56 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



placed in a pond or small inland lake along with either black bass or 

 pickerel. They are the fish of fishes, and deserve to have a domain ex- 

 clusively to themselves, always excepting the minnow and possibly the 

 shiner. These latter are the natural if not necessary food for brook 

 trout. Indeed, the culture of all three together is always advisable. 



Black bass and pickerel may be placed together in any natural or 

 artificial reservoir large enough to be dignified as a i^ond, though the 

 former will thrive much better where the water is not less than from 12 

 to 30 feet deep, with rocky shores and a rocky or gravel bottom ; tlie 

 latter will thrive in a less depth with mud for a bottom and marshes for 

 surroundings. Cultivated together, each will prey upon the other, but 

 the black bass will get ahead at last. 



The easiest and of course the best, indeed the only, fish to cultivate 

 in rapid and mountain streams is the brook trout. And 3'et in the States 

 of Pennsylvania and Kew York, or at least in the newer portions of 

 them, the streams best aday^ted for this purpose are absolutely valueless 

 for the cultivation of any sort of fish whatever. Most of the creeks and 

 small rivers rise and flow through forests of pine and hemlock. They 

 are dammed up at intervals and set back in some instances for distances 

 .varying from one to four miles. Great bodies of water are thus accu- 

 mulated, and into these, especially in the winter time, millions of logs are 

 thrown, some 12 feet in length with a diameter from 8 to 40 inches, and 

 some anywhere from 12 to 40 feet in length with diameters correspond- 

 ing. Spring time comes, and in addition to the melting snows and the 

 usual rains of the season, which of themselves commonly swell these 

 streams into torrents, the gates of the dams are hoisted and these logs 

 plunge along through gorges at a frightful rate down toAvards the jilaces 

 of lumber manufacture, tearing away banks and overhanging shade, 

 filling np natural holes for fish rest and hiding, and destroying in one 

 way and another all fish-life outright. Even with such floods of natiu-al 

 and stored waters the weight of lumber is often so great that a "drive" 

 of only a few miles is attained. The dams are closed again, myriads of 

 little fish that have taken refuge in overflows or pools formed for the 

 moment outside of the main channels, die as the waters recede. The 

 logs jam, as it is called, and, piling one ujion another from shore to shore 

 for miles, they sink down crushing to death the large fish in great num- 

 bers. This work of incidental fish-destruction is repeated from day to 

 day, and will continue to go on until lumbering of this sort shall be at 

 an end. In the mean time all attem^its at fish-culture in streams of this 

 character may as well be abandoned. Success will be impossible. 



I have thus, sir^ given you my views and the results of my observa- 

 tions appertaining to the subject which, I nm. rejoiced to see, you have 

 so much at heart. 



Very respectfully, 



GAEKICK M. HARDING. 



