottom remains of a constant temperature until November. The lake being so small the bot- tom temperature practically rises only a fraction of a degree until the water begins to be mixed by the influence of the winds. Of course, the area of the lake makes a very great difference in regard to the effect of winds. Chairman Whitaker: When that change takes place in the water is it by reason of violent winds, or by changes of season, or by transmission of caloric from the top to the bottom, and when it has changed, are the bottom waters richer in plankton than the surface? Professor Birge: Very much richer than they were, but never actually richer than the surface strata. Chairman Whitaker: It seems to me this is a very interest- ing question. May that question not govern somewhat the movement of fishes? May they not find a richer field at the bot- tom in certain months in which to live? If they do not hibernate, but if they actually do go to the bottom and feed, may not that result from the changes nature sets up in this way? Professor Birge: I cannot speak with knowledge of that, except with reference to the perch in Lake Mendota. They go to the bettom in winter; are caught in immense quantities in the lake in anywhere from 4o to 60 feet in depth. But the stomachs of the perch during winter are pretty nearly free from food. Mr. Clark: Do they not go to that great depth to get a warmer temperature? Professor Birge: They don’t get a much warmer tempera- ture at the bottom during the winter; the temperature near the American Fisheries Society. 37 bottom is near freezing—ordinarily it is between 34 and 36 de- grees at the bottom. It stays there all winter, and the lake reaches a temperature within a fraction of that a very short dis- tance below the surface, so that you see it is not very much warmer at the bottom. Mr. Davis: Is it not possible the death of these fishes 1s caused more by epidemic than it is by what they live upon? Last week I was north near Baldwin, in this State, and I learned there that the trout were dying. A certain kind of trout, the brown trout, were dying in considerable quantities in one of the streams. I did not have an opportunity to see any of the dead fish, but I made arrangements to have some of them sent here to Detroit. A sort of epidemic seems to have attacked the brown trout there, but none of the rainbow or brook trout died. Now, we consider the waters of the Pere Marquette River and its branches pretty pure water, and it strikes me there must be something of an epidemic. Professor Birge: There was evidently an epidemic here, to cause the death of several millions of the population of this lake. That was entitled to be called an epidemic, but the trouble was to find out what the cause of the epidemic was. We looked for all sorts of parasites, internally and externally, and we could not find anything significant. Mr. Davis: I understand the brown trout up north are cov- ered with sore spots. Professor Birge: That would indicate they are attacked by a fungus, then. Mr. Davis: And by the lamprey eels. Chairman Whitaker: It is rather a singular thing, that only the brown trout should be affected. Mr. Clark: I do not suppose there is anything remarkable about its affecting one kind of trout in a stream and not another. “We found that right in our ponds. We had an epidemic at Northville over a year ago which simply depleted our ponds of hrook trout. Of course, we had to look around to see what caused it. The brown trout in the same water were not affected at all, That is probably the case with this stream, it affects the brown trout and not the others. Dr. Parker: In mentioning whitefish, you spoke about their food possibly being affected by the condition of the water at the 38 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting bottom, the foulness of the water. Have you examined very closely as to the food of the whitefish? Professor Birge: I have not at all. Dr. Parker: I could give a little history of my connection with that a great many years ago. I found in some whitefish brought from Lake Michigan to Grand Haven, that the food in the stomach of the fish was a small bivalve not larger than a grain of sand. I was quite nonplussed at first in looking it over. I was looking for something larger in the stomach of the fish, and I examined several before it occurred to me to make use of the magnifying glass. I did so, and I found that what I sup- posed was sand was a very minute bivalve shell. Afterwards, in examining a fish on the Lake Superior shore, I found not only the same small shell, but I found other shell fish there, the pal- adina, I was quite surprised to find this and other large shells there. Professor Birge: Didn’t you find also with the bivalves the mysisinar We found them at Charlevoix, and I think that was their chief food, was it not, Mr. Post? Mr Post:. [think so. Dr. Parker: My examination was not very thorough, but as far as I could tell, I came to the conclusion the fish were feeding on that bivalve. Mr, Tomlin: In connection with my duty in the neighbor- hood of what is called Dead Lake, Minn., from the 15th of July until about the 2oth of August following, I was around on the different sides of the lake. It is about 25 miles long, running from two to nine miles wide. The bass, both the black and what we call the green bass, grow there to very large size. Three years ago this next month the black bass and the red horse, or what is commonly known up there as the sucker, were found dead in the pond, and the stench was intolerable. There was no use trying to bury them. The settlements were so few there was no possibility that anything in the shape of sewage should have caused the fish to die. I hold in my hand the report of the West- ern Society of Engineers, and there is a little item in that that may throw some light on the professor’s subject. It says “there are tides in every pond, however small and insignificant, they are there and perceptible.” The level of the lake has not undergone ary variation and the depth and area of the basin remains the same. It seemed to me, while the Professor was reading this American Fisheries Society. 39 .remarkably interesting paper to us, that this matter was old. The tides in such a lake as this would stir up all the deleterious matter from the bottom of the lake and thus cause the death of these fish. Whether | am right or not, | would not say, but the thoug* occurred to me at the time. Professor Hirge: Jake Mendcta has no tide. There is no question about that, and there is no stirring up of the lake. The water below is as calm as water which is bottled up tight. I do not want to be understood as offering any general explanation of fish epidemics. I refer to this as something, so far as I know, that has never been referred to. [ish epidemics are one of the most interesung and difficult problems that fish culturists have to deal with, and while I have no doubt they are due to as many different causes as human epidemics, | brought this forward, not as a certain, but as a possible cause of the epidemic and one worthy the attention of all of us when we have a chance to study an epidemic of this sort. Chairman Whitaker: I am very sure we are all much inter- ested in this matter and in the remarks that have been made ex- tempore by the professor. It is plainly evident that the pro- fessor’s apology, to start with, was unnecessary... He said his paper was not written, and it seems to me very fortunate for the society that it was not written, it was more entertaining in the form in which it was given. Wisconsin and Tilinois are both working along lines which, it seems to me, are bound to be a benefit to fish culture. We have long witnessed these so-cailed epidemics of fish without any at- tempt to solve the matter. It is just about as valuable when we merely see and speculate about these things, as it is to look at an aduarium without any information as to the life and habits of fish—simply to satisfy an idle curissity. We have got to a point where it seems to me essential that fish culturists, who are at- tempting to restock the waters, should be aided by scientific in- vestigators, and that the two should work together; the scientific men settling those questions that scientific men alone can settle, by investigation. In that way we shall get at the cause of these things, and there is nothing in fish cultural experience that can- not be solved along the lines of inquiry that are being pursued in those two states to-day. I am sorry to say that while Michi- gan for two or three years had a good bureau of scientific in- quiry, in the hands of able men, it was compelled to discontinue that work. because of lack of money. It was a great mistake, 40 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting but we must not quarrel with things that exist, but, if we can, correct them. It is a very gratifying thing to know there are two states that are working along these lines. Illinois has es- tablished what is called a natural history observation station. It is in the hands of a very capable man with able assistants, and there is no question but good results will follow. 1 con- gratulate Wisconsin upon having associated with its commission a man who has not only the ability, but the inclination to follow out these investigations that will certainly result in benefit to fish culture. These investigations may at present seem somewhat remote, but they are not so, and in order to get an: intelligent conception of the matter, the whole range of inquiry as it is re- lated to the different forms in water, temperatures and all those things that are naturally connected with it, these investigations must be made in order that just conclusions may be drawn. We will now listen to a paper by Professor Reighard. Professor Reighard: I had intended to present a review -of what has been accomplished in the scientific study of the fresh waters, since the revival in that line of study; but when I came to look into the matter more carefully I found there was so little of it, and so much of that that was not of direct interest to prac- tical fish culture, that I limited the paper to certain thoughts on the recent developments in the study of fresh waters from a_scien- tific point of view. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF RECENT WORK ON THE BIOLOGY OF FRESH WATERS. By PROF. REIGHARD. I had intended to prepare a paper reviewing what had been accomplished in the scientific study of the biology of our fresh waters, but an attempt to carry out this purpose soon showed me that a paper so prepared would include much matter that does not especially appertain to fisheries. I shall, therefore, not attempt to carry out the original plan of giving a summary of results, but shall point out merely two lines along which advances have been made, and shall then indicate the bearing which some of this work has upon practical problems. Perhaps the most striking feature of recent scientific work on our fresh waters has been its rapid extension within the past few years. Before 1890 scientific men, zoologists particularly, had given attention to the sea, almost to the exclusion of the fresh waters. The sea contains representatives of more animal groups than the fresh water, and it contains also a large number of forms generally considered to be primitive. To the sea, then, zodlogists have generally turned for the solution of their scientific problems. Within ten years, however, a reaction has made itself felt in the direction of the study of fresh water animals. Interest in this study finally led to the establishment by Zacharias at Plon, in North Germany, of a laboratory devoted exclusively to the study of the fresh waters. This laboratory, which has been subsidized by the German Government, was the first of its kind. Like most of the similar laboratories which have been since established, it is a purely scientific institution, whose object is to afford facilities for the solution of the problems of fresh water biology, Its founder, Dr. Zacharias, hoped that its investigations would furnish data for the solution of many of the practical problems of the fisheries, and he did not hesitate to hold forth this hope when asking for financial support. Its realization can only be a matter oi time. In this connection it cannot be too forcibly pointed out that science cannot afford to serve. Her best results are obtained when she is left quite free to grow at her own gait and in her own way, and these results cannot be other than of value to the useful arts. It is a mistake to require that a scientific institution should 42 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting devote itself exclusively to the solution of practical problems. Its workers should be left free to develop each in accordance with his own bent. Thus will the institution be most efficient; thus wil! knowledge be most rapidly widened, and thus, too, will practical problems, soonest reach their final solution. Final solution of such problems depends on fulness of knowledge, and fulness of knowl- edge is not to be attained by an investigation directed narrowly toward the solution of a practical problem. The station at Plon has been followed by others in different parts of Europe. One of these, that on the Mugelersee, near Berlin, has been founded and is conducted entirely in the interest of the fisheries. Investigations have further been undertaken of Lake Constance and of Lake Geneva. : Stations have also been established in this country. That on Gull Lake, started by the University of Minnesota, was in exist- ence for but one year. It seems to have been the first of its sort in this country, but I do not know that any results of importance have come from its establishment. The station maintained by the Michigan Fish Commission on Lake St. Clair in 1893, and on Lake Michigan in 1894, was the next in order of time. The results of its work have been embodied in five bulletins issued by the Michigan Fish Commission. In 1895 there was estab- lished by the University of Illinois a fresh water biological sta- tion, of a purely scientific character. It has now completed its second year of work, under the directorship of Professor Forbes, and several valuable papers have come from it. The unique location of this station and its excellent facilities lead us to expect much from it. In-the meantime there has been established a summer station on Turkey Lake, Indiana, in connection with the University of Indiana, and several papers have already appeared from at: *. A second characteristic of the work on our fresh waters has been the introduction since 1890 of exact methods. The (fresh water) biologist aims at a physiology of organisms. He desires to measure, count, and weigh the animals and plants of a given area, and to determine their food relations to one another. By such means he hopes to be able to trace continuously and quanti- tatively the transformations of matter from the inorganic con- stituents of the soil through the bodies of plant and animal and back again to the soil. The difficulties in the way of such an accomplishment are insuperable in the case of terrestrial plants and animals in a state of nature. The enumeration alone of the plants and animals of a single acre of wild land is an impossibility, American Fisheries Society. 43 and even if the task were possible, the continual changes would render it fruitless. In the ocean attempts to do quantitative work are rendered difficult by the great number of species of animals present. In the fresh water the number of species of minute animals and plants present (excluding those that live in shore or bottom) is only about eighty. When, now, it has announced that a method has been found of counting, weighing and measuring all the animals and plants occuring in a given volume of water in a lake, or occurring in the whole lake, an immense stimulus was at once afforded to the investigation of aquatic biology. The animals and plants which live upon ‘the shores or bottom of a body of water form only a small part of all the organisms that it contains. [Far heavier and bulkier than the sum of these is the sum of those minute forms that are found floating in the free water removed from the influence of shore or bottom. These forms are small and weak and are buffeted about at the will of waves and currents. Taken together they make up what we call the plankton. The method which had now been devised was one of measuring the organisms of the plankton, not those of shore or bottom. It might seem at first sight that nothing could be easier than to dip up a bucket of the water to be investigated, filter it and weigh and measure the animals. But it must be remembered that water at different depths might contain different amounts of plankton, and hence it was necessary that the sample of water taken should extend from the bottom to the surface, so as to include water from all depths. The sample must bear the same relation to the whole volume of water, that a disc punched from the center of a sheet of metal bears to the whole sheet. No simple method of actually removing such a sample of water from a lake seems to be possible, but an exceedingly simple method has been devised of removing the plankton from a sample column of the water. This consists merely in drawing a fine net vertically from the bottom to the surface. The contents of the net are then removed and measured and weighed, and the individual animals and plants which it contains are counted. It is necessary that the material used for the net should be so fine that it will retain the minutest organisms, and such a material is found in the finest bolting cloth used by millers. The net must further be provided with a cup at the bottom to receive the minute organisms which are washed into it. Other precautions are necessary both in taking the plankton and in its subsequent study, but these need not be entered upon here. It is enough to know that a properly constructed net drawn from the bottom to top 44 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting yields a sample of the plankton in a lake, and that such sample may be weighed and measured and its constituents counted. This method was first introduced by Professor Hansen, who used it in the study of the marine plankton and described it as early as 1887. It was subsequently modified and used in some of the fresh water lakes of North Germany by Hansen’s pupil Apstein in 1890 and later. Since then the method or some modi- fication of it, has been widely used. When we remember that aquatic plants are dependent for their nourishment on the ma- terials dissolved in the water, and that aquatic animals are directly or indirectly dependent on plants for nourishment, we realize that a measurement of the plankton is a measurement of the relative productive capacity of a body of water. We thus have for the first time a method of determining how much organic matter a given body of water is capable of yielding, and the importance of this method for fish culture has hardly yet been realized. Investigation by this method soon showed that the plankton of a lake was uniformly distributed. The lake might be compared to a field of wheat in which the plants were growing uniformly over the whole field. A square yard anywhere in such a field would yield approximately the same measure of wheat grains. Similarly it was found that the plankton net gave approximately the same results, no matter in what part of the lake it was used. Thus it became evident that in order to test the plankton pro- duction of a lake it was necessary to make but a single haul of the plankton net. Now let us see what the results have been of the comparison of different lakes by this method. We are apt to think of a lake area as we do of a land area and to imagine that if a lake an acre in extent produces a certain weight of fish a lake one thousand acres in extent should produce one thousand times that weight of fish. When we turn to a very large lake, such as Lake Michigan, we are apt to think of it as we think of the ocean, as being inexhaustible. In thus imagining that the pro- ductive capacity of a lake is proportioned to its size, we fail to take into account certain important facts. The whole source of food supply for the inhabitants of a lake is contained in solution in its waters. The plants live directly on the materials thus in solution in the waters of the lake, and the animals in their turn feed upon the plants, or upon one another. When we inquire as to the source of the materials in solution in the water of a lake, we find that they have all been introduced from without. They are brought in by streams, they are American Fisheries Society. 45 washed from the shore by waves, they are, to a small extent, carried in by winds and rains. Now in a very large lake the proportion of the shallow water to the whole area of the lake is much less than in a small lake. It is in this shallow water that the wave action takes place which washes out from the soil the plant food materials which came to be dissolved in the water of the lake. This same shallow water further gives anchorage to plants which furnish shelter for many fishes and for their food. Consequently the shorter the shore line of a lake and the less shallow water it contains, the smaller is likely to be its production of fish per unit of surface area. Our Great Lakes have all a com- paratively straight shore line with very little shallow water off shore, and hence should on this account alone be expected to yield a smaller proportion of fish per unit of area than smaller lakes. Their drainage basin is relatively small, and conse- quently relatively little plant food is probably brought into the lakes by the tributary rivers. In general, it is true that the larger the lake, the less may be expected to be its productive capacity per unit of area. When, however, we turn to an actual measurement of the productive capacity of one of our Great Lakes by the use of the plankton method, we are astonished at the result. Those smaller European lakes whose plankton has been measured are found to. fall into two classes which are called plankton rich and plank- ton poor. As compared with the plankton rich lakes of North Germany our own Great Lakes are found to contain only about one-twentieth as much plankton per volume of water as these. As compared with the plankton poor lakes the Great Lakes con- tain somewhat more than one-half as much plankton per volume of water. The Great Lakes are on the average, then, the poorest in plankton of any lakes that have been hitherto studied. I seé no escape from the conclusion that they contain also a smaller pro- portion of fish per unit of area or volume than would smaller lakes. The great size of the lakes does not then justify us in expecting larger returns from them, it rather warns us that we should expect less. The commercial fishes of the Great Lakes are taken in large numbers within restricted areas. It is natural to assume that we are thus sampling what occurs on a large part of the lake. We fancy that we may go on fishing indefinitely, and somehow out of the huge expanse of water fish will come to our nets as fish always have come. The capacity of a field for the production of any crop is lim- ited. If we supply the field with a certain amount of fertilizer 46 wenty-sixth Annual Mecting annually, we may take from it a certain product. If we attempt to take more the field becomes exhausted and refuses to yield. We cannot increase the yield by doubling the number of seeds planted; we cannot increase it by aida to the annual supply of fertilizer. Our Great Lakes are limited in precisely this way. Fertilizers they get from the tributary streams and from the erosion of their shores. They are capable of yielding a certain annual return in fishes. What that return should be we do not know. We cannot add to the supply of fertilizing material, as we might in small ponds. It is useless to plant more fish than can live. Enough should be planted, and until the fisheries are re- stored and the catching of immature fish stopped, it is not likely that planting can be overdone. But with it all let us remember the limited productive capacity of these lakes and let us learn from this that the only thorough going remedy is to restrict the fishing within that capacity. This seems to me to be the most important lesson to be drawn from recent studies in fresh water biology. DISCUSSION. Mr. Clark: Mr. President: In reference to this paper of Professor Reighard’s, I was unfortunately called out, so that I only heard the first part of his paper, but a thought occurred to me in connection with what I did hear and I think I had better mention it. It was in regard to the different States commencing these scientific observations of the fresh water lakes. Of course, the members and others know what the United States Commis- sion has done in a scientific way for salt water, and this thought occurred to me, it was to be regretted that something has not been done in this direction on the great lakes by the United States Fish Commission. I am glad the United States Fish Commis- sioner expects to take up that work, and intends to establish scientific stations on the great lakes. In a conference I had with Dr. Smith and others of the Fish Commission in Washington recently, I was told it was expected to take it up this season. They realize its importance and that it should be done, but I very much doubt their taking hold of it this session, as the money, within the last few weeks, as the superintendents here know, is short. Kut it is the full intention of the United States Fish Com- mission to take hold of that work. Mr. Stranahan: I would like to ask the professor what the amount of plankton in Lake Erie was, as compared with the other lakes, just in an off-hand way? fod American Fisheries Society. 47 P ofessor Reighard: We made only three hauls in Lake Erie, those were made just after a storm. We were storm-bound there a great deal, and we only had two days to work in. We found a good deal more than we did in Lake St. Clair or in Lake Michigan. Just what the relative amounts were is given, I think, in the report. I think in those three hauls we got about three times as much in Lake Erie as in the other lakes. Of course, this was in the west end of Lake Erie, where the water was shal- low, and where you would expect more. Mr. Stranahan: Would that come under the head of plank- ton poor? Professor Reighard: Yes, it would still come under the head of plankton poor. Mr. Bryant: I cannot add anything of scientific value to this paper, from the fact that I am unable to do so, as my state of knowledge is hardly up to the point, to enable me to enter into a discussion of this question from a scientific point of view, but I am deeply impressed, perhaps with the zeal of a new member, with the importance and value of enlisting in the work of this society these scientific in- vestigators, and, for that reason I think our time of meeting, when we come to consider it, should be so adjusted that we can find at liberty and have with us those gentlemen of the various educational institutions of the country who are engaged in this work. The little experience I have had as a member of the commission—making it more of a by-study than anything else, owing to exacting labors in another field of work—have convinced me and | have felt impressed, the more so the more my experience has extended, of the necessity of having more exact scientific knowledge to guide us in the distribution of the fish we propagate. The discussion here to-day has greatly in- terested me. It has opened up to me the possibility that may be reached when these gentlemen, engaged from the standpoint of pure science, not from the point of immediate practical results, have pushed along the line of knowledge until they are able to tell us their views based on an investigation, and their deduc- tions shall coincide with our experience in determining the best methods of adding to thé fish product of the country. I have felt impressed, in our experience, which has been somewhat va- ried; we have tried various kinds of fish propagation and distri- bution, transplanting of small fish and of grown fish, I have thought that there must of necessity be a great deal of waste, 48 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting from the fact that we were not always sure we were putting the right thing in the right place, or perhaps at the right time; and I am strongly impressed with the idea that this society can, by being a stimulant, as it were, enlist in aid of the great brother- hood of fish culturists everywhere, the scientific and the prac- tical, and the political, if we must, in one grand army of men who are resolved to make their day and generation an epoch of results in this class of work. (Applause.) Prof. Birge: I would like to say one word in indorsement of Professor Reighard’s paper, and as to, the necessity of scientific study and the length of time to reach results. Let us con- sider what is being done in the investigation of agriculture. I do not know what you are doing in Michigan, I presume it is the same thing as in Wisconsin, where there are between $75,000 and $80,000 spent annually by the State and National govern- ments in the scientific investigation of agricultural problems. That is on top of the millions of dollars which have been spent in general chemical investigation which bears on the problems and the other millions of dollars which are spent by foreign gov- ernments and our own government in the investigation of special agricultural problems. Now, in spite of this great expenditure of ntoney and of the efforts of quite an army of scientific men, they are just making a beginning in their knowledge. Now, while, as Professor Reighard has just said, the biology of the fresh water lake is a more simple problem than the biology of the field, it is by no means a simple problem. It is one which must be worked at from a scientific standpoint for a great many years before practical results will follow with the same kind of certainty that the agricultural chemist reaches his practical results to-day. We have not that degree of knowledge of the conditions of fish life that the agricultural chemists of the field when the agricul- tural stations were established. We have not one per cent. of the amount of information which was at their command at that time, and the work which scientific men do, and which they must do for a great many years to come, will very largely be in the direc- tion of pioneer work, obtaining. such information as_ the chemists obtained before the agricultural chemists went to work. It seems to me the attitude which this society takes it a reasonable one; that the scientific work must be done without anticipation of immediate practical results, in order to.lay the foundation for securing practical results in the future such as agriculturalists are getting now from their experimental stations, American Fisheries Society. 49 Illinois has begun this work in the only reasonable way under the direction of Professor Forbes. They are spending five thou- sand dollars a year or more in work that the average legislature would say was purely dead work. It is this measuring and counting of plankton, the chemical work, on water which must be done at the present time. These investigations do not directly aid the work of the practical fish-culturist, but they will form for the future the basis on which the practical fish-culturist will ground his work; just as the scientific farmer to-day bases his work on the results of the experimental station, which again, in its turn, rests back on the knowledge which science has been accumulating through the past generation. The problems for us in the life of these inland waters must be taken up in that same way and worked out in chat same tem- per, without anticipation of immediate practical results this year or next year, or even in five years. Chairman Whitaker: It is with a great deal of pleasure I learn from Mr. Clark that the United States Commission has finally determined to take up this most important work which has been so long neglected upon the chain of great lakes. I took occasion, during the life of Col. McDonald, to urge upon him personally, more than once, the necessity of undertaking this work and carrying it on under the supervision of the United States Fish Commission. They have an organized force of scientific men who can plan and carry on this work in the way it should be conducted, and you cannot marshal too many forces of that kind. It need not interfere with Ilinois. Illinois may aid them and so they may aid Illinois, A great work of this kind, it seems to me, should be done here upon the great lakes. The act under which the United States Commission was organized provided that they should conduct such investigations as to the food fish in all the waters, not only of the ocean but of the great lakes. It was a simple statement but it means a vast amount of work. It must extend, as the professor has said, over years of inquiry, and how important it will be to fish culture. We are just awakening to it. Perhaps we have thought this over person- ally, but the society has taken up this question for the last three of four years in a way that it never has before. How important it is to know what the conditions are in the lakes influenc- ing the successful planting of fish. Are there barren food areas? Are there areas abounding richly in fish food? When you speak of the land, and its cultivation: when you 50 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting speak of the aid that agriculture has received from scientific in- vestigation, you recognize that that great work has aided the tiller of the soil. Whenever you broaden human knowledge by investigation, you have added very much to results. When you speak of a given area of land, and compare it with an area of water in its food producing power, and when you compare the cost of the production of the one with the cost of the other, the argument is in favor of the water. The soil is tilled, it is pre- pared for the seed, it is watched constantly, the crop is garnered, it is marketed, all at the cost of effort and means. But so far ’ as the great waters are concerned from which fish food is drawn, the seed is sown and it grows to maturity under natural conditions and at practically no cost. What is the lit habit of the infant whitefish or the infant trout or any of the other nu- merous commercial varieties of fish during its first stage of life? Does the character of their food change when they become older? If so, what is their food after that change occurs? In what respect does it differ from the earlier stage? Do they forsake the spawning beds where they are naturally brought to life? If so, when, where do they go, what do they feed upon there? What are their natural enemies? All these things once solved add to the efficiency of the work of the fish culturiest, and this solution can only be wrought out by scientific men. Many investigations they make may seem remotely connected with fish culture, but it is not so. Look at the suggestion contained in Professor Reighard’s paper, of that ever working cycle of exist- ence and life. The lowest form that is washed into the lake basin in the nature of silt, is the food of the lowest forms of plant and animal life, they in turn are preyed upon by the next higher forms, those in turn serve as food for fish ,and man feeds upon fish, he dies, returns to dust and becomes the food of these lower forms, if you please, and so the cycle goes on and on. I wish again to congratulate the fish culturists of the country upon the determination of the United States Commission to en- ter intothis field of scientific investigation. So far as the States are concerned, I feel that any aid they can render will be cheerfully accorded. We welcome the U. S. Commission to the field, and it is one of those things which seem to me to go far towards commending a public officer that he proposes to take a step of this kind, even though it should have been taken long ago. Mr. Tomlin: It gives me a great deal of pleasure to say that though Minnesota has done very little towards establishing any American Fisheries Society. 51 such station of information, as mentioned by Professor Reighard and Professor Birge, I recognize its importance, and it does me great pleasure to confirm the statement of Mr. Clark, that the United States Fish Commission has sent out Professor Wy- mans, of our Duluth high school, the past two seasons to pursue just such researches as these. The committee on place of next meeting then reported as follows: Mr. Davis: The committee appointed by you to select and recommend a location for the next meeting unanimously recom- mend the City of Omaha. On motion the report was adopted unanimously. The Chairman: It is now in order to fix the time when the meeting shall be held. There is some force in what has -been said about fixing a time, as nearly as we can, that will be a little further away from the college commencements, so that we can have the scientific workers with us. Mr. Dickerson: I would suggest some time in the month of May. Chairman Whitaker: Of course we should consult Mr. May somewhat in reference to this matter. There is another thing we want to look out for, and that is to put it far enough away from the season of fish distribution so we may be able to get the superintendents to attend. Mr. May: The main reason for my asking the society to hold its meeting in Omaha next year is on account of our Trans- Mississippi International Exposition, which opens June Ist. We want the members of the society to be there after the expo- sition opens, on account of the exhibit we expect to make there, in the way of live fish, fish products, implements of fishing, etc. We want to make it on as broad a scale as we can possibly make it. While we don’t expect to equal the exhibition at Chi- cago, we want to make it of as great magnitude as we can, as broad as possible. Since you have named Omaha for holding the meeting of ’98 I beg of you to fix a date after the first of June, when the exposition will be in full operation. Our expo- sition runs until November, so any time during that period will be satisfactory to us. Mr. Dale: I move that it be made the last week in June. 52 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting Mr. Peabody: I move to amend by making it the second week in July. I think business men, as a rule, after the 4th of July feel more at liberty to take the time. During June there is a sort of a closing up of affairs and getting ready for vacations, going into the country or whatever it may be, and it strikes me the second week in July would suit more people than any other time. Mr. Clark: When I was on my feet before, I had in mind to offer a motion that we meet the third Tuesday in July. Your motion or suggestion of the last week in June must necessarily shut out a great majority of the superintendents of the United States Fish Commission. We are here on borrowed time really now. The United States Fish Commission superintendents at the close of the fiscal year are very busy in making up their reports. Our rules and regulations require us to have our re- ports in the Washington office on the toth day of July, and business nowadays is very prompt in the United States Fish Com- mission, and it must be. If you want those men here you must have it a little earlier or a little later, and the state superintend- ents, | presume, are busy in the same way, perhaps not so much so, but to a certain extent, and I had in mind to move to make it the third Tuesday in July. A Member: I will second Mr. Peabody’s motion for the second week in July. Mr. Peabody: Iam willing to leave it to the Executive Com- mittee, to put it any time after the 1oth of July. Chairman Whitaker: It would be an unsatisfactory thing to leave a matter of that kind to the Executive Committee. The society ought to settle this date itself, and it seems to me this is just the time to get the consensus of opinion as to what time we want to fix. Mr. Clark: There is no very good reason, it seems to me, for having it so early. We are all aware that all the expositions we have ever had in this country, during the first two months did not amount to much. Mr. Peabody: With the consent of the second, I will with- draw my motion. Chairman Whitaker: The question now is on Mr. Clark’s motion. The motion before the society is that we meet in Omaha on the third Tuesday in July, 1898, American Fisheries Society. 53 ‘Mr. Peabody: I think there is a point about Tuesday being pretty close to Sunday. It is a long distance out there, and it seems to me Wednesday would be a better day. I move you, as a substitute, that the meeting be on the third Wednesday instead of the third Tuesday of July. The Chairman: As Mr. Clark has no objection to it, Mr. Peabody’s amendment will stand as the original motion. 2 The motion was unanimously adopted. Chairman Whitaker: We will now listen to the report of the committee on the suggestions contained in the report of Sec- retary Cheney. The committee reported as follows through its chairman, Mr. Bryant: The committee appointed to consider the report of the sec- retary, hereby report that having considered the same, they re- spectfully recommend the adoption of the following: Resolved, (1) That the Secretary be instructed to furnish copies of the transactions of the society to any public libraries or historical societies or scientific institutions applying for the same. (2) That the Secretary be authorized to procure a seal for the society, adopting the device of the association. (3) To secure promptitude and accuracy in the issuance and publication of the reports of the society, it is urged that the proofs of all papers read be submitted for correction to the authors, and that they promptly read and return to the Secretary. Mr. Preston: In order to make the report of the meeting read right, would it not be better first to receive the report, and then we can adopt such parts as we like. I move the report be received. The motion was seconded and carried unanimously. Mr. Titcomb: | move, Mr. Chairman, that the first section of that report be referred back to the committee, for correction and change after having heard the opinion of the inembers rela- tive to the distribution of the report. The Chair: The motion before the house now is the ques- tion of recommitment. It is moved and supported that the report be recommitment to the committee to consider and report again. The motion was carried unanimously. 54 wenty-sixth Annual Meeting Mr. Dickerson: I have a resolution to offer here, handed me by Mr. Gunckel., Resolution read, as follows: By Mr. Gunckel: With a view of getting a uniform law for the protection of fish in the lake states, | move that the chair appoint one repre- sentative, who shall be a member of this society, from each of the states bordering on the great lakes, as a committee for the purpose of laying the matter of fish protection before the officials of their respective states, to get ideas, suggestions and such facts as will lead to the framing of uniform laws to regulate the fish- eries in all the lake states. The chairman of such committee to file his report with the president of the society on or before November Ist, 1897, when the president shall refer the report to the Executive Committee, who shall take immediate action. Professor Birge: I move that the resolution be adopted. The motion was supported. Mr. Gunckel: As a matter of explanation, I will say my time yesterday was very limited here; I had to return to Toledo last night and came back this morning. During my stay at home I referred back to the records of the meetings for a number of years, and I discovered that at each meeting several hours have been expended in arguing on the object of this motion. As I have stated, by correspondence and personal conversations with some of the high officials of the United States, | have come to the conclusion that this matter, suggested last year by our pres- ent chairman, was the most feasible that could be adopted by this society. Because then it would introduce the subject and it would lead to harmony in the laws of the various States and the water belonging to the government. The government would then take some action for the lead, what we have been after for a number of years. This is a suggestion of President McKinley. He realizes the fact that the laws of the various States are in conflict, and it seems to me almost impossible for this society to work in any other way and gain that success which we have been after than this; to appoint one good representative from each State to hold consultations and discuss the matter with the officials of the various States, and it may open a field that may result favorably to this association, one of its leading objects. I emphasize that because I noticed in reading the past reports that that seemed to be one of the leading questions of the association; American Fisheries Society. 55 the protection of the fish and the interesting of scientific men, who can spend a lifetime in study and hard work to assist us in getting more knowledge of our waters and to learn what is the best plan to protect them. I have talked and corresponded with a great many men during the past year. I took this matter up on my own account. I will not take up your time longer on the subject, but those who have been attending our meetings dur- ing the past will recall a number of arguments that have been presented from time to time, heartily favoring a movement of this kind. The Chairman: May I ask you if you have heard of the action that has been taken in several of the lake States with ref- erence to the matter this last winter by the legislatures? Mr, Gunckel: Yes, I have. Since I noticed that, as I said, I have talked with the officials of the United States, some of the United States Commission, Dr. Bean and Dr. Henshall, and I heard indirectly from Mr. Stranahan, and the object is to bring this matter around through the American Fisheries Society. They are working well in the various States. They are trying to get that law. I see Delaware and Pennsylvania and some of the other States have it, but we should have our society not only meet once a year and then revive a little life when we get our reports, but we should have some work connected with it during the entire year. The Chairman: Does your motion contemplate there shall be a representative from each of the lake states who is a member of this body? Mr. Gunckel: Yes, a member of this society.. The Chairman: [ did not understand your motion to so express it. I reported on that part of the work of last year in your absence. | did not act upon the motion of last year, because it was broader than your present resolution. It em- braced the seaboard states and contemplated two committees, one for the great lakes and the other for the seaboard states. | wrote to Mr. Huntington, who is deeply interested in the matter, and asked him to send me a list of names. He sent me names, but some of them were not members of this society. It seemed to me that we would be going outside of our province to attempt to direct any one not a member. 56 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting Mr, Gunckel: I expected this would be a beginning and lead to the appointment of members from the seaboard states. I did not have time to properly form this so as to cover that. The Chairman: I want to say for the information of you gentlemen who do not happen to know about the matter, that Mr. Bell, of Wisconsin, was the father of the movement I have referred to, and he is entitled to great credit for it, It seems there were introduced into the legislatures of Minnesota, Wis- consin, Illinois and Michigan this last year joint resolutions or concurrent resolutions providing for the appointment of repre- sentatives of those states to meet and decide upon uniform laws to regulate the fisheries. As I understand it, that is the scope — of it, and each of these four states have acted on the matter. They will meet this coming summer. The motion was seconded and carried unanimously. Mr. Titcomb: To get it before the members before any more absent themselves, | move that when we adjourn we adjourn until two o’clock this afternoon, city time. The motion was carried unanimously. Mr. Bryant: The committee to whom was recommitted the secretary's report, wish to report that they have stricken out the words “for general distribution.” I move the adoption of the report. The motion was duly seconded and the report was adopted. Mr. Davis: It strikes me it is a mistake to restrict to that extent the publication of the reports. Mr. Peabody: I move as an amendment, that each member have an opportunity to make application for five copies of the report, and that they be sent to him if he makes application, otherwise but one. The motion was carried.. Adjourned to 2 p. m. PROCEEDINGS OF FRIDAY AFTERNOON, JUNE 18, 1897. The session was called to order by the President. The Chair: We will now listen to a paper by Mr. Seymour Bower, on Fish Protection and Fish Production. Mr. Bower: Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Associa- tion. I have jotted down a few thoughts that I have put under American Fisheries Society. 7 the head of Fish Protection and Fish Production, although I[ suppose any other title would do as well. We are all, of course, deeply interested in the question of producing the greatest possi- ble number of the more valuable species, and we are all honestly and conscientiously endeavoring, I take it, to do all we can to bring about that result. No doubt there are some who will ds- sent from some of the opinions that I hold on some of these ques- tions. I will only say that my conclusions are not hastily formed. They are the result of sixteen or seventeen years of practical ex- perience. FISH PROTECTION AND FISH PRODUCTION. By SEYMOUR BOWER. While we must in the future, as in the past, depend upon scientific research to indicate the best methods of propagating and cultivating water life, yet many of the complex and intricate problems that spring from a consideration of fishery economics are of minor importance when compared with the practical and less difficult questions that arise, These minor considerations differentiate in endless ramifications, affording a broad and inter- esting field for the scientist and investigator. Water life, from its lowest forms up, is a mysterious maze of combinations and possibilities, involved in which are many paths that will never be explored and many secrets that will never be disclosed. But though many of these intricate problems shall never be solved and the door to a perfect knowledge of the interrelations of water life shall remain forever barred, yet we are no worse off than the ignorant but thrifty husbandman, who, with the simple knowledge of when and how to sow and when and how to reap, secures almost as large a crop as though he understood to a nicety the combination and relation of every element and process of development. The term “fish protection” is a deceptive generality that may mean much or little, but which is quite apt to lead the unthink- ing into the error of supposing that in order to carry the annual production of mature fish to the highest point, the privilege of catching them must be surrounded at every turn with nearly pro- hibitive restrictions, whereas, protection in its truest sense and in its true relation to production, seeks to provide an increase, not decrease, in the annual harvest of adults. The real problem, therefore, is to determine what measures shall be adopted to en- able us to remove the largest possible number of mature fish from the waters each year without depleting them. Fish life is surrounded, perhaps to a greater extent than any other form of animal, with natural enemies and dangers that imperil existence at every stage and every turn. Nature, of course, has provided for each some means of defense or escape; but there is incessant warfare and destruction from the moment the ova are laid—indeed, with many species by far the greater part of the destruction is wrought during the ovum stage. Each American Fisheries Socicty. 59 species is an enemy of all others, oftimes of its own. The spawn- ing grounds of every kind of fish are likewise the feeding grounds of others, the spawn itself constituting the food; and every kind of the larger species is either a fish destroyer or spawn destroyer, or both, at some stage of life. Of course, this preying of one form of animal life upon an- other begins much lower down the scale; in fact, the abundance or scarcity of the highest forms, or ultimate product, is determined by the volume of the lowest or fundamental forms. But the building up process finally results in populating the waters with a variety of animals suitable in size, form and texture as food for man. These animals embrace many species, some of which are prized far more highly than others, but all are alike without value to mankind until caught, and the importance of any water as a source of food supply depends, not on the number of animals inhabiting it, but on the annual output of adults of the more highly prized species. Opinions will vary as to the number or proportion of adults that may safely be removed each year, but no one will deny the proposition that all of the adults of any species might be caught out each year as fast as they come to full maturity, provided that a sufficient number of young of the same species were re- introduced each year to make the loss good. Through the me- dium of artificial propagation, which protects the ova that nature leaves unprotected, this compensation of young is entirely feasi- ble with the shad, the salmon, trout, whitefish, pike-perch and some other species, provided always that the catching and killing of the young and immature fish is absolutely prevented. Where artificial propagation is thus able to supplant natural propagation, thereby eliminating the latter from consideration, it is much better to catch off the adults as fast as they mature, and thus make way for succeeding crops or generations. When fish have matured, it is time, so to speak, to realize on the invest- ment. They should then be converted into food, either for some other fish, or for man, If allowed to remain, they defeat the very object for which they were created, namely, to be caught and utilized. The food which they consume by remaining should all be converted into increment by going to the young and grow- ing fish, instead of being wasted on the adults merely to prolong their lives. When a female fish has matured and yielded a crop of ova to the saving process of artificial propagation, she has accomplished more in the way of reproduction that she could 60 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting in hundreds of seasons under natural environment, and can there- fore well be spared. It is evident that restrictive measures need not apply to the adult fish, provided a sufficient number are available for artificial propagation, but as affecting the young and immature fish such measures should be of the most stringent character. The killing of young fish of the more valuable species is little short of crim- inal, and should be penalized in every possible way. A little reflection must convince anyone that natural propa- gation is entirely inadequate to keep the waters stocked to their limit if considerable inroads are made in the parent stock at any season of the year, and it is a vain hope to expect nature to re- cover and hold lost ground by nature’s methods alone, unless the waters are closed absolutely and permanently. It is true that the catching off of one kind of fish sometimes results in increased production of others, and without the aid of artificial propagation, but such increase cannot be relied upon as being permanent, and depletion is sure to follow if fishing is continued and no restitution is made through the agency of artificial propagation. The history of fishing waters is replete with illustrations and examples to prove the proposition that the natural hatching per- centage of many species is too insignificant to offset any considerable drain on the parent stock. How often we hear the remark, ‘““There used to be mighty good fishing over in Smith Creek, or Jones Lake, but they are pretty well fished out now.” Even our best trout streams, after having been stocked to their limit, sooner or later become depleted unless kept up by occa- sional contributions from the hatcheries, and this, too, notwith- standing that the fishing is limited to hook and line and the season is closed two-thirds of each year. The reason for this is that it is impossible to recoup from the fish taken in the open season, and equally impossible to protect from natural enemies the ova deposited in the closed season. The unripe spawn in the adult fish caught in the open season is hepelessly and irretriev- aply lost, while the ripe spawn deposited in the closed season is very largely so. Natural propagation will never force a water to its highest productive limit, unless fishing is absolutely prohibited for an indefinite period. Fortunately, this course is not necessary, for while we cannot prevent more or less destruction of one kind or size of fish by another after they leave our hatcheries, we can and do save the enormous waste that occurs under natural = American Fisheries Society. 61 conditions during the ova stage, and thus bring into existence immensely increased numbers of young fish. To appreciate fully the significance and importance of artificial propagation as a. factor in fishery problems, we must ever keep in mind this won- © derful margin of gain over natural propagation. Fish culturists and all who have carefully investigated the subject are unanimously agreed that the treatment and protection we extend to the ova multiplies hatching results five hundred to one thousand times, and some place the ratio much higher. Nor is this enormous disparity to be wondered at when we inquire into the conditions, and understand the dangers and perils to which the spawn as deposited in nature is constantly exposed. But taking the most conservative estimate, five hundred, as a basis, and it will be seen that we produce as many fish from one million ova artificially treated is equal to half a billion on natural spawning beds. Or, to put it another way, five hundred pairs of breeders must be allowed to reach their spawning beds and spawn undisturbed to accomplish what we are able to, simply by lifting a single pair from the same beds and submitting the ripe ova to the treatment and protection called artificial, While the ova on spawning beds has its uses in the economy of the waters, serving, as it does, as a source of food for other fish, yet so far as reproductive results are concerned, 499 out of every 500 pairs may as well never spawn at all, provided always that the solitary remaining pair falls into the hands of a hatchery ex- pert at the proper time. It will readily be seen, therefore, that compensation for the removal of adults is possible only when they. are taken from spawning grounds, and absolutely impossi- ble only when taken elsewhere. . It should not be inferred that an indiscriminate throwing down of the barriers to the capture of adult fish is advocated. Many species of fish guard their spawning beds and protect their ova and young from the ravages of natural enemies, performing functions that correspond with the parental care and solicitude of land animals, thus producing a large natural increase. These should be surrounded with all manner of safeguards and afforded the most ample protection during their breeding season. But there are many species of fish whose ova yields readily to the methods of artificial propagation, that desert their spawn- ing grounds the moment the spawn is cast, leaving the defence- less germs wholly unprotected, to be mercilessly destroyed by by a hungry horde of spawn eaters. Now, when fish of this class 62 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting assemble in sufficient numbers at the proper time to permit the collection of enough spawn to recompense the annual capture of adults, or, in short, whenever and wherever it is possible and practical to make complete restitution, it is obvious that no re- strictions are needed, Desirable species that shirk parental du- ties after throwing their ova should not be allowed to throw it; they should be headed off and forced to “cough up” in time to give the germs the treatment and protection that they deserve, instead of being allowed to go very largely to waste. If all the salmon and all the shad that ascend our great rivers from the sea were allowed to reach their spawning grounds before being caught, the immense numbers of young that, by the grace of artificial propagation, it would then be practical to return, would soon restore the depleted waters to their virgin fruitfulness. Fishing would be concentrated to fewer points, but the aggregate annual production might thus be greatly increased, -and maintained indefinitely. If these propositions are not true, then artificial propagation is a snare and a delusion and should be discontinued. It must not be inferred that any relaxation of the protection now afforded our trout streams is to be thought of. Circum- stances alter cases. We are obliged, in Michigan waters at least, to close the spawning season for brook trout and leave reproduc- tion to nature’s wasteful methods, simply because the parent fish are distributed throughout innumerable ° spring tributaries, making it impossible to collect the ova in paying numbers at any one point. It is a matter of the keenest regret, however, that all of the wild trout of spawning age in Michigan waters cannot be assembled each spawning season, and their ova sub- mitted to the multiplying process of artificial propagation. There would then be no unfilled applications, no unstocked streams, for the immense production of fry each season would keep every stream stocked to its limit for all time to come. But this, of course, is impossible, so the only alternative is to confine a stock of parent fish in ponds, simulating natural surroundings by providing an inflow of spring water over a gravel bottomed raceway into which the gravid fish are enticed. But we do not allow the fish to spawn naturally, knowing as we do by actual trial, how meagre the results would be. Nor should any fish of this class be allowed to spawn naturally, whenever it is feasible to take advantage of the saving economy of artificial methods. American Fisheries Society. 63 The most effective methods of fish protection, then, must in- clude protection of the ova. Protect the spawn as well as the immature fish, and there will be an abundant harvest of adults; and the universal recognition and application of this principle will greatly enhance the value of some of our most important fisheries. Protecting the adults from the hand of man, instead of catching them and protecting their ova from the ravages of natural enemies, is.a striking example of “saving at the spigot and wasting at the bung.” Mr. Nevin: I fully agree with Mr. Bower in his statements, and I do not think he has made it strong enough. [ do not think one egg in a million that is laid naturally in Michigan in the lakes, of the lake trout or whitefish or wall-eyed pike, will hatch. Not one in a million, naturally. Mr. Stranahan: I indorse every word Mr. Bower has said in his paper. The Chair: We will now listen to the report of the Mem- orial Committee. Dr. Parker made the following report for the committee: When in the regular sequence of Nature’s laws, our friends pass out into the dreaded silence, having fulfilled the allotted period of life, such a going out always comes to us like a seem- ing disaster, for it is hard for the affections to recognize the great fact of existence that it is just as much in accordance with Nature’s laws to die as it is to be born But when we can so far philosophizeewe can better accept the startling fact when it is brought home to us, and so in the death of these brothers of ours, whose memories we delight to cherish, let us remember that they have passed out from among us, not through any dispensation of Providence, but in strict accordance with Nature’s inexorable laws. But the great ethical fact of life is, not how long in years we may live, but how well we may live in deeds and words that bring joy and comfort and happiness into the lives of those around us. To those of this society who have known our deceased brother, Marshall McDonald, no words are necessary to tell how well he fulfilled the ethical law. Kind and considerate of the feelings of others, always a courteous and dignified gentleman, he not only commanded respect for himself, but inspired self-respect in others, While his scientific attainments in the direction of his chosen 64 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting life’s work, he commanded the respect of his co-temporaries. It, also, has been of value to the world. No higher tribute could be paid to the memory of Dan Fitzhugh than the words of your President, “He was one of Nature’s noblemen, a true sportsman, a brave spirit, with a heart as gentle as a woman’s.” And:to this let us add these words from the Persian poet: “And when * * Qh, Saki, you shall pass, Among the guests, star scattered on the grass. And in your blissful errand reach the spot, Where he made one, turn down an empty glass.” DP. te PrrznuGH: Of Brother H. C. Ford, his connection with this society is a matter of record, having served as its President, and for several years as its Treasurer. Born to an ample inheritance, he was so placed in life that he was enabled to satisfy his love for the “oentle art” that became to him almost the fullness of life; fish and fishing, and those who fished, were the chief sources of his en- American Fisheries Society. 65 joyment, and those who have listened to his quaint and quiet wit and humor, and enjoyed his “‘fish stories,” will always treasure them as bright spots in memory. Quiet and unostentatious, he possessed the true spirit of one close to Nature’s heart, and one always in touch with her beauty and her truth, and one so loving nature loves his fellow man. TAMES CA. (DATE proc PA RIKER, mW DAVIS. The report of the committee was accepted, adopted and ordered printed in the proceedings. Mr. Dale then read a memorial of Mr, Ford, presented by Mr. William B. Meehan, of Philadelphia, which follows. HENRY C. FORD. By WILLIAM E. MEEHAN, Philadelphia, Pa. Probably no man was better known among fish culturists, in this country, than Henry C. Ford, and no man was more greatly esteemed for his knowledge of the subject of fish culture and for his qualities as a man. His modesty and unassuming ways made him a general favorite among those with whom he came in con- tact, and gained for him the respect of those who knew him by reputation only. By his death Pennsylvania’s fish cultural work suffered a severe loss, and people all over the United States were aeprived of a friend. For some years Mr. Ford had been a suf- ferer from the disease which finally resulted in his death, but he bore his affliction so bravely and so patiently, that only those who were nearest to him, were aware of his trouble until a few months before the end. Toa large number of his friends the announce- ment of his demise was a sudden and unexpected shock. Mr. Henry C. Ford was descended from old New York and Connecticut stock, although he himself was by birth and residence a Philadelphian. He was born July 25th, 1836, his father, Isaac Ford, being at that time one of the largest wholesale dry goods merchants in the city. He was the first born, and on the death of his father became the manager of the estate, which was very large. Beyond this Mr. Henry C. Ford was never engaged in business, his father having retired some years before his death. His preliminary education was received in private schools in Philadelphia, and it was completed at Brown University, from which institution he graduated in 1856. Among his classmates were several afterwards notable men, prominent among whom were ex-Secretary of State Richard Olney, and General Tour- telote. From boyhood Mr. Ford was fond of angling, and was early the companion of some of the most noted anglers of the day. Having abundant means, he was able to indulge to the full in his favorite sport, and in pursuit of it, at various times visited and fished nearly every noted river and stream in the country. Dur- ing the latter days of his life, however, he spent most of his fish- ing days in Florida and at Egypt Mills, Pike County, Pa. While extremely fond of trout fishing, Mr. Ford’s favorite sport was the capture of the black bass. He was probably the most expert American Fisheries Society. 67 Hon. HENRY C. FORD. angler for this species of fish in Pennsylvania. He was, more- over, as indefatigable at it as he was-enthusiastic. The Delaware river flowed only a few hundred yards from the cottage where Mr. Ford spent the summer, and where he spent the last days of his illness, and every day except Sundays, or those on which he de- 68 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting voted to the trout stream, or the work of the Fish Commission, were spent on the river in the search of black bass. A thorough sportsman, Mr. Ford made a resolution (which I never knew him to break) to keep no fish of this species under eleven inches long. He grew to love the upper Delaware, with its beautiful sur- rounding mountains, almost as much as he did his favorite sport | of angling, and when he felt that his last days were approaching, he expressed a desire to be buried within the sound of the music of its waters. I shall never forget the day on which Mr. Ford first spoke of what was in his heart in this respect, nor the manner in which he did so. It was less than a month before his death when he sent to consult with me concerning some fish cultural matters which he had in mind. When the main business was over, he said to me in that quiet, even tone familiar to many of the members of the National Fisheries Society, “Meehan, | am beginning to feel as though my illness will have a fatal end- ing, and if it should I want you to convey my wishes with respect to my burial to my family. I tell you because I don’t want to cause them unnecessary worry now, by leading them to think that I do not believe I will recover. There is a handsome mauso- leum at Laurel Hill Cemetery, in Philadelphia, belonging to my family, but I don’t wish my body laid there. I want it buried in the little graveyard on the hill back of Dingman’s Ferry, which overlooks the stretch of the Delaware river where I have fished for twenty-five years.” He had his heart’s desire. When the end came, his body was taken by a few intimate friends only, and with no pomp was laid reverentially in the little churchyard on the hill from which can be seen the sparkling pools and be heard the song of the long rifts of the Delaware river. No thought could be more poetic or more characteristic of the man; nor could a more fitting resting place have been selected for his remains. Mr. Ford’s expertness as an angler, and his broad knowledge of fish cultural matters, brought him into prominence while he was little more than a young man. For some years it was felt that The Board of Pennsylvania Fish,Commissioners needed a thorough overhauling and new life put into it. Without solicita- tion on his part, a number of friends urged him strongly for the position of Fish Commissioner, but through some misunderstand- ing, the appointment was not given him, and it was not until General Beaver was made Governor of Pennsylvania that Mr. Ford received his appointment. His work was admittedly so valuable that successive executives reappointed him, his last com- mission coming to him on his sick bed. American Fisheries Society. 69 Mr. Ford threw himself into the work with an enthusiasm which, together with an exercise of common sense, soon raised the reputation of the Commission to an equality with the best of other States> Soon after his accession to the Commissionership he was chosen its President, a position which he held until his death. Among the questions of importance which came before him for a settlement and action, as far as Pennsylvania was con- cerned, was the most suitable age, other things being considered, for the Commission to send out trout fry for planting. After careful thought he became a strong advocate of a four months old period. He held that if the recipient of trout fry planted them properly, fully as good results would follow as though the fish were what are commonly called yearlings. Properly planted four months old trout, he claimed, were abundantly able to care for themselves. Naturally there were many people in the State who differed with him on this question, but as a rule he had the sup- port of those who took the most active and intelligent interest in the work of fish planting, and his policy was endorsed and carried out by the Commission. One of the greatest ambitions of Mr. Ford was to firmly estab- lish the Atlantic salmon in the Delaware river and form therefrom an industry which would rival that of the shad. An effort had been made in 1870, and a few subsequent years by the late Thad- deus Norris and a few friends, but they soon abandoned their labor in this direction as a failure, although for years after a salmon or two came into the river each season to spawn.. Mr. Ford felt there was no reason why this great food and game fish should not do well in the Delaware river. He held it to be an ideal stream. Its waters are pure, and it has numerous fine tributaries of cold water suitable in every way for the fish to spawn in, and there are magnificent pools and reaches the whole length of the river, above Trenton. He held that the failure on the part of Mr. Norris and others to achieve striking success, was not owing to-any unsuitable qualities in the river, but through the fry not having been planted in the right places. Mr. Norris deposited the young salmon in the Bushkill creek, near Easton. only about fifty miles above tide water. Mr. Ford regarded the fact that any salmon survived under these circumstances as indis- putable evidence that the Delaware is a suitable stream for the fish in every way. Instead of planting the fry in the lower part of the upper river, he had them taken as far up as the New York State line and placed in such streams as the Dyberry and Equi- nunk., He followed the first planting in 1890 by others each year 70 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting after, except two, when no eggs were obtainable. The sound- ness of Mr. Ford’s reasoning was shown in 1895, when nearly a hundred salmon were caught in nets. The results were so grat- ifying that last year the United States Fish Commission ordered an investigation to be made by the agent taking an account of the shad catch. This official found that in 1896 nearly $2,000 worth of salmon were taken by the regular fishermen alone, and that there was reason to believe that many fish had been captured by other parties not regularly engaged in professional fishing. Mr. Ford died before the figures could be given him, but he lived long enough to feel that he had demonstrated the possi- bility of making a great salmon river out of the Delaware. He felt it to be his greatest triumph, except, perhaps, the part which he took in making the river the greatest shad stream in the United States, with the possible exception of the Potomac. Mr. Ford, with his characteristic modesty, rather under-rated the im- portance of the part which he took in this great work, but others who were associated with him in the labor, or who are familiar with the circumstances, are confident that the ultimate and com- plete success was largely owing to his energy and determination. When Mr. Ford became Commissioner he found the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers full of fish baskets and other destructive contrivances for catching fish. He discovered before long that the task of ridding the Susquehanna was, for some years to come at least, a hopeless task. Maryland owned some thirteen miles of the river, and by her laws permitted fish baskets and similar contrivances calculated to destroy all the valuable fish. There were also several large dams over and above which the shad could not pass. But what was more discouraging than all was his discovery that the sentiment of the people along the Susque- hanna, including most of the legal officials, were in open and active sympathy with the lawless element and against the work of the Fish Commission. In consequence of these things Mr. Ford determined to de- vote his efforts mainly to the Delaware, where he would have the active aid of the Fish Commissions of New York and New Jersey. By united action the Delaware was soon cleared of all serious obstructions and of every illegal device, in spite of bitter opposi- tion on the part of the fish basket men. As a result of this work the catch of shad in the Delaware now reaches a half million dol- lars in value at the nets every year, while that of the Susquehanna has sunk to barely $20,000 a year. = American Fisheries Society. 71 For five years Mr. Ford was Treasurer of the American Fish- eries Society, and in 1893 was its President. He was also a mem- ber of anumber of angling and fish protective associations, on al! of which he left the stamp of his energy and enthusiasm. When the United States and Canada determined to make an effort to adjust the differences which existed between the two countries over the fish laws, Mr. Ford was made one of the Com- missioners. The international body was in existence for about two years, and it was one of the disappointments of his life that little of value to the two countries was accomplished. Mr. Ford never became a candidate for any public office but once, and that was shortly after the death of Col. Marshall Mc- Donald, United States Fish Commissioner. He then stated frankly that he had an ambition for the office and made an effort to secure it. He was backed by many powerful friends, but long before President Cleveland came to any decision in the matter, a sudden and alarming turn in the condition of Mr. Ford’s health compelled him to withdraw as a candidate. This was in the be- ginning of the winter of 1895-96, and less than a week after his withdrawal as a candidate for the United States Fish Commis- sionership, he was confined to his house by what proved to be the last and successful onslaught of an illness from which he had suffered more or less for many years. Between December and May, Mr. Ford was able to leave the house but two or three times. In the latter month he-was taken to Egypt Mills, where he was at last beside his beloved river, which, through his fostering care, had become famous for its commercial and game fish. He died on the 17th of August, a few days after an operation at the Ger- man Hospital in Philadelphia. Six weeks before his death he visited the river and fished for the last time, and there was some- thing pathetic and deeply touching in his behavior on that occa- sion and which illustrated forcibly how deep a hold fish culture and angling had upon him. I had been through a large portion of the State, engaged in investigating some fish cultural work and other matters for the Commission, and one evening in the latter part of June went to visit Mr. Ford and to report the results of my investigations. For a week or more before my arrival he had been bedfast. and low-spirited, and his family thought it best to keep from him knowledge of my arrival until the next morning, fearing the ex- citement of it would be injurious. Their precautions were in vain, however, for he heard me come in the house and would not be satisfied until I had been brought to him 12 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting and he had heard the results of my journey. These, for- tunately, were of a satisfactory character, and he went to sleep that night in a much more cheerful frame of mind than for some time previously. The next morning, to the suprise of all, Mr. Ford appeared at the breakfast table and announced his intention of going to the river to fish, and in spite of protests he did slowly take his way to the river, accompanied by his wife ,and there he was rowed about for a few hours while he fished. He was so weak then that the last of three or four medium-sized bass so thoroughly wearied him that assistance had to be given for the landing. This relation may seem to some to be trivial, but it is a striking illustration of the passion which dominated nearly the whole of his life, and which led him almost with his dying breath to request that he be buried on the little hill overlooking the river and the stretch of water that he had fished for twenty-five years. Mr. Ford was an enthusiastic fisherman of the best type. He loved all that was good in the world, and while he hated and despised evil, he neither hated nor despised those who, through environment or otlier causes, committed evil. He pitied the being while he abhorred the act. It has been my lot to be brought into contact with many and diverse phases of human character, but I never intimately knew a man with a purer life or a better na- ture. A great city daily, in commenting editorially on the death of Mr. Ford, likened him to Isaac Walton, the greatest exemplar of the gentle art. It was a happy thought and an apt comparison. There was a remarkably close resemblance between the two as we are fond of picturing the mind and character of the great English angler. Mr. Ford lived his life as a good man should. He tried to do good for his fellow man and those who came into contact with him were the gainer thereby, and the world was the better for his having lived in it. His death caused a distinct loss to fish culture. President: It seems to me that Mr. Ford’s life and character have been so fully presented in Mr. Meehan’s paper that nothing further remains to be said. Mr. Ford was a member who de- voted much of his time to the success of the American Fisheries Society, and he was a member whom we had all come to respect, and his memory is one we shall all cherish. We will now listen to a paper by Mr. J. W. Titcomb on the Collection of Wild Trout Ova; Methods of Collection’ and Utility. WILD TROUT SPAWN; METHODS OF COLLECTION POND) CRIT Y. By J. W. TITCOMB. The method of securing an ample supply of wild brook trout spawn is so easy in localities where the parent fish abound, and so little has been said about this feature of trout culture, that I make bold to give my experience in this work. Perhaps | should apologize for describing in an article before this Society a method of fishing of ancient origin which has for many years been applied by fish culturists to the capture of trout, fontinalis and anadromous fishes, but I have never seen this method written up in detail as modified for the capture of trout, and it seems a necessary part of a chapter on trout culture under the title on which I have written, I have reference to the first method | shall describe for the capture of the parent fish. It is well known to all fish culturists that trout vary in their habits of spawning, or, rather, in their selection of spawning grounds. While brook trout in brooks almost invariably ascend to some point beyond their natural abode, or into some spring brook tributary to the main stream, it is not always the case that brook trout in lakes and ponds seek the tributary streams for their spawning grounds. It has been my experience that brook trout living in ponds quite as frequently spawn in them as in some tributary stream, even if the latter apparently affords good spawning grounds. In Vermont, the earliest run of trout begin to spawn about the middle of September, although they have be- gun to seek suitable spawning beds at least a month earlier. It is therefore necessary for the fish culturist to guard against the ascent of the fish long before he is ready to trap them if he is looking for stream spawners. This is accomplished by the use of a weir stretched across the stream where the trap is to be located, as early as the middle of August. As this weir can be used as the upper side of the proposed trap later in the season, it is desirable to construct it with that object in view. Location—The location of a trap should be made at a point where it is least likely to be inundated or washed out by freshets, which would allow the escape of many fish when they are most likely to be running in greatest numbers. A point on the stream near its mouth is advised, or at some place below any 74 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting possible spawning bed, but not near enough to the outlet to be affected by back water from the pond. It is desirable to have a slight fall of water at the entrance to the trap. In order to avoid washouts, the selection of a point where the channel is broad - ? % 5 3 X EQUIPMENT FOR TAKING WILD TROUT FROM THEIR SPAWNING BEDS AT NIGHT, American Fisheries Society. 75 is preferable. The slats of the weir occupying about four-fifths of the natural waterway, will act as a barrier to raise the water above its natural level, more or less. Construction —The trap is a V-shaped enclosure described by the mathematical term, “re-entering polygon,” made of slats varying in dimensions with the size of the stream and the force of the current. I used slats one inch square, planed on two sides, driven into the bed of the brook vertically, about one-fourth of an inch apart, and nailed to horizontal timbers or hewn logs. This framework of horizontal timbers consists of one course laid at water level and a parallel course at the extreme height of the weir. The general idea of such a trap is the same as the pound net, there being an opening of four or five inches in the angle of the V. A gate can be arranged in the entrance with a lever reaching to some point obscured from the view of the entrapped fish, which can be lowered whenever the trap is approached tor inspection. This method of trapping trout is not new, but re- quires more precautions than for the capture of other fish less active and gamy, and a few words of caution to the inexperi- enced may be desirable. Build your trap to resist the greatest freshet the stream is liable to develop. The run of trout at such times will be greatest. Be careful to get a foundation that will not be undermined by the constant washing of the current be- tween the slats. It is usually best to entirely surround the sides of a trap with slats rather than to depend upon the natural em- bankments. It is not necessary to use narrow slats for the sides of the trap, as no water passes through them, and the only object is to secure an enclosure from which fish can be easily dipped out. For a stream six feet wide, I should build an enclosure about six feet square, the V extending into the enclosure about three’ feet. In many localities it will be found possible to dig side ditches above the trap and enclosures, at right angles with the stream, in order to convey surplus water away from the trap and lessen the danger of washout or inundation. The bottom of such ditches should be considerably above low water mark to carry off surplus high water. A convenient place for the pens is just above the trap, so that the trout can be dipped from the latter into the former. They are constructed of the same material of which the trap is made, the upper side of the trap enclosure being used as the lower side or end of a series of pens. These should be made in shape 76 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting VIEW OF TRAP SHOWING ENTRANCE FOR BROOK SPAWNERS, American Fisheries Society. 17 and size to suit the location and number of fish expected to be captured, and the same precautions should be taken with them as with the trap to guard against washouts. In many instances, the bed of the brook is hard gravel and stones of large size, prevent- ing the driving of the slats into it. In such cases it is desirable to make an apron at the base of the slat-work upon which the water will fall as it passes through them and prevent washing out of holes underneath the slats. This apron can be made of boards as an artificial bottom to the trap or pens, but a cheaper and quite as serviceable method is to place evergreen boughs or green underbrush at the base of the slat-work, covering the same with crushed stone or small stones from the bed of the brook, and then with coarse gravel. This feature of construction is very important. If there is a hole in the trap or pens large enough for trout to escape, they will surely do so. In fact, they will dig out under the slat-work if not properly guarded against. It is well to have planks extending over the trap and pens on which one can conveniently stand to dip out the fish. Adjacent to the trap and pens, a rough board shanty can be constructed or a tent can be temporarily used. There will be many stormy and cold days, however, and I advise having a shanty with facilities for heating it, and with a bunk where the attendant can sleep. Add to this equipment a reflecting lantern. T*ield stations of this description are usually some distance from habitation and the ordinary comforts of camp life should be available to insure good work of the spawn taker. I have described one of the field stations operated by the U. S. Fish Commission in Vermont. The accompanying photo- eraph gives a more distinct idea of it. The cost of such a sta- tion equipped for work will vary from $30 to $1oo, according to facilities for obtaining materials of construction, etc. At this sta- tion the first run of trout occurred on Sunday, August 23, when 1,650 trout ascended the brook during a rain-storm. Few trout were caught after this date until Sunday, September 6, when about 1,000 more were taken. On September 11 my records show that 3,335 trout had thus been taken. The fish continued to run’'in schools. every rainy day, with a few stragglers every day until the end of the month. October 15 some of the slats to the trap were removed after 7,138 trout had been captured, There is no other tributary to the pond where these trout could run, except in the wet season. In the latter part of September it was discovered that a large number of trout were ascending a “dry brook,” so called, in large numbers. At the request of the 18 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting owners of the pond, these trout were not disturbed, although it is doubtful whether their spawn would ever amount to any- thing deposited in such a stream. The discovery was occasioned by the fact that the trout had stopped running in the stream in which the trap was located, the inference being that they had learned of their danger and sought new spawning grounds. Whether such is the actual case, cannot be decided until after another season’s work. The pond from which these trout ascended into the trap is an ordinary mill pond of about forty acres, used to float logs into a mill, and with no screen at its out- let. The trout average about five to the pound, and the females of this size yield an average of 560 eggs. About 1,000,000 eggs were taken here, a part of which were eyed in a tent supplied with water from an adjacent spring, a part being transported to the St. Johnsbury station as soon as stripped. In connection with a collecting station distant from the hatchery, it is advisable to have a few troughs set up for eying the eggs before transpor- tation, if suitable water can be obtained for the purpose. The natural brook water is ordinarily of low temperature and too full of sediment to warrant using it for such temporary work. If an adjacent spring is available, troughs can be set up in a tent or shanty and the eggs thus eyed in from thirty to forty days before the most severe winter weather sets in. For this work I use deep troughs and stack the trays ten deep. The first strip- ping of eggs occurred September 26th, when 66,000 were taken. The second and largest stripping occurred October 7th, when nearly 500,000 eggs were taken, and the trout had all been stripped and liberated on November 7th. During the season only eighteen trout died. The cost of operating this station dur- -ing the season, including team hire and transportation of eggs to St. Johnsbury station, was $256.83, exclusive of services of one regular station employe two months. This cost included the cost of construction of trap and shanty, some of which would not enter into the expense of another season. For this privilege of taking trout liberal returns are made to the waters in fry. Lake and Pond Spawners.—The method of taking trout from spawning beds in ponds differs materially from the method just described. The following is a description of a field station and methods of operation where the trout spawn in the lake: One of the first important features is to have suitable retain- ing pens in the lake where the trout will be undisturbed and se- cure from poachers. I am describing a station at a lake of 1,500 acres area, subject to high winds and rough water. The first —_—- s-)~|)hCU Se ae American Fisheries Society. 79 year that collections were made at this station a breakwater was constructed of lumber and stones as a partial shelter to the re- taining crates, the latter being anchored in shallow water and weighted to the bottom so that they could be approached by a walk from the shore where a small tent had been erected in which to strip fish. The crates were always a source of annoyance for fear they would be robbed or broken up by high winds. The fishing was conducted in calm weather, day and night, and the stripping in stormy weather. Lake or pond spawners usually deposit their spawn later in the season than the brook spawners, and the weather is inclement for outdoor work such as stripping trout. As a result, the percentage of eggs eyed at this station was not what it should have been, The foliowing season a boat house was constructed with retaining pens within it and of suffi- cient size to give ample room for spawn-taking operations. In this house a stove was set up, and thus the work of taking spawn could proceed without discomfort during the most severe weather of November and December. Of the eggs taken at this station last season, 97 per cent. were successfully eyed. The fea- ture about the boat house to be considered in connection with the work, aside from the comfort of the employes, is the method of building retaining space for the brood fish. Two piers were constructed about six feet wide by twenty-four feet long, and laid parallel to each other eight feet apart. The material for the piers consisted of water-soaked logs taken from the lake, with the addition of a few trees cut near by. The logs were piled crib fashion, fastened with drift bolts and filled with large stones. The two piers were tied together at each end by stringers of logs, and constituted the foundation upon which the boat house was built. The space between the two piers or the inlet to the boat house was occupied by four crates, each six feet long by four feet wide by four feet deep. The log piers are not at all water- tight, only large stones being used to sink them, and with the eight-foot opening at the sea end of the boat house, furnish ample opportunity for aeration of the water in the most calm per.ods. To guard against heaving by ice, which freezes two feet thick on the lake, the outside of the cob piers was covered with planks fastened vertically but sloping out in the form of a battered wall, so that the ice cannot get a hold.on the piers sufficiently to move them. The planking should not extend but a few inches below low water level or it might interfere with the aeration of water in the crates. The trout were thus free from poachers, and also from the prying eyes of curious people. It may be remarked 80 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting here that wild trout should not be disturbed in confinement any more than is absolutely necessary. Between 400 and 500 fish were retained at a time, one crate always being kept empty for use in transferring unripe fish. Methods of Capture—The implements used in the capture of lake spawners consist of spacious but easy-running boats, tooth- nets, dip-nets and jack-lights. I erroneously designate as “tooth’- nets, gill-nets of a mesh too small to gill the fish, The above described station was equipped with one each 100- foot and 200-foot gill-nets of 13-inch mesh (3-inch knot to knot) and 6 feet deep, colored blue. Fishing was conducted day and night, or when the weather was favorable, lee shores being se- lected if the wind blew, it being necessary to have the water calm enough so that the fish could be seen upon their beds. The dip- nets resemble large landing nets, the hoop or net frame being 15 to 20 inches in diameter, made of 1-inch gaspipe and the net being 2 feet deep, of as coarse a mesh as the size of fish to be dipped will permit without gilling them. It should be of rather fine thread and barked or colored blue. The latter color is best for work at night. After a fisherman has had experience with dip-nets, he will have his own ideas about the style of net, dimen- sions, etc.; but the general description given above will hold good with all. The technical description of a dip-net for order- ing from the manufacturers is as follows: “52 meshes round, 28 inches long, 13-inch mesh, 16-6 cable, barked, with twine strung through the top 5 feet long.” I have tried several forms of dip-net frames and finally settled upon the {-inch gaspipe as the best for lightness, strength and durability combined with cheapness. A better but more expen- sive net frame can be made by the same method that pitchforks are made, only continuing the process by drawing the tines of the fork around until they complete the arc of a circle. This form of net frame has the advantage of being strong, light and more slender than the gaspipe for rapid work under the water. The handles of the dip-nets should be of light and strong material, and I have found nothing equal to the bamboo for them, using 8 or 10 feet from the butts of fishing poles. The jack-lights are an important feature of this work, the larger part of which is done at night. I have tried reflecting lanterns of many kinds, but have found nothing equal to the light constructed as per accompanying photograph. It consists of a gallon can fastened to a gaspipe standard, so that it can be raised American Fisheries Society. 81 Jack LIGHT FOR DippinG WILD TROUT FROM THEIR SPAWNING BEDS 1N LAKES AND PONDS. 82 Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting or lowered, also revolved in the are of a quarter circle. To this can is attached a supply pipe to conduct kerosene oil from the can to a perforated burner suspended over the water. This con- ductor has a globe valve in it to regulate the supply of oil, The conductor is }-inch gaspipe about 12 inches long. The burner is 4-inch gaspipe 6 inches long, with cap at the end. The perfor- ations in the burner are 1-32-inch in diameter, and should not exceed 20 in number. The burner is made of larger pipe than the conductor to it, as a convenience in winding asbestos wick- ing, which is loosely wound upon it and fastened with fine wire. Cotton batting or bagging can be used for this purpose, but is not as good. The burner when wound with asbestos resembles in shape a bobbin of cotton. . re a, ee a - uF 1 , = iso $22 - ro ee ae & = ie 7 _ oe 7 ’ es Ww — S American Fisheries Society. 103 is a spring which I have tested about a mile from Garvin Lake whose temperature is about 50 degrees. Mr. Whitaker: Have you ever made any observations with reference to the abundance of plants at the bottom of the lake? Prof. Birge: No; I have not had time to take that up. Mr. Whitaker: Do you know at what depth in these lakes the growth of plants stops practically? Prof. Birge: It wouldn't get down to that cold lower water, _ anyway. You don't get a great many springs in the bottom of a lake. As a matter of fact, the spring would be more likely to come out near the level of the lake than further down. The spring comes from the head of water that is in the soil. When you get down below the level of the soil water there is less head of water. So the spring will ordinarily work out of the edge of the lake or in shallower water. Mr. Whitaker: I believe the investigation of Lake St Clair showed that the bottom of the lake was covered with a perfect mat of chara. As I understand it, on all lakes there is a certain shore zone, bare of plants; made barren by the action of the waves, which prevents the growth of plants. Prof. Birge: Not in these very small lakes. In. Mendota, ex- cept at sheltered places, the wind affects the plants to a depth of 34 to 4 feet. Mr. Peabody: What is the greatest depth that the action of the wind reaches so as to modify the temperature? Prof. Birge: So far as I know, its action extends to the greatest depths of our inland lakes. Green Lake-is 237 feet in depth. The temperature of the water at the bottom rises during the spring and falls during the late autumn. I cannot conceive that this change is due to anything but the action of the winds. Mr. Bower: I think your statement explains why some of the Great Lakes are more prolific as to production of fish than others. I understand that the greater amount of water life, the greater vegetation, the greater amount of fundamental life, the larger the higher forms of life. Of our Great Lakes there is no lake that begins to compare with Lake Erie in the amount of fish caught. There are large areas that are sheltered, but still subject to the action of the wind all the year, in a degree; that accounts for the reason why the most productive places are the bays: take all the bays on the Canada shore, and Sag- 104 Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting inaw and Green Bay, and they are by far the most productive areas. We get more fish in those parts of the lake than all the rest of the lake; don’t you think that temperature in a great meas- ure accounts for it? Prof. Birge: I have no doubt that this has influence; but I don’t really feel that I know anything about the problems the Great Lakes offer in regard to temperature. The shallow nature of Lake Erie must permit the sun to warm it up; you get the whole heat of the sun concentrated on the shallow water. While the heat is projected to a slight depth only in Lake Michigan, it produces a great deal of warmth in Lake Erie. Mr. Bower: Take the whole of Lake Erie west of a point drawn across the lake from the east part of Sandusky Bay and there is not a spot anywhere that exceeds 46 feet in depth. There is a vast area there of a great many square miles. Prof. Birge: The temperature at the top and bottom would probably be about the same. Mr. Bower: It would seem from your explanation that the lake would be stirred from top to bottom. Mr. Gunckel: I don’t think there is probably any question that in the upper end of Lake Erie, the locality Mr. Bower has spoken of, that’ in the fall it is stirred from the action of the waves and wind, from top to bottom. From the fact that in very heavy winds when the whitefish are on, they are driven off when these heavy winds occur, and it must be stirred from top to bottom. Prof. Birge: I might say also, where you don't get the water roiled, the wind has a great deal of effect on temperature; take it in Lake Mendota, the wind does not stir the water up from the top. There are horizontal currents which are moving around, which must produce a great deal of effect on the temperature. You will see in the diagram little irregularities in the tempera- ture, which were not to be accounted for by the warming of the water. At 12 o’clock the temperature would be up a degree, and at 3 o’clock it might be down, and at 6 o’clock it might be up. We found continuously little fluctuations in the temperature which could only be due to currents flowing more or less horizon- tally. Mr. Bower: I remember when I was a boy and used to go in swimming, we used to suddenly plunge into water that American Fisheries Society. 105 was perceptibly colder; it would only be just for a few feet and it would be warmer again. Prof. Birge: That experience you will get, ordinarily, in the -early part of the season, but not later than the Ist of July. ‘ Mr. Whitaker: I suggest if there is no more discussion on this paper that we read one more paper and take a recess until to-morrow morning at 9 o’clock. Dr. J. A. Henshall’s paper was then read, which follows: SOME PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING THE ARTIFICIAL CULTURE OF THE GRAYLING, The grayling of Montana exists only in the tributaries of the Missouri River, above the falls, but principally in the three forks of that river, the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin Rivers, and their tributaries. In 1805 Lewis and Clark found the grayling near the head- waters of the Jefferson, and in the history of their wonderful ex- pedition spoke of it as follows: “Toward evening we formed a drag of bushes, and in about two hours caught 528 good fish, most of them large trout. Among them we observed for the first time ten or twelve trout of a white or silvery color, except on the back and head, where they are of a bluish cast; in appearance and shape they resemble exactly the speckled trout, except that they are not so large, though the scales are much larger; the flavor is equally good.” This fish was not subsequently identified from this descrip- tion, though any one acquainted with the locality and the fishes of the headwaters of the Jefferson could not doubt for a moment that the gravling was meant. Dr. Elliott Coues in his edition of the History of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, thinks the de- scription applies to the blue-backed salmon (O. nerka) of the Pacific coast, though he says this genus is not known to exist in Atlantic waters. In a recent communication to “Forest and Stream” I have ad- vised the adoption of the name Thymallus lewisi for the grayling, on the strength of Lewis’ description, and to relegate to synonomy Cuvier’s name of Thymallus ontariensis, based on a specimen, the locality of which is unknown, though it was wrongly attributed, as I believe, to Lake Ontario. Seth Green and Fred Mather claim to have hatched the gray- ling artificially from eggs procured in Michigan in 1874. ‘Seth Green has a brief notice in his “Fish Hatching and Fish Catch- 106 Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting ing” of the hatching of about 100 eggs, but says nothing, ex- cept in a general way, of feeding and rearing the fry. I have an impression that Mr. Mather has reported his operations at greater length, but I do not remember just when and where his account was published. The first real effort in this direction was inaugurated last spring by the United States Fish Commission at a sub-station connected with the Bozeman (Montana) Station, and situated on the inlet (Elk Creek) of Red Rock Lake, the headwaters of the Jefferson River. This auxiliary station was in charge of Mr. A. J. Sprague, who was detailed from the Leadville Station, and worked under my direction. Mr. Sprague took some 3,000,000 grayling eggs, 1,000,000 of which were hatched and planted in Elk Creek. Fifty thousand eyed eggs were shipped to the Manchester (Lowa) Station, 50,000 to the Leadville (Colorado) Station, and 10,000 to the United States Fish Commission Exhibit at the Omaha Exposition, all of which, by extra precautions in packing, arrived at their destina- tion in good condition. About 1,500,000 were shipped to the 30zeman Station, but many were lost, owing to a lack of ice for packing the eyed eggs. Some green eggs were shipped as an experiment, and though seemingly in good condition on arrival at Bozeman, they all died soon afterward. These eggs were shipped over a wagon road some sixty miles in a common farm wagon, without springs, and called by cour- tesy “a stage,” from Red Rock to Monida, Montana, thence by railroad. The drive of sixty miles is made in one day, by relays of horses, and as the drivers are required to “make time,” the eggs were subjected to much jolting. The problem of transportation of eyed grayling eggs, how- ever, has been satisfactorily determined. As the period of incuba- tion is so short, it is absolutely necessary that the temperature be kept between 40 degrees and 50 degrees, sav at 45 degrees. This can be accomplished by packing ice and dry moss beneath, around and on top of the stack of trays in the egg-case. A good plan, also, is to place an extra ice-hopper, in an inverted position, over the usual hopper; this answers the double purpose of keeping the moss dryer, and also allows more ice to be used on top. It is of the utmost importance that the eggs should not be subjected to the least pressure during transportation. There should be very little, if any, moss placed over the eggs or between the egg-trays. Any pressure on the eggs causes fungus to develop, and is fatal to the life of the embryo. American Fisheries Soctety. 107 About 500,000 eggs were hatched at the Bozeman Station, and at least 50 per cent. of the fry are alive, and most of them are feeding. In stripping the female grayling, the eggs are a little harder to start, but are then extruded more freely than in the case of the trout. About 3,000 eggs is the average for a fish of twelve inches in length. The eggs are white and as clear as a crystal; they are smaller than the native trout (S. mykiss) eggs, but after impregna- tion and the absorption of water will average one-seventh of an inch in diameter, while the native trout eggs are one-sixth of an inch, and the brook trout (S. fontinalis) eggs are one-fifth of an inch in diameter. Soon after fertilization the eggs become glutinous and ad- hesive, forming bunches or masses of various sizes, when fungus rapidly develops and kills the egg. This renders the work of picking laborious but imperative. The embryo develops rapidly, and is in constant motion, often causing the egg to roll over on the tray. The grayling eggs are lighter than trout eggs, almost semi-buoyant, and from our experience would be better hatched under a pressure of water from below. In an improvised Jar they did well, and the bunching and development of fungus did not occur. Perhaps the method followed with pike-perch eggs in using starch or muck might cause the eggs to separate, and the bunching be prevented. Next season I propose to experiment with fine quick-sand, so-called, which is abundant about Red Rock Lake; it is more like fine marl, as fine as wheat flour. The embryo begins to show life and motion before the eye- spots are visible. The eye-spots are small gilt specks, with a minute black pupil, and appear in from three to five days. The period of incubation is from 10 to 12 days, at a temperature of about 50 degrees. The fry are hatched with a very small yolk- sac, about half the size of the egg, and which is absorbed in about a week, when the fry immediately becomes a free-swimming ani- mal, about one-half an inch in length, and is quite slender and delicate. They do not begin to feed so readily as trout, and re- quire constant coaxing, as often as evéry half hour, with liver as finely divided as possible, being in fact bloody water. The best method of feeding and rearing is vet to be determined. Those liatched and planted in Elk Creek did well, being double the size, at the same age, of those hatched at Bozeman Station, which proves that we must follow, as closely as possible, the natural con- ditions of breeding. The grayling does best in sandy and gravelly streams, with 108 Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting — swift and pure water. It is a much superior fish for the table than any of the trouts, and in game qualities is their equal. As the species is rapidly disappearing, it seems to be important that so good and beautiful a fish should be preserved by artificial propa- gation, and no reasonable efforts should be spared to determine the conditions best suited to its successful culture. Mr. Clark: This work of Dr. Henshell is a matter that | am very much interested in. In the year 1885 the United States Fish Commission gave me instructions to proceed to the Au Sable River to investigate the spawning of the grayling, and I will say, by the way, that | kept a report of that trip, and meant to have it here. At that time Mr. Bower was my assistant. He was dis- patched to the Au Sable and we succeeded in obtaining a few grayling eggs. I think there were 25,000 taken to Northville. Of that number, 5,000 were shipped to Washington, and from there sent to Wytheville, Virginia. There was no difficulty in shipping them. The experience we had in hatching them was something different from the Doctor’s. We had no trouble about the eggs sticking any more than with trout eggs, and they didn’t bunch up after we had them on the trays. They of course adhered slightly, but after you had separated them there was no bunching. We had no difficulty in hatching them; the difficulty with us was in raising them after they were hatched. The time we used in hatching in a temperature of probably 55 degrees was from four- teen to twenty days. At the time Dr. Henshall was about to com- mence the work I received a letter from my chief, Mr. Ravenel, in Washington, in reference to the Doctor’s taking hold of that work, and he asked me what I would suggest as an apparatus for hatching. I suggested the jar if they were to be handled in large quantities. I see the Doctor did try the jar. I-don’t know whether you gentlemen have seen the young grayling at the Exposition grounds, but when you do I think you will say they are different from the young grayling we hatched in 1883. Mr. Bower: At the time we attempted to secure the grayling from the Au Sable and Manistee Rivers, those streams were liter- ally filled with logs. Of course. the fish at that time of the year Klidn’t bite freely, and the only way we could get them was by bottom fishing, using worms or minnows. The opportunities for— fishing were limited to occasional open spaces in front of where logs had lodged. We succeeded in getting between 40 and 50 adult grayling, none of which were ripe. We held them in crates a few days, until ripe, and in this way secured about 50,000 eggs. American Fisheries Society. 109 They were quite different from Dr. Henshell’s in color. He speaks of their being white. Ours were not white, but translucent ; in fact, they looked about like the Lake Superior whitefish eggs. On two points there seems to be a radical difference. One is that our eggs were non-adhesive, and the other is that they were not white. Mr. Clark: I would like to state further that Mr. Bower sent down to Northville a certain number of adult grayling, and among them I found a ripe one the same day they arrived. We took the eggs from that fish and they amounted in number to a little over 5,000. Mr. Peabody: Your experience in Michigan is that it is not profitable to raise them? Have you succeeded in doing it to any extent? Mr. Clark: We have not succeeded well with them. Mr. Whitaker: I haven’t any doubt in my own mind that there are marked differences in the habits as well as the character of grayling in localities remote from each other. The European erayling and the American grayling differ, and very likely there are differences between the grayling of Montana and the grayling of Michigan. The -streams lying in the upper half of the lower penin- sula of Michigan originally contained nothing but grayling and the fish were so plentiful that a lady living at Reed City told Dr. Parker, a former member of our Board, that she had seen farmers come there at_the time of grayling spawning, and from under the apron of the dam, with an ordinary pitch-fork, fill a small wagon-box with grayling. The grayling, however, have practically disappeared from nearly all our streams. I have come to the conclusion from my experience that their decadence is chiefly owing to the fact that the spawning season, coming as it does, just before the breaking up of the ice in the rivers, filled as they are with logs, it follows that the logs plow up the beds and destroy the eggs, and that log-running is responsible for the disappearance of these fish from our streams. I introduced a resolution in the Michigan Board of Fish Commissioners at one of its meetings in 1878 to stop the further planting of brook trout in grayvling streams and their tributaries. I urged that it was not policy to cease trying to propagate the grayling, and that we should make some experiments looking to the planting of the grayling in waters in which they were indigenous, We passed the resolution and such steps were taken. We subsequently or- 110 Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting ‘ganized an expedition, quite a number of spawning grayling were obtained, and the fish were held in a preserve where they might spawn naturally. I never was entirely satisfied with the care exer- cised over those fish in that experiment, but as a matter of fact, it resulted in nothing. We tried it two or three years, but it failed. Seth Green once said to me: “Whitaker, you will nevef be able to raise the grayling; he is an Indian, and won't stand domestica- tion.” And it seems as though he was right. I don’t coincide with the professor’s ideas as to their edible qualities. I do not think they can be compared with the brook trout. Tor fighting qualities they rank well; for the novice fly fisherman they are the fish par excellence, because any green- horn can get him. Dr. Parker once told me that on a branch of the Manistee River he noticed a little grayling rising to natural food on the surface, and he counted that he rose twenty-seven times. It seems to me after the experience we have had, that it is a loss of time to try to do anything with the grayling. He isn’t worth the trouble. The brook trout is a superior fish in every respect, and responds so kindly and readily to the methods of propagation that it is hardly worth while to do anything with the artificial culture of the grayling. I hope Dr. Henshall will succeed, He is a careful man, a painstaking man. and it is quite possible in that country where the streams are not subiected to log running he may succeed. I think it may be possible that this massing of eggs he speaks of is due to the injury they re- ceived in the sixty miles of haul. Mr. Clark: As a partial answer to Mr. Peabody’s question of why we abandoned the work, I should say, as Mr. Whitaker has said, that they are not easily domesticated. At Northville we proved, beyond a doubt, that you cannot do anything with the grayling in confinement. You have the fish, but you simply can- not get any eggs from them. This was also the experience of Mr. Babbitt, of Michigan, who has also experimented with them. I sometimes feel it is too bad ‘that the grayling in Michi- gan streams are going. I wish the Commissioners might have reserved one stream until log-running was finished. It might be well for the United States Commission to bring some of the Mon- tana grayling and plant them in some of those streams, because they never can do any hurt; they never eat any trout; it cannot do the harm the brown trout of Germany do. I don’t think it is prac- tical to undertake to get grayling eggs in Michigan now. American lisheries Society. 111 Mr. Whitaker: It is possible we may always have a few gray- ling in Michigan. Mr. Peabody: I would like to ask about the temperature re- quired for grayling. Will they stand as warm water as the trout? Mr. Clark: No; I don’t think they do. The Au Sable River is 65 degrees when the air temperature in the shade is 98. On motion a recess was taken until 9:30 a. m. of Friday, July 22d. FRIDAY MORNING SESSION. Friday, July 22d, 1898, 9:30 a. m. The meeting was called to order by Vice-President Peabody. Mr.. Whitaker: We have three papers yet to be read. The first is by Dr. Bushrod W. James, of Philadelphia, entitled, “The Protection of the Pacific Coast as Related to Food Supply.” Mr. Whitaker then read Dr. James’ paper, which follows: PROTECTION OF THE FOOD FISH SUPPLY ON THE PACIFIC COAST AND IN ALASKA. The great abundance of excellent fish in the northwestern wa- ters, the revenue from which in years past has mounted into mil- lions of dollars annually, would suggest to many persons that the consideration of systematized protection regarding them was en- tirely superfluous at this time. Yet a cursory glance at the his- tory of the larger animals, whose habitat has been the Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean, will be irrefutable evi- dence that it is better to agitate the question before the lesser fish have been threatened with extinction. In the class of valuable fishes in Alaska the great mammals of the water have always been included, but of one of the most important, the seals, nothing can now be said, as their protection, having been submitted to arbitra- tion, must depend upon the decision so secured; time alone being able to demonstrate its efficacy. Whales, sea lions and walruses, however, remain without any safe-guard, and their annihilation has been imminent for several years. As food fish they have always been most valuable to the natives of the territory, as have been the same family of creatures to the inhabitants of Greenland, on the Atlantic coast. The neg- lect to provide some protection to the Atlantic whale is well known to be most disastrous, the whaling fleets having found themselves compelled to quit the business because of the scarcity of their prey, until now, it is stated by an influential journal, that if it were not for the occasional success of whaling in Alaska, the business would be completely degenerated. As it is, the fall- ing-off has been so great that even the Pacific whalemen are turn- ing their talents in another direction. The great value of this ani- mal to merchants is well known, but now the reduction of the quantities of bone and oil has sent the prices upward phenomen- ally, putting them beyond the tradesmen, who find few consumers American Fisheries Society. 113 willing to pay the advance, rather accepting cheap substitutes in- stead. But it is of them as the life support of Alaskan coast natives that I am inclined to speak at present. Until another mode of supplying food, clothing, shelter, boats and fishing implements, and even fuel has been instituted for the extreme coast natives, they must have whales and walruses, or perish. It is the diminu- tion in the number of these that has sent tribes of natives far from their usual resorts. It has been the seasons when only one or two of the great animals appeared that have made primitive settle- ments desolate and reduced the inhabitants to pitiless destitution. This state of affairs has not been sounded from one end of the world to the other, because the Alaskans are neither a warlike nor a complaining people. For the sake of humanity, as well as for the very momentous item of wealth, there should be legislation limiting the catch of all other mammals as well as their acknowledged superior, the seal, until they have been permitted to increase, and after that there should still be a close guard against over-stepping a proper mar- gin. It is not yet too late, but delay will certainly lead to the total destruction of a once most lucrative traffic in bone, oil and ivory, for the latter of which the immense walrus was hunted un- til his presence is seldom found in his former haunts. The history of these fisheries will tell how all the civilized world sent large fleets for the capture of the animals, and how reports gave glowing accounts of their inexhaustible numbers. But what were they in comparison with the millions of salmon than can literally be forked out of the water as fast as a man’s arm can use an ordinary drag net? They are said to haunt some of the rivers during their run in such compact masses that the barefoot natives can walk over them and dip baskets down into the moving schools, removing hundreds, only to make room for thousands more. Speculation has pointed the way, and canneries have appeared with enormous capacity. It- was: so. in Kanrhik River some years ago; now, the United States Treasury De- partment has officially stopped salmon fishing in Karluk, ex- cept that sufficient fish may be captured to supply the hatcheries along the river banks; and this is done to prevent threatened de- pletion. Yet it is stated that the Pacific coast fisheries will require about 80,000,000 cans for their year’s catch, as-they have used that number annually for several years. Many of the fish are taken in traps, and from 10,000 to 40,000 salmon are taken in one trap. It must be remembered that all this number cannot possibly 114 Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting be choice, and there is no doubt that thousands are wasted be- cause of undersize or non-marketable quality. But to remedy this defect some companies have permitted them, and the different kinds of fish taken with them, to appear under the same label as the better article. Dealers have fortunately discovered this, and the only thing for the canners to do to redeem their reputation is to exclude all but the finer quality, as they did heretofore. Per-_ haps there has been some excuse for this in the falling-off of the Columbia River salmon, whose excellent qualities have created an enormous demand, and in filling standing orders the workmen may have in haste made mistakes in the canning. Or, more prob- ably, inferior qualities have been carelessly handled among the better and received the sign manual that had belonged previously to none but the superior article. Possibly disaster has befallen some firms through this unprofessional handling. But the streams are still so well stocked with the fine grades of salmon that no one need suffer long who has the energy and the capital to start in anew, with thoroughly reliable stock. The “Royal Chinook,” whose magnificent proportions have often tipped the scales at eighty-five pounds, whose beautiful. deep-pink flesh has charmed the epicure, is still abundant in the North-West, though a little caution in the catches will be neces- sary to keep up the supply. But he has a rival, so small as to seem at first hardly worth fearing; its name alone being anything but attractive. Yet, the little six to ten-pound “‘sock-eye” has cer- tainly swam to the front. Its beautiful red, firm and richly-flay- ored flesh, and its preserving qualities, have nearly overshadowed. its royal brother, as well as the Alaska salmon of the greater rivers. But here come announcements of new companies who will pack nothing but “sock-eye.” Puget Sound fisheries, wherein the fish are caught on their way to Fraser River, are preparing to take greater numbers than they did before, for the reason that the exports call for the rare, new commodity. More canneries are to be erected at Astoria for Columbia River salmon, at Fair- haven for the Puget Sound fish. In Washington, new traps are to be put in place for the expected rush of the salmon. Companies are forming and locating for salmon fishing. Cold storage plants are being erected for the salmon catches in different parts of Alaska, Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. A Dane has patented an arrangement by which fish can be carried great dis- tances while still alive, and the device is to be used in carrying. salmon as far east as the fish will keep. The result of all this must be distinctly foreseen by any thinking person. One day, a a American Fisheries Society. 115 not far distant at this rate, salmon will be so scarce that the can- neries will be forsaken and capital taken in another direction, whereas, if the Treasury Department or its representative [ish Commission, will place restraining measures upon this evident wholesale grasping, confining the seasons, prescribing the fishing until a number of the strong, finer fish have had time to reach the spawning grounds, and thus perpetuate their species; the sal- mon fisheries will not be exhausted as they must be soon, judging from the stupendous preparations that have been made for their extermination. One manner of preserving them as well as other fish, is by allowing a fish-way in every dam, by prohibiting the erection of enormous traps and wheels that must soon depopulate the waters of all kinds of fish, unless it is expected that fish themselves ‘will discriminate and keep out of the way; by insisting upon limited seasons, and by also requiring companies to avoid over-produc- tion of their commodities. It is not desirable to keep fish, particu- larly, from season to season. The fresh article is always in de- mand, but there is a certain modicum of danger in keeping them over. Having estimated the quantity required for a year’s trade, it would be only diplomacy to stop at that, and let the fish have liberty to grow and multiply. Our Fish Commission is cognizant of this, and with Government to legislate there will be no danger _of the salmon canning business becoming a failure. It has been said of Americans that they are greedy for wealth, but the desire for revenue from fish has dominated every nation, and when our laws are prepared for the protection of salmon in Alaska and Puget Sound, we will evidently be required to gain the co-partnership of British Columbia, else some of the more valuable kinds will not be fully guarded. Another great fishing scheme is being advanced rapidly of late, for the taking of sturgeon, Pacific sturgeon being found finer flavored, firmer in flesh and better for keeping than the Atlantic fish. Possibly, there is litthke wonder for this when we think of the pure, almost unknown waters in which the former live, and the uncleanly waterways in which many of the Atlantic sturgeon are caught. In Fraser River the sturgeon has been found of great size and richest flavor. One fish was taken that weighed over goo pounds. This fish is to be shipped by cold storage; the roe will be sent to Russia for caviare making, and the Chinese prize the spinal cord after it is dried. There seems to be no idea of canning the sturgeon, though it has been whispered that the same has been found masquerading as salmon in some grades of canned 116 wenty-seventh Annual Meeting goods. Sturgeon is sufficiently well known to be appreciated under its own name if it is properly handled. And here a word with regard to the matter of handling. I think the fisheries are endangered by the manner in which many fish are marketed. Perishable as they are, the housewife is cautions in purchasing un- sightly fish, and the Commission should ask for local legislation that will dominate the sale of fish in every market. If this was established, more fish would be used and less left to waste offens- ively. Thus far there is unquestionably an over-production of all but a few choice varieties. With careful manipulation all fish would be more tempting, and if the purchaser did not see the fish that was wanted she would possibly take another not very inferior. To protect the fishing interest everywhere, the fish should be deli- cately handled to prevent unsightly appearance, and they should be fresh beyond all doubt. To prove that a limitation of the catches of the different fish- eries will permit the numbers to attain a certain annual average, we will find that the species that have thus far been allowed com- parative freedom are found in amazing quantities in their haunts. Smelts and herring, perch and pompano, cod, halibut and mack- eral, trout and many other varieties can actually be captured by the ton in virgin waters. We must look to it that none of them are so captured until the waters are suddenly depleted. In this connection I wish to speak of carp, some of which grow to the size of fair specimens of sturgeon. I was one time criticised for stating that these carp destroy other and more val- uable species, but to-day there comes the complaint that young fry are being devoured by carp. As this fish has proved itself less desirable than was expected, it would be an excellent idea to allow it to be taken in all ages and sizes, or else these ravages will materially injure the business of the hatcheries. A comparatively new business is progressing finely in the northwest in planting and preparing oyster beds and the better quality of lobster has also been transplanted. Puget Sound oyster canneries have only been in full operation for three years, and in that time they have increased in value one hundred and fifty per cent. Here again the danger threatens that injuries every other part of the fishing business. It is, as soon as the product shows phenomenal success other companies rush in to” claim a share, and thousands upon thousands of really almost unsaleable stock will be spoiled in the pursuit of the more de- sirable kind. Let the fisheries get a good start, then allow just a reasonable amount to be taken at once; in time, the supply American Fisheries Society. ay will increase to meet the greater demand, and the northwestern oyster fisheries may be looked upon to make up in a measure the great falling off of the Atlantic product. It was this falling off that led Seth Green to open his eyes to a stern necessity for replenishment, when, in 1864, he began ex- perimenting in artificial propagation of food fish. The good that his work has done now extends from one state to another all over the breadth of our land. The fish commission has become an institution of the Government, and to it the Pacific as well as the Atlantic fishermen and dealers look for supplies of some of the most valuable denizens of river and ocean. Through the ef- forts of the commission salmon has been restored to the east and shad made known to the great west. From this we must be assured that their every effort should be appreciated and their millions of fishes protected from extermination. To do this plans must be legislated to prevent the vast numbers of the pro- ducts of the waters to be met with yearly increasing arrange- ments for their destruction. secause an immense haul is ex- pected, greater facilities are greedily and hurriedly completed, as if it were not wiser to permit this year’s fish to insure as great results for next year. But a short time ago we heard of the “sock-eve” salmon, next we hear of the millions that are taken and the great wealth that is being expended upon new fisheries for their capture. Ovsters are becoming abundant, therefore, on rush the speculations regard- ing them, the calculations of their value this year by their lesser value last, until in very little time there will be more deserted canneries, more buildings to fall to decay, more men disappointed in employment, more speculators mourning over financial loss. Another trouble appears at this present crisis, as the Atlantic fishermen have decided to join with those of the Pacific in cod, halibut and other fishing. The war is truly blameable to an ex- tent for this, but, indeed, the Atlantic fisheries have been in a doubtful condition longer than the war can have been threatened, taking even the first grumble ten years ago. Unquestionably, the United States Fish Commission will find ample work on either side of the Union to provide a large enough supply for the dual demand. This cannot be done by propagation only, but by a judicious economy in the fishing permits granted to com- panies, or even individuals, as some are quite equal to carrying on a large independent business. Therefore, the commission should first extend the jurisdiction so as to embrace all the fish- eries, even the sponge fisheries of Florida. But as I am par- 118 Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting ticularly limited to the Pacific coast, I should say that no fishery should be entirely independent of the commission’s careful super- vision, even where the myriads of fish seem to promise inex- haustible supplies. It should guard all from depletion, and by so doing the profit will continue at a consistent ratio over de- cades, or we may say, centuries of prolific business, instead of being rushed through at lightning speed, with but a few indi- viduals or corporations gathering the enormous profits, leaving so little that even the natives of the most distant points will suf- jer, if not perish, for want of their annual complement of nature’s provisions for their maintenance. A grand movement in the proper direction has begun in the establishment of schools for the study of the habits and culture of fish. In the pursuit of this subject, for instance, I find that the Fraser River salmon has a supply of oil in its composition which aids in the preservation of the flesh, and it suggests to my mind the utility of compressing the oil from the heads and tails, the discarded parts from the canneries, and using that oil ior the preserving of these salmon and others of different kinds that require the addition of oil. I would second the idea, also, of inventing some plan for using up the skins, heads, tails and other refuse, not only of sturgeon but of all fishes at the canneries. The prevention of the enormous quantities of offal being left to render the atmos- phere pestilential would be no less desirable than that-so much objectionable matter should not be returned to the sea in decom- posing streams when rain fell in copious showers, thus providing literal poison for the living fish. And this kind of protection is extremely desirable, for even in the waters of Alaska fishes have been found with diseases or with parasitic enemies that cause sloughing. At first this latter trouble would seem like a sort of cankerous malady, but it is known that fish never renew their scales, nor do those that have no scales renew their skin to its: normal condition after having been injured. If then, the parasite that renders one fish unsightly is freed from that fish and cast among others it is natural to suppose that the objectionable creatures will mrltiply upon the other fish with which they come in contact. With limitations in the catches, even to the establishment of off seasons when necessary, I would earnestly suggest that the refuse matter from every cannery or drying and salting station should be turned into oil, glue, or possibly, dry compost. And if none of these commodities can be obtained from it, then let the American Fisheries Society. 119 useless offal be burned, either chemically or with fire. I should think that there could be cheap furnaces made of rocks and stones, and the fires once started could be kept up by the judicious distribution of the refuse. Would it not pay to consume or other- wise decompose the matter that will assuredly injure the very young and delicate food fishes, the flavor of which is their chief attraction to the consumers? That California has its profitable fisheries, that Mexico has cpened the Pacific coast of Lower California to the world of fishermen, that Alaska and British Columbia teem with millions of salmon and other fish does not say that there need be no more thought of economy or protection. A glance will show that both are now more absolutely requisite than ever, for the tide of the Atlantic will turn to the west in colonies of disappointed, heart-sick men who know nothing but how to take and cure the food productions of the sea. They will flock toward the fishing grounds as do the gold seekers to the new Eldorado. It will-not do to wait until their migration happens. It would be ungen- erous to let them go and then supply laws of which they know nothing. Instead, let the commission carefully prepare schedules of the regulations that they know to be required for the protec- tion of the fishes, and through that for the longevity of the fish- eries, and follow this by presenting them to the proper authori- ties for inspection, consideration and legislation. Follow the matter so that if must be put through quickly. Include every kind of fishery in this—that is, the oyster and sponge and pearl, as well as well-known fish from whale, seal and walrus, down to the tiny, delicious smelt. If this is done now while these fisheries are in comparative infancy, there will be no danger of extermina- ticn, no cry from men who have lost their legitimate business through ignorance or carelessness. There is, and will be, increased demand for canned fish, as they are now included among the stores for army and navy, but there is great fear of over-production, particularly if the war is soon ended. Then it becomes again necessary to warn, not only against over-supply, but also against using any but the best man- ner of preserving fish, so that no one can be injured when the goods are cheapened and sold to the people. As food, fresh fish well preserved and carefully canned, ‘is desirable both for health and variety of menu. But diseased, decomposed or chemically tainted fish is not only an abomination but an active poison. When preparing the new fishing laws, this phase of protectio~ 120 Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting should be most elaborately introduced, for the selfish reason that people will not buy any goods of the kind if the reputed harm they do is accepted as fact, as well as for the humanitarian rea- son that it is unjust to permit inferior commodities to get in the market. When all things have been done to prevent over-supply, over- fishing even in teeming streams, and improper preserving—when the rivers are protected from poisonous matter, and all the parts of the production are utilized, then may the commission promise, through these protective laws, and increasing numbers of arti- ficially hatched fish, to make the fisheries of the Pacific States and Alaska as nearly inexhaustible as it is possible for such to be- come. I know that there has been squabbling and dissatisfaction be- tween Washington and Oregon, between Alaska and British Columbia, and this proves that both States and countries must conjoin, nationally and internationally to protect their fish, and then to amicably share their profits in the animals which make both States and nations equal as they pursue the beautiful tenor of their lives among the intersecting waters that make all States and countries their own. Mr. Whitaker: The next paper is one prepared by Hon. John W. Titcomb, commissioner of fisheries and game of Ver- mont: DESISABILITY OF STATE ORGANIZATION FOR THE PROMO- TION OF FISH CULTURE AND FOR THE PROCUREMENT OF STATE LEGISLATION FOR THE PROPA- GATION AND PROTECTION OF FOOD AND GAME FISHES. The objects of the American Fisheries Society obviously cover the title of this paper to the extent that it might be more plain to the members if it read: Desirability of State Organiza- tions for Promoting the Objects of the American Fisheries So- ciety. Nature liberally provided the waters of the world with food for man and has been lavish in allowances for waste both from natural and artificial causes and the improvidence of man. With the progress of civilization, the increase of population and the change in natural conditions caused thereby with the consequent increased demand for fish food, the lavishness of nature is set at naught. It will be conceded that the fish in the waters are in- tended for the use of man. Their protection then is simply a American Fisheries Soctety. 121 safeguard to prevent the supply from being exhausted and to make the production, whether artificial or natural, as useful to man as possible. It will be conceded by all members of this society that the artificial propagation of fishes has passed beyond the experi- mental stages and that it is political economy for States to en- gage in fish culture. It will also be conceded that nearly all fish must be protected at certain seasons if they are expected to repro- duce their kind and nature istoassist in the work of the hatcheries. How many of our State legislatures are convinced as to the de- sirability of propagating and protecting fish to the extent that wise laws prevail which are not subject to radical changes or repeal at each recurring legislative session? Nearly, if not all, the States have some kind of protective laws, some wisely drafted and more that have no reason for existence. Protective laws, so-called, often defeat the very object for which they are enactd. It is a common custom for legislators who want more liberal laws, which, for example, provide for the use of nets 1n waters where nets should be excluded, to draft a bill reading somewhat asolowsi. «An act for the protection of fish-im Laker 2.2 25% and then follows a bill providing for the extermination of fish in said lake. In listening to many valuable papers read during the National Fisheries Congress at Tampa last January, of interest to both sportsmen and commercial fishermen, I was impressed by the fact that almost every paper, scientific or otherwise, alluded to the question of legislation and the condition of public sentiment. Tf the paper did not allude to legislation, the discussion which followed its reading would do so. Examine the laws of any State and many will be found which are practically void. I do not refer to fish laws in particular, although this class of legisla- tion will be found in the above category quite as frequently as anv other. Two reasons will be found for the lack of observance of void legislation. First, the laws may not be wise ones and have no good reason for existing. Second, public sentiment is opposed to the laws either because they are unwise or because the people are ignorant of the real reasons for their enactment. This public sentiment may or may not extend throughout the State and it may be limited to one town or one county in the State. If public sentiment throughout the State is opposed to the observance of a law, its enforcement is practically void. If one townor county is opposed to the law, it is for purely local selfish and short-sighted motives, but it tends to make the law ineffective ‘ 122 Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting if its enforcement is left to local officers. It frequently occurs that the small section of a State in which the law is unpopular can send a strong enough representation to the leislature to obtain its repeal against the best interests of the State at large. All such work injures or weakens the efficiency and popularity of protec- tive laws in general. The average legislator becomes disgusted with the frequent introduction of bills for the propagation and protection of fish and pays little attention to them unless such bills are called to his attention as directly affecting the interests of his constituents. He often goes to the capital with certain objects in view and interests himself in executing those objects by the passage of certain bills regardless of other interests. I do not intimate that he is dishonest, but his energy is exerted in the interests of his own constituents. He has not time to investigate proposed legislation on the fisheries, for instance. If then, the legislature does not believe in the propagation and protection of fish, an organized effort must be made to educate legislators as to the value of such work. The political economy of such legislation must be demonstrated and an appeal made to their pockets. This work should begin by educating the entire people of the State. The education of the people and the shaping of good legislation go hand in hand. The representative of a community is usually chosen because he has been successful in the management of private interests. If he sees that his con- stituents are interested in certain legislation, he will interest him- self sufficiently to act intelligently upon it. I have attempted to show the necessity of organization to promote the objects of this society. I will now describe an organization which has been do- ing successful work for nearly eight years. It has been said that fish and game protective societies seldom live more than two or three years. Such is too often true, but if they are managed upon a strictly business basis, their period of usefulness will con- tinue as long as the objects and aims need fostering. At the risk of appearing egotistical because I was one of its promoters, I will describe the Vermont Fish and Game League, how it was organized and what it has accomplished. While its work is confined to a State with commercial interests of com- paratively small importance, the same kind of an organization can be effected suited to the needs in other States. Some States already have similar organizations. Methods of Organization: The first steps taken were as fol- lows: A circular letter was sent to every postmaster in the State asking him to name all the citizens in his town who would be American Fisheries Society. 123 interested in a State organization for the protection of fish and game. A reply card was inserted. An alphabetical index of all names received in reply to this circular was booked and a second circular was sent to all whose names were thus booked, inviting them to pledge themselves to join a proposed league with the above named objects, to agree to pay a certain fee (in this case $5) when one hundred names had thus been pledged and with the understanding that no articles of incorporation would be procured or organization effected until the one hundred names were pledged. The same circular requested each recipient to send in names of eligible members. Frequently the same names were sent in by several sportsmen in one community, showing the desirability of keeping an alphabetical index of all eligibles to avoid repetition in sending out circulars and to have as com- plete a record of eligibles throughout the State as possible. In response to the second circular, 111 names were pledged and articles of incorporation immediately procured and organization effected. A meeting of charter members was called, a constitu- tion and by-laws (previously prepared) was adopted and officers elected. Of the 111 charter members, all but one redeemed his pledge by paying into the treasury $5. From the date of organ- ization in 1890 to the present time, the membership has con- stantly increased, until the present membership is 563. After the first vear, the membership fee was reduced from $5 to $3 and the annual dues from $3 to $2. Town and county protective associations were admitted as branch clubs and permitted to send one delegate as a voter in all business meetings. Regular meet- ings are held annually and special meetings from once to twice per year. At the annual meeting a dinner is given after the busi- ness is transacted, followed by post-prandial exercises. The past three years a so-called mid-summer meeting has been held on an island in Lake Champlain. At these meetings many notable men are gathered. (On the occasion of the last meeting President McKinley was present-as a guest. Politics are not allowed to enter into the work of the league or to be-discussed in the meet- ings nor enter into the post-prandial exercises. The subjects in which the league are interested are kept constantly before the people by means of cloth posters giving a synopsis of the laws, pamphlets containing the chapter of game laws in fuil, by frequent circular letters to the members scattered throughout the State and by the voluntary aid of all the news- papers published in the State. 124 Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting The people must know the reasons for the fish and game laws and that they are not designed for the especial benefit of the fishermen, but for all the people. There should be no protective ‘aw—no close season on fish and game without a good reason for it. When the people are convinced that as a matter of polit- ical economy fish and game must be protected, they should under- stand that the laws are framed with especial reference to the habits of each species thus protected. Take, by way of illustra- tion, the statutory limit on fish which can be legally caught— the six-inch law on trout, for example. All the people should know that trout will not reproduce in our streams until they have arrived at an age when they will have attained a growth of six inches or more. They would then understand that if allowed to be caught before they are six inches long, reproduction ceases and with the excessive fishing now prevalent, all trout will be killed befcre arriving at the age of reproduction and total ex- termination follows. Artificial propagation and stocking can- not replenish the waste. The same rule applies to the statutory limit on salmon, lobsters, etc. The statutory limit for each species to be legally caught should be one which will permit natural reproduction at least once before capture or there is little argument for the law. When the league was organized eight years ago, public sen- timent was at a low ebb so far as fish and game interests were Ly ose Sieger concerned. With its inception, an appropriation for a State hatchery was secured and liberal appropriations for its mainte- nance and extension have followed. Through the interest awakened by the league, a national hatchery was located in Ver- mont. The game laws, which were in a wretched condition, were codified and revised by a committee from members of the league, presented to the legislature in the form of a bill which at the same time repealed all existing legislation of the same nature and be- came a law almost without a dissenting vote. Our legislators are beginning to consider it a matter of political economy that these interests should be fostered and the league loses no opportunity to present to the public and to the skeptic the arguments which will appeal to their pockets. I would not have you think that our laws are perfect or that what has been accomplished was attained without hard work on the part of the administrative force of the league. We have asked of our legislature what we thought we could obtain. As public sentiment increases, more desirable legislation will be asked for. : American Fisheries Society. 125 The poacher, like the poor, is always with us. He is only kept in check by rigid enforcement of the law whenever oppor- tunity offers. When necessary, we do not hesitate to send to the city for a good detective and pay the costs out of the league treasury. In Vermont the league is the strong right arm of the Fish and Game Commission. If any one is lead by the arguments in this paper to organize a similar society, let him consider well two important features. The work connected with its promotion and future success 1s tremendous. No salaried officers exist, although in a State of such important fishery interests as, for example, Florida or Louisiana, there should be enough of a support to pay the salary of a stenographer. Work of this nature once successfully undertaken by one or two actively interested persons cannot be dropped by them after the organization has been put into working condition. One man does the most of the work. He should be familiar with the fish- eries of his State and not be prejudiced in favor of either sports- men or commercial fishermen. We believe in the social side of the organization as contribut- ing largely to its success, but our membership ts too scattered to meet socially more than twice a year. Mr. Peabody: Mr. Titcomb is perfectly saturated with his subject and is the best posted man on that subject in the country. The Chair: What is the next paper? Secretary Whitaker: The next paper is one prepared by Dr. Henry B. Ward, which will now be read: AQUACULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS AND THEIR WORK. The United States is justly famed among the nations of the world for the rapid advance it has made in methods of agriculture. Primarily this is, of course, due to the sagacity of the people and to their adaptibility in taking hold of new ideas and applying them to the given conditions in any locality. but a most power- ful factor in aiding and directing this development has been un- questionably our admirable series of agricultural experiment sta- tions. In every State and territory in the Union at least one such establishment, founded by State liberality and fostered by gener- ous grants from the general government, is working uninterrupt- edly at the problem of agriculture in that region. In these sta- tions the subject of agriculture has received, for many years, the closest attention of scientific workers. Not only the character of 126 Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting the different products, their food value for different uses and in | connection with the raising of different kinds of stock, but also the preparation and enrichment of the soil, the development of the seed, the growth of the plant, the dangers that threaten it, the diseases that attack it, its protection and improvement, are all subjects of continued investigation. Contrast with this, if you please, the conditions which exist in fish culture: “Despite the painstaking investigations of a few scientific workers and the encouragement of some official boards with limited means, aquaculture has been almost as much neg- lected as agriculture has been advanced. The incentive given by the work of Hoy, Milner and Forbes on the Great Lakes a quar- ter of a century ago has not been followed up; chance has been relied upon to control the conditions in these vast inland seas, and the fundamental features of the problem are as little under- stood to-day as when there was no drain on the life in these waters. No farmer is so ignorant as to suppose he could scatter the seeds of a grain whose development was entirely unknown over the land of which he was equally ignorant, and leaving the land could hope on his return in the fall to reap a bountiful har- vest. And yet this is just what has been looked for in the case of the whitefish.” This aspect of the question was very sharply put by Prof. Jacob Reighard in a paper read before the Inter- national Fisheries Congress in 1893: “If we inquire into the facts concerning the sufficiency of the present methods of arti- ncial propagation,” he says, “we find that so far as the whitefish is concerned, there is no question as to the success of the earlier stages of the process. Several hundred million ova are taken annually and placed in the hatcheries and of these usually from So to 90 per cent. are hatched and placed in the waters of the Great Lakes—165,000,000 in Lake Erie alone in 1888. “This is very nearly all that we know about these young white- fish. About their food habits we know only that in captivity they eat certain species of crustacea. Whether in their natural habitat they eat other animals in addition to these crustacea or in preference to them, we do not know. It is uncertain at what age they begin to feed or how much they require. We do not know their natural enemies. Wedo not know whether they thrive best in running water or in standing water, in shallow water or in deep water, whether at the surface or near the bottom. What changes of food habits or of habitat the fish undergo as they crow older is still deeper mystery. “Our problem is to place young whitefish in the Great Lakes American Fisheries Society. 127 under such conditions that as large a number as possible of them shall grow into adult fish. It 1s clear that of one of the elements in this problem namely, the whitefish, we know but little. “What then do we know of the other elements of the problem, the Great Lakes themselves? Individual naturalists have, from time to time, made efforts to study one or another of the groups of animals living in the lakes. These efforts have been circum- scribed by the facilities at hand by the time that could be devoted to the subject, by the small area examined, or by the small num- bet of animals taken into account. > “= | Weare thus™in the position of bringing together under unknown conditions, two things, both unknown in character; and we expect as a result to get a third thing, marketable whitefish. Should we not pursue cur object more intelligently by first determining the characteris- tics of the materials with which we have to work?” What Prof. Reighard has said of the whitefish may be said of other species with equal truth. Clearly present methods have reached their limit and the subject must be attacked from a dif- ferent standpoint. Aquaculture must be given the same sort of treatnient that agriculture already receives at the hands of the thousand trained investigators in experiment stations that are located in every State in the Union. It must be studied from the same scientific standpoint; its problems analyzed, its course marked out definitely. As I have said elsewhere in discussing one side of the problem: “Fish culture will never attain its proper results until it receives, by the liberality of the State and nation, the same favors that have been extended to agriculture, the use of permanent and well equipped experimental stations where trained workers shall devote their time and energy to the solution of its problems. The Great Lakes furnish a cheap and valuable food supply to one-third of our entire population; this food sup- ply is rapidly becoming depleted. How long must such import- ant interests wait their just recognition and adequate protection? And if properly developed, who can limit the possibilities of these inland seas in supplying the nation with food? The urgent need of the present is not a mere biological observatory, however valuable such a permanent foundation may be, but a_ well equipped and well directed experiment station to attack the peculiar problems of fish culture in the Great Lakes. The idea is by no means entirely novel and much work has been done preliminary to the foundation of such a station. The classic researches of Forbes on fish foods, of Birge on the crus- tacea of the plankton and of many other individual observers, 128 Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting have opened questions of extreme scientific and economic im- portance. Some years ago the Michigan Fish Commission, under the able leadership of the Secretary of this society, carried on through several successive summers biological investigations firs: on the inland lakes of Michigan and later on Lake St. Clair and Lake Michigan. For the past three years Illinois has main- tained on the Illinois River a biological laboratory where, under the guidance of Prof. Forbes, the problems of a river system bave been undergoing careful investigation. The United States Fish Commission has had for years an important investigating station at Woods Hole, but is work has been largely confined to the summer months. Numerous other less extensive enter- prises might be mentioned, but these will suffice to show that the time is ripe for such an undertaking of a more formal and ex- tensive character. If the establishment: of an aquacultural experiment station is advocated one may well inquire as to the most favorable location and as to the work it may be expected to perform. And at the start it may be noted that a single station is but the beginning, for just as agricultural experiment stations are found in every State, so aquacultural stations should be distributed so as to afford oppor- tunities for the investigation of all conditions for the development of life in ocean, lake and stream. For the pioneer enterprise one miay justly say that a lake presents the most favorable location. It is, as Forbes has said, a world within itself, a unit of environ- ment and has thus evident advantages over the ocean or stream as a sterting point for study. In the Great Lakes I believe we possess such favorable units for investigation, while at the same time the economic questions associated with the depletion of the whitefish are of pressing importance. Almost any location which might be chosen on one of the lakes would also afford within easy reach smaller inland lakes for such comparisons as should prove advisable. Both the general government and the individual States have already in existence more or less extensive plants connected with the various hatching stations, and these might well be made use of in establishing aquacultural stations with evident saving in equipment and working force, since the expensive pumping ap- paratus, for instance, would serve with little or no modification for both purposes. The intimate association of the scientific experimentation and the hatching might be expected to redound to the advantage of both. It is also evident that such an aqua- American lisheries Society. 129 cultural station would be fitly combined with such a large aqua- rium as has been advocated in Detroit for some years. Following along the line of successful work in agriculture, such a station should possess a working force composed of men trained for scientific research and, associated with them, assistants having thorough personal acquaintance with the problems of practical fish culture. The work to be done must be attacked in a thoroughly scientific fashion; no superficial study will really succeed in throwing light upon the problems that are presented. To this end the foundations must be laid broad enough to insure the permanent value of the work. And equally with thoroughness continuity is essential; experiments and observations must ex- tend throughout the vear and even through a series of years. Herein hes a real danger of the plan, for ultimate success de- mands that the work proceed independent of results, while 1m- patience for some return is a most characteristic feature of Americar life. If the work of an agricultural experiment station is great, equally so is that of an aquacultural. The latter deals with all conditions of existence which present themselves in the water. It seeks to ascertain of what the food of each fish consists, in what amounts it comes and where that food is found, how the amount may be increased and even how it may be improved by the introduction of new elements imported, it may be, from dis- tant parts of the world. Experimentally it would strive to de- termine to what extent an increase in the number of the fish was both possible and profitable and how this increase could best be attained. Furthermore, in the light of food supply, the investi- gator would institute comparisons as to the best kinds of fish to raise uncer given circumstances, and, not content with this, would endeavor, experimentally, to produce new races of fish and to domesticate suitable forms. It is not necessary to carry this analysis further and I only need to call attention in passing to the patent fact that other living forms than fish are of con- siderable economic importance on the continent and might well be here. The introduction and improvement of such forms would clearly be one function of such aquacultural stations. The problems outlined are indeed vast, and yet we may be confident that their solution lies easily within the power of the human intellect, for they are all paralleled in the history of the agricultural development of the race; and man, relying upon his success in the past, may go forward with supreme confidence to the attainment of their solution in this new field. 130 Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting Mr. Clark: I don’t wish to take up the time with any argu- ment, but Prof. Ward’s paper is right in the line of what I had been advocating for ten years on the subject of the work of the scientists in this direction on the Great Lakes; that it should be continued from month to month during the year. I have argued that the summer campaign of these men has never developed or brought out what practical fish culturists want to know in regard to the habits of the fish in the great lakes. I think that the scientists are taking a step in the right direction. The scientists and the fish culturists and everybody should keep together. Prof. Birge: I think the paper puts the rule for the condi- tions of success, extremely well. I don’t believe in a summer campaign. With all due respect to the college professors, I don’t think they can do that work permanently. I think the work must ultimately be conducted by men who make it their life work, just exactly as with the agricultural experiment stations. We find in Wisconsin that the men who work in the stations do very little teaching. They hold the rank of professor, but they are expected to do little or no teaching. It is found that a man cannot give his time to the problem of agricultural conditions and at the same time do a large amount of teaching. If the man is going to reach real success in handling these practical problems, he miust set up with them day and night, week after week and year after year. What ought to be done is for the United States Fish Corimission to establish at least one such station and maintain it, as Prof. Ward says, without any expectation of immediate re- sults of a practical kind, and put men in there to study the prob- lems and find out how they can be established. Such a station would utilize the work of the college professor in the summer, and it would be made available; at the same time the work should be carried on by the regular employes of such station. I don’t think that anybody can doubt that such a station must be estab- lished. .When you try to throw even the small amount of work: that we have done on a few, you will find at once the dense ig- norance you have, you will find nobody knows anything about it; there are a lot of disconnected observations and knowledge that you can pick up, but when you try to get things together in some shape, nobody knows anything about it and nobody will know anything about it until an enormous amount of work has’ heen done on a great number of different classes of subjects and the whole thing has been brought together by a continuance of the work extending over a good many years and when you once get that you can get practical results; such work as Forbes is at. American Fisheries Society. 131 in Illinois is exactly what ought to be done. He is spending about $5,000 a year on the investigation of a single river practic- ally; if he is able to continue that for a long enough time he will get some idea of the condition of fish life in the rivers. Mr. Whitaker: There is one thing I want to say in connec- tion with this matter. Something like six years ago the import- aiice of this work of scientific inquiry into subjects relating to fish life and culture and the conditions that surround them and have bearing on fish life impressed its importance upon me. The matter was brought to the attention of our board, after a con- versation with Prof. Reighard at Ann Arbor, and we determined to establish a field station. A certain amount of money was de- voted to that work. The amount of money that was required was very insignificant compared with the value of the work done. It was thought best to make that work permanent, but the econ- omy of the legislature finally compelled us to stop it after having prosecuted it for two or three seasons. I don’t think there is any argument needed on the importance of the continuance of this work. It has always impressed itself as a necessity upon me. Dering his lifetime I interviewed Col. McDonald two or three times on this subject, urging him to take it up, telling him that we wculd be very glad to surrender the work to the United States Comnzission, and it was a work that ought to be kept up. At last it has come to the point where the work is liable to be put on a permanent basis. I believe it is going to result in much good to the cause of fish culture. What we want to know is something about the life habits of fish. It would be interesting to know whether there are given areas in the lakes that are stocked with the food of fish more plentifully than others, which would influence the decision as to the most likely places in which to plant fish. Of course, in connection with that there is this ques- tion as to the food of the fry. Can we determine anything about the conditions that are necessary to give the best results to be expected from planting? If we can do that we are acting intelligently as fish culturists. We should get at those things which are as important for the fish culturist to know as it is im- portant for the farmer to know the constituents of his soil. It is a fact that this work has heretofore been done in a spasmodic sort of a way and it is a fact that we have been unable to establish anything like a permanent force to carry on the work the year round. It is a fact that the scientific gentlemen who have thus far been active in this work have donated their time and that their vacations have been given up to it, time they ought to have 132 Twenty-seventh Anmal Meeting devoted to getting a little fresh air into their lungs. But we find that the scientist is a very peculiar animal, that he enjoys spend- ing his vacation in labor that 1s congenial to him; he does not seek to resort to the green field nor care to throw himself under the spreading branches of the oak and read a dime novel. His idea of recreation appears to be to get out and prosecute some independent and original work, all of which is very gratifying, I have no doubt, but unless some good systematic plan of work is adopted and carried on regularly, such work will be of little practical benefit to fish culture. Of course there are many col- lateral inquiries necessary, but we first ought to follow out the life history of the fish. The establishment of a good station for scientific study on the Great Lakes would probably result in a summer school such as we now have at Woods Hole. I think it is a matter of congratulation that something is now promised on the lakes similar to that now done on the ocean. In good hands and with permanent workers, eventually this work will redound to the benefit of fish culture, and I will welcome it as sincerely as anyone can. Mr. Peabody: There was some talk last year of a convention of representatives of the States on the Great Lakes, regarding the matter of protection to the fisheries. Has anything been done? “Mr. Whitaker: That matter was left in the hands of the President. That information would more properly come from him. Mr. Peabody: I would like to ask if the membership of this society is confined to residents of the United States. Its name is the American Fisheries Sociéty; is there anything that would prevent securing members from abroad or in Canada? Mr. Whitaker: No, America embraces it all. Mr. Peabody: I don’t know but it would be well to offer a resclution that the governors of the States bordering on the lakes appoint delegates to meet with this society at our meeting at Niagara Falls, and have them listen to the discussion regarding the idea: of fish culturists. Some of the governors of the States on the Great Lakes know nothing of this society. Can we not arrange in some way to have them meet with us? I don’t know what has been done, but cannot something be done by which we can have that matter come to a head next summer at Niagara Falls? American Fisheries Society. 133 Mr. Whitaker: I took occasion to write to Prof. Prince, of the Canadian Fishery Department, asking him to participate personally in this meeting, or by a paper. I never even received an acknowledgment of the letter. Mr. Dale: Let Mr. Peabody as President and Mr. Whit- aker as Secretary, issue a circular letter to the gentlemen living in Canada who are interested in fish culture, inviting them to attend the meeting in Niagara Falls. President May: Do you want the society to take action on it at this time? Secretary Whitaker: I will send an announcement of this meeting to those gentlemen. Mr. Peabody: Now regarding the States bordering on the lakes, why wouldn’t it be a good plan for the Secretary to com- municate with the governors of those States, arranging for rep- resentatives from the lake States to attend the meeting at Niagara Falls? Mr. Whitaker: Why not make a motion thatthe Secretary be authorized to communicate with the governors of all the States a sufficient time prior to the next meeting, calling their attention to this Society, its aims and objects and the desirability of having them appoint delegates to attend the meeting? Mr. Peabody: I have drawn up and offer a resolution that the governors of all the States appoint delegates to be in attend- ance at the next meeting. The resolution was supported and unanimously carried. Secretary Whitaker: In that connection I want to say one word; the work in the office of Secretary is considerable, hereto- fore I have done all of it myself, this coming vear I shall employ such force as is necessary; I think it is due the Society that I shculd state this. Mr. Peabody: I will call for a resolution, providing that the Secretary be allowed $100.00. Mr. Whitaker: I don’t think that should be done. Mr. Clark: I think the Secretary should have full power to use his judgment in those matters. Mr. Whitaker: I shall not employ assistance except when it is necessary. I shall not abuse the privilege. The amount paid 134 wenty-seventh Annual Meeting . out for running the office last year was about $50.00 to $55.00, and I did most of the work myself; this year I must have some assistance. I wish to offer the following: This Society learns with pleasure that steps have been taken by the Commissioner of Fisheries of the United States to establish on the Great Lakes a permanent station for scientific inquiry. We recognize the im- portance and necessity of this work, and the practical bearing its investigations must have on many of the questions affecting fish culture and its success as an economic problem, therefore, Resolved, That in the opinion of this Society the importance of this work is such, that we ask the Congress of the United States to grant the necessary funds to place this work upon a liberal and broad basis so-that the work of the artificial propa- gation and distribution of the important food fishes of the lakes may be carried on with a thorough understanding and familiarity with the conditions surrounding the fisheries and their needs as will lead to the greatest success of that work. Prof. Birge: I move the adoption of that resolution. The resolution was unanimously carried. Mr. Whitaker: I wish to say that I communicated to Mr. Fred. Mather the fact that at our last meeting he had been el2.ted an honorary member of the Society and received a letter from him in reply in which he desired me to extend his thanks for the courtesy shown him and to express a due sense of his appreciation for the honor. Mr. Clark: As there was a great deal of talk at the time we reduced the dues of getting a great many new members, which I have no doubt will be done, I would suggest that it might be a good idea for every one to get as many new members as they can and send their names to the Secretary between now and the time our report is ready to be sent out so that these new applicants may receive the report. Would not that be a good idea? I know I could send in the names of four or five that wculd want the book. Mr. Whitaker: The Secretary last year on his own respon- sibility inaugurated that system. I held this out as an induce- ment to new members, that they would get the benefit of two years’ membership for one year’s dues. There is another thing I want to give notice of. I shall bring up at the next meeting an amendment to the constitution. American Fisheries Society. 135 The constitution as it now stands allows the names of delinquent members to stand on the rolls for three years. I shall move to amend by cutting it down to two years. Mr. Dale: Before we adjourn I think we had better adopt a resolution of thanks to the officers of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition and the Mayor of the City of Omaha, for the courte- sies extended to this Society at this meeting. On motion Mr. Dale and Prof. Birge were appointel to pre- sent a suitable resolution of thanks to the officials of the City of Omaha, the Press and the Exposition officials for courtesies extended the Society, and they reported as follows: Resolved, That the hearty thanks of the American Fisheries Society be extended to the Mayor of Omaha for the cordial wel- come given the Society, through his secretary, and for the keys of the city, opening the doors of its hospitality, rendering our stay here both pleasant and profitable. The thanks of the Society are also extended to the public press of Omaha for the excellent reports and notices of our meetings. We desire to thank the officials of the Trans-Mississippi Ex- position for the privilege extended to the members in attendance upon this meeting, of free admission to the exposition at all times. We congratulate the management upon the happy culmination of its efforts to present to the people of this country an exhibi- tion which is only second to the Columbian Exposition in the beauty of its buildings and. grounds, and upon the creation of such a magnificent exposition of the material resources and wealth of the giant west. Here, grouped about the Grand Cen- tral Court of Honor are buildings of rare architectural beauty filled with exhibits of industrial skill, of mineral wealth, and with the agricultural products of a territory laid down upon the maps of a quarter of a century ago as embraced in the great American desert, evidencing in a marked degree the fertility of a soil whicn only needs the hand of the husbandman to furnish proof of its inexhaustible resources, To the management which has con- ceived and brought forth so grand an achievement we feel that the highest praise is due. On motion, the Society then adjourned to meet at Niagara Falls, N. Y., June 28th and 29th, 1899. LIST OF MEMBERS. ACTIVE. Adams, E. W., 114 Wall st., New York. Alexander, L. D., 50 Broadway, New York. Alexander, Geo. L., Grayling, Mich. Amsden, F. J., Rochester, N. Y. Anderson, J. F., 240 Eleventh st., Jersey City, N. J. Annin, Jas., Jr., Caledonia, N. Y. Atkins, Chas G., East Orland. Me. Ayer, F. W., Bangor, Me. Babbitt, A. C., Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. Babcock CH Rochester, N.Y: Ball, E. M., Put-in-Bay, O. Barrett, W. W., Church’s Ferry, N. D. Bartlett, Dr. S. P., Quincy, III. Bell, Currie G., Bayfield, Wis. Belmont, Hon. Perry, 19 Nassau st., New York. Benkard, James, Union Club, New York. Bickmore, Prof. A. S.. Am. Museum Natural History, New York Birge, Prof. E. A., Madison, Wis. Bissell, J. H., Detroit, Mich. Blackford, E. G., Fulton Market, New York. Booth, A., cor. Lake and State sts. ,Chicago, II. Bottemanne, C. J., Bergen op Zoom, Holland. Bower, Seymour, Detroit, Mich. Bowman, W. H., Rochester, N. Y. Bradley, Dr. E., 19 West 30th st., New York. Brice, Col. J. J., Mare Island Navy Yard, Cal. Brush, Dr. E. F., Mount Vernon, N. Y. Brown, Geo. M., Saginaw, Mich. Bryant, E. E., Madison, Wis. Bulkley, H. S., Odessa, N. Y. Buller, N. R., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Bumpus, Proj. H. C., Providence, R. I. Cary, Dr. H. H., Lagrange, Ga. Cheney, A. N., Glens Falls, N. Y. Clark, Frank N., Northville, Mich. Crook, Abel, 99 Nassau st., New York. Crosby. i. b., P--O> Box Non 3714, New York. Wale joAs. York. ‘Pa: Davis, B. H., Palmyra, New York. Davis, H. W., Grand Rapids, Mich. f Davis, Hen. G. B., Utica, Mich. Demuth El. C144 Es king st. Warcasten Ba: Dickerson, F. B., Detroit, Mich. | American Fisheries Society. Douredoure, B. L., 103 Walnut st.. Philadelphia, Pa. Doyle. E: P., Port Richmond, N. Y. Ebel, Eton: F. W., Harrisbture: Pa Ellis, J. F., U: S. Fish Commission, Washington, D. C. Bimernici wh. wh. San Erancisco. Cal: Boxe Je C2. Put=in-Bay.O: Friesmuth, E. H., Jr., 151 North 3rd st., Philadelphia, Pa. Frothingham, H. P., Mt. Arlington, N. J. Gavitt, W. S., Lyons, N.Y. Grito. be Danby.9 Vite Gunckel, J. E., Toledo, O. Hagert, Edwin, 32 North 6th st., Philadelphia, Pa. Haley, Caleb, Fulton Market, New York. Hamilton, Robert, Greenwich, N. Y. ° Hansen, G., Osceola Mills, Wis. Harris, J. N., Fulton Market, New York. Hartley, R. M., 627 Walnut st., Philadelphia, Pa. Henshall, Dr. J. A., Bozeman, Mont. Hessell, Dr. Rudolph, 1209 H st., Washington, D. C. Hill, J. L., 115 Broadway, New York. Hinchiman, C. C., Detroit, Mich. Holden, H. S., Syracuse, N. Y. Hoxte,. J. Wi. Carolina, Re; Hughes, I. W. B. Hunsaker, W. J., Detroit, Mich. Huntington, L. D., New Rochelle, N. Y. Hurlbut, H. F., East Freetown, Mass. Hutchinson, E. S., Washington, D. C. James, Dr. B. W., n. e. cor. 18th and Green sts., Philadelphia, Pa. Jennings, G. E., Fishing Gazette, 203 Broadway, New York. Johnson, S. M., Union Wharf, Boston, Mass. Jones, Alexander, Wood’s Hole, Mass. Jones, Dr. O. L., 116 West 72d st., New York. Kauffman, S. H., Evening Star, Washington, D. C. Keene, J. H., Baltimore, Md. Kelly, P., 346 6th ave., New York. Kilburn, F. D., Banking Dept., Albany, N. Y. Leach, G. C., 3915 Finney ave., St. Louis, Mo. Lydell, Dwight, Mill Creek, Mich. McGoun,-Hon. H. P., 108 Fulton st., New York. Mallory, Chas., Burling Slip, New York. Manning, W. W., Marquette, Mich. Mansfield, H. B., Lieut.-Com. U. S. Navy, St. Louis, Mo. Manton, Dr. W. P., Detroit, Mich. Marks, H. H., Paris, Mich. Marks. Ps Panis, Mich: May, W. L., Omaha, Neb. 137 138 wenty-seventh Annual Mecting Meehan, W. E., Public Ledger, Philadelphia, Pa. Merrill, F. H. J., State Museum, Albany, N. Y. Milbank, S. W., Union Club, New York. Mills, G. T., Carson City, Neb. Morrell, Daniel, Hartford, Conn. Mosher, Stafford, Fort Plain, N. Y. Murdock, W. C., San Francisco, Cal. Nash; Dr. S. M., 23 West 33d st., New York. Nevin. James, Madison, Wis. Oberielder, R. S.. Sidney, Neb. O’Brien, W. J., South Bend, Neb. O’Hage, Dr. Justus, St. Paul, Minn. Osborn, Wm., Duluth, Minn. Page, P. W., West Summit, N. J. Page, W. F., 512 Madison st., Lynchburg, Va. Parker, Dr. J. C., Grand Rapids, Mich. Peabody, Geo. A., Appleton, Wis. Pfeffer, Geo., Jr., Camden, N. J. Post, Hoyt, Detroit, Mich. Powell, W. L., Harrisburg, Pa. Powers, J. A., Lansingburg, N. Y. Powers, J. W., Paris, Mich. Preston, Dr. H. G., 98 Lafayette Square, Brooklyn, N. Y. Preston, Hon. J. L., Port Huron, Mich. Rathbone, W. F., D. & H. R. R., Albany, N. Y. Rathbun, Richard, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D. C. Reighard, Prof. J. E.. Ann Arbor, Mich. Ravenel, W. de C., U. S. Fish Commission, Washington, D. C. Ricardo, George, Hackensack, N. J. Rosenburg, A. C., Kalamazoo, Mich. Rowinville, E. T., East Freetown, Mass. Ruge, John G., Apatachicola, Fla. Russell, Henry, Detroit, Mich. Schaffer, G. H., foot Beekman st., New York. Sherwin, H. A., too Canal st., Cleveland, O. Spenceley, C., Mineral Point, Wis. Steers, E. P., 2076 5th ave., New York. Stelwagen, W., 525 Commerce st., Philadelphia, Pa. Stone, Livingston, Cape Vincent, N. Y. Stranahan, F. A., Cleveland, O. Stranahan, F. F., Cleveland, O. Stranahan, H. B., Cleveland, O. Stranahan, J. J., Put-in-Bay, O. Streuber, L., Erie, Pa. Sykes, Henry, Bayfield, Wis. Sweeney, Dr. R. O., Duluth, Minn. Taylor, Alexander, 48 West soth st., New York. American Fisheries Society. 139 Thompson, Carl G., 504 Wabash ave., Marion, Ind. Titcomb, J. W., St. Johnsbury, Vt. Tulian, E. A., Leadville, Colo. Van Cleef, J. S., Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Walker, Bryant, Detroit, Mich. Walters, C. H., Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. Walton, C. W., 1713 Spring Garden st., Philadelphia, Pa. Ward, Prof. H. B., Lincoln, Neb. Webb, W. Seward, 44th st. and Vanderbilt ave., New York. Weed, W. R., Potsdam, N. Y. Whitaker, E. G., 141 Broadway, New York. Whitaker, Herschel, Detroit,. Mich. White, R. Tyson, 320 Bridge st., Brooklyn, N. Y. Wilbur, H. O., 235 2d st., Philadelphia, Pa. Willetts, J. C., 49 Wall st., New York. Wilmot, Samuel, Newcastle, Ont. Witherbee, W. C., Port Henry, N. Y. Wood, C. C., Plymouth, Mass. Zweighalt, S., 104 West 7Ist st., New York. HONORARY. The President of the United States. The Governors of the several States. Borodine, Nicholas, Delegate of the Russian Association of Pisiculture and Fisheries, Uralsk, Russia. Jones, John D., 51 Wall st., N. Y. City. Mather, Fred, 63 Linden st., Brooklyn, N. Y. Southside Sportsmen’s Club, Oakdale, L. I., N. Y. New York Association for the Protection of Fish and Game, New York City. Lake St. Clair Shooting & Fishing Club, Detroit, Mich. Woodmont Rod and Gun Club, Washington, D. C. Fish Protective Association of Eastern Pennsylvania, 1020 Arch st., Philadelphia, Pa CORRESPONDING. Apostolides, Prof. Nicoly Chr., Athets, Greece. Armistead, J. J.. Dumfries, Scotland. Benecke, Prof. B., Commissioner of Fisheries, Konigsberg, Germany. Birbeck, Edward, Esq., M. P. London, England. Brady, Thos. F., Esq., Inspector of Fisheries, Dublin Castle, Dublin, Ireland. feddersen, Arthur, Viborg, Denmark. Giglioli, Prof. H. H., Florence, Italy. Ito, K., Member of Fisheries’ Department of Hokkaido and President of the Fisheries Society of Northern Japan, Sapporo, Japan. Jaffa, S., Osnabruck, Germany. 140 Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting Juel, Capt. N., R. N., President of the Society for the Development of Norwegian Fisheries, Bergen, Norway. Landmark, A., Inspector of Norwegian Fresh Water Fisheries, Bergen, Norway. Lundberg, Dr. Rudolph, Inspector of Fisheries, Stockholm, Sweden. Macleay, William, President of the Fisheries’ Commission of New South Wales, Sydney, N. S. W. Maitland, Sir James Ramsay Gibson, Bart., Howieton, Stirling, Scotland. Malmgren, Prof. A. J., Helsingfors, Finland. Marston, R. B., Esq., Editor of the Fishing Gazette, London, England. Olsen, O. T., Grimsby, Englard. Sars, Prof. G. O., Government Inspector of Fisheries, Christiania, Ner- way. Senior, William, London, England. Smitt, Prof. F. A., Stockholm, Sweden. Sola, Don Francisco Garcia, Secretary of the Spanish Fisheries’ Society, Madrid, Spain. ; Solsky. Baron N. de, Director of the Imperial Agricultural Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. Trybom, Dr. Filip, Stockholm, Sweden. ' Walpole, Hon. Spencer, Governor of the Isle of Man. Wattel, M. Raveret Secretary of the Societe d’Acclimatation, Paris, France. Young, Archibald, Esq., Inspector of Salmon Fisheries, Edinburgh, Scot- land. hg af vt ‘ i i aK pal ten a Nia oral pi PRU A Me ASDA Kany RROD vi ha ONE ah ec CE i ve ut ATE * " i Peay ory) eee Hea) ak Pitouy. / ET Brod is Pe ia : J Ae aa Put Le: a ttgie HS au ae SW iin ah rd PE } 1g i re i ‘ t ROD PIR urine ae na Beha lly VLA aa eee eer ee is i ioe : Ari Lk eae bY ; ay Hy) cee MilcaL ACen Ny ; nye DA ; tian a Neg Kaas uel hy dt We ‘ BRS A), i La } :) OT wate on: aa Bares | we i ale * ¥ mr ; ie ae Rad ah IRE AAAS bhp ene , RO ETE AL TARR, TOA , wi Aan obs Cas dels a ; is + a Ai Soh in A A a GN) BS) * SHOVE oe Me eG For Ra SARIN 971 SH American Fisherie ir Society A5 Transactions 1895-98 Biological & Medical Serials PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY : > e : : ge ns mor eee heen st = “a. sae Sno a ‘ var - 7 OE als tub epee eT ab. aren aenet\ ents ccaonin nT sictigeathemeencennne rer OS eS ree rr ee te eben oremret ie, Sees aera « . : pvt a : eed Re Oe > iu : page een Ce ee