BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 61 



same effect upon the latter, aucl Mr. Sloane thinks that this discovery 

 shoukl be further, investigated, and that it may serve to give a finer 

 flavor to fish, and to prevent their too rapid increase in fish-ponds, where 

 their number is too hirge as it is.'" 



WEDDIGE. 

 OsNABRiJCK, December 15, 1880. 



THE IIVTKODIJCTION OF STRIPED BASS IIVTO CAL.IFORIVIA. 



By S. R. THROCKITIORTOjV. 



San Francisco, Xovemher 12, 1880. 

 Hon. Spencer F. Baird, 



U. S. Commissioner Fish and Fisheries 



Smithsonian Institution, Washington, Z>. C, 



Dear Sir : I have from unavoidable causes been compelled until now 

 to defer addressing you upon the subject of the transporting to, and 

 acclimatizing in, our waters the striped bass of your coast. 



I have long had the impression, that the great bay of San Francisco, 

 together with the bays of San Pablo and Suisun connecting with it, 

 and the number of creeks running into them, affording a variety of 

 qualities and conditions regarding temperature and saline properties, 

 together with feeding material, would be well adapted to the propaga- 

 tion and growth of the striped bass. 



Having this in view, I last year opened a correspondence with Mr. 

 Livingston Stone upon the subject of attempting the transfer of some 

 small fish at the time of the bringing on of the lobsters. Many diffi- 

 culties presented themselves in rhe matter of obtaining the small fry of 

 the striped bass, which resulted in my suggesting to Mr, Stone the proba- 

 bility of obtaining them in the extreme headwaters of the ^avesink or 

 Shrewsbury Eiver, in ^N^ew Jersey. Mr. Stone succeeded in obtaining a 

 small number at the place designated by me, and, with his usual skill, 

 brought them safely to this coast and deposited them at the head of the 

 straits of Carquinez, the turning point of the fresh and salt water. 



Some six or seven months after the time of placing in the water I 

 heard that one of 8 inches in length had been taken in the bay of Mon- 

 terey, which is about one hundred miles south of this, and is an open 

 roadstead on the Pacific Ocean. All of the circumstances were of sa 

 doubtful a character that I gave the rumor but little attention, until 

 about :he 1st of July, eleven months after the planting of the young 

 fry, at the time about 1^ inches in length, in the straits of Carquinez, 

 there was brought to me a very handsome striped bass taken in this 

 harbor, measuring 12J inches in length and weighing one pound. The 

 fish was in the highest condition, the milt full and ripe, and the flavoi 

 fully up to the best specimens of the fish at the East. The exceedingly 



