BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 67 



ON TOE PROPAOATION OF THE STRIPED BAS8. 

 By E. R. IVORNY. 



Odessa, Del,, 3Iay 9, 1881. 

 Prof. Spencer F. Baird : 



I have read with great satisfaction a correspondeut's account in the 

 New York Herald of the 2d instant in regard to your success in the 

 Albemarle Sound ; but I find the propagation of the striped bass or rock 

 is still as much of an enigma as ever. The correspondent says the fisher- 

 men think they have discovered the place where they spawn. 



Let me here otter a suggestion. Since my last communication to you, 

 I have conversed with a gentleman interested in the striped bass, who 

 informed me that he conversed with a gentleman from Wilmington, Del., 

 who said to him that on one occasion he saw a large female bass cast her 

 spawn on the boulder rocks in the vicinity of Wilmington Creek, Del. 

 This is the location where we supposed those fish spawn from the fact 

 that it is here that the young fry are first numerously seen. The Dela- 

 ware State side of the stream at this point is full of loose boulder rocks, 

 and the gentleman said the fish seemed to remain and defend her spawn. 

 I have tried to verify the truth of this statement, but have been unable 

 to ascertain the gentleman's name. The only doubt is, the general turbid 

 condition of the waters of the Delaware would make it difticult to see 

 any considerable distance below the surface ; but, perhaps, in the dry 

 season of May at low water he may hav^e seen what is here represented, 

 for those large fish venture in very shallow water. If such is the case, 

 then your Albemarle fisherman should look for rocky or bouldery bottom 

 to find the spawning ground of the striped bass. 



I have not altered my opinion that the true mode to propagate these 

 fish is to pen up the immature fish and retain them until their maturity, 

 both male and female. 



I now have in captivity a sixty-pound female, which I have had so 

 confined for nearly two weeks under very unfavorable circumstances. 

 The pond contains an area of about half an acre, but is shoal, the greater 

 portion not being over one foot deep; but there are several rods square 

 that contain from three to five feet in depth. The misfortune of this 

 pond is that it takes an extra high tide to put water in it, and the fish 

 has only had fresh water in the pond but once since its capture. If provi- 

 dence favors me with a few tides to fill the pond with a fresh supply of 

 water, I have no doubt I shall carry it over the spawning time, which, 

 I think, will be by the 1st of June. The object is not to propagate the 

 fish, but to prove the feasibility of thus keeping them and to determine 

 the time of their maturity. If they can thus be kept, and I have not 



