188 BULLETIN OP THE UNITED STATES FLSH COMMISSION. 



Besides inareiias hake were also found in this lake, and their number 

 was likewise subject to great changes. AVhenever in a certain year the 

 ■siiawniug process is successfully accomplished and the young fry man- 

 ages to get through the first summer, the lish from this year can gen- 

 erally be traced all through the fisheries until they have grown to ma- 

 turity. This process, however, is not so rapid as with the carp, and it 

 takes about ten years or longer before the hake in this lake reach the 

 weight of 1^ to 2 pounds. As frequently many years pass before there 

 is a good spawning year, the set of hake which just happens to be about 

 the right size has to make up for all deficiencies. And if there are sev- 

 eral good years in succession, the fishermen arehap])y. But it also hap- 

 pens frequently that a very numerous set of fish from a certain year 

 does not seem to make any progress, and disappears all of a sudden. 

 Thus one year the quantity of bream spawn, measuring 15 centimeters 

 [nearly 6 inches], in the Lehnitz Lake was so great as to impede the fish- 

 eries and keep the fishermen busy removing the little fish from tbeir 

 nets. At one haul during winter I caught 2,500 pounds of this kind of 

 fish, but not a single one was of a salable size. I knew that the quan- 

 tity of spawn was too great for a lake having an area of about 250 acres. 

 I therefore asked permission of the authorities at Potsdam to catch some 

 of these small fish and transfer them to Lake Werbellin. This j>ermis- 

 sion was granted ; but much time had been consumed in getting it, and as 

 I had to let the winter pass, I found but little spawn of the bream in the 

 following spring, and the intended transfer could not be effected. Al- 

 though the Lehnitz Lake contained some i)ike and bass, it could hardly- 

 be sup])osed that they had exterminated the young bream. Probably 

 the food of the bream became scarce, so that most of the bream perished, 

 giving the survivors a better chance to grow and develop. A similar 

 case occurred as regards perch in the Gross Schauener Lake. One 

 summer I caught regularly many small perch which had barely the 

 regulation size. They were too good to be thrown away, and too small 

 for the market. I therefore put them back into the lake, hoping to catch 

 better fish during the following year. When summer came I did not 

 catch any perch, either small or great. The numerous set from the pre- 

 ceding year had dwindled down, and but few remained. I do not mean 

 to say that this will prove an injury to the lake ; on the contrary, I hope 

 that thereby the more valuable young bass will flourish all the more. 

 In all these cases I have not succeeded in ascertaining or even in esti- 

 mating the age and annual increase of the fish, because 1 did not notice 

 the different sets, until they had become young fish having almost the 

 regulation size. I think, however, that I am prepared to give some ac- 

 count of the growth of the bass in open waters. Even here 1 can only 

 state the annual increase with absolute certainty from the time when 

 the young bass had almost reached the regulation size; but 1 possess 

 enough data to enable me to fix the year 1877 as the spawning year. 

 In the autumn of 1881, large masses of these young bass were caught in 



