BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 421 

 191.— DISAWVAIVTAGE OF PlLiAIVTIIVG SMAt<I. FISII. 



By FRAIVK W. CL.AKK. 



[From a letter to Prof. S. F. Baird.] 



I am not surprised at the negative results attending the planting of 

 fry of various species of fish in Goguac Lake and in several other 

 lakes in Michigan.* Not that -these waters cannot be stocked with 

 the varieties with which the attempt has been made, but I believe 

 it can be done only by introducing yearling. or adult fish instead of fry. 

 For a long time I have been satisfied that the practice of planting lar- 

 val fish in strange waters is a mistake, and that the chances of success 

 would be much greater by using fish that had i^assed this stage. While 

 I must admit that the planting of fry has, in exceptional instances, es- 

 tablished a species, I think it has been only where the new waters were 

 identical in every essential particular with the old. 



It is all very well to return young fish at a very tender age to the waters 

 whence the embryos were obtained, as the conditions in this case are 

 all in accordance with the requirements of their nature, and they stand 

 an equal chance with the fry from the spawning beds. But their hold 

 on life is too feeble to survive the changed conditions of food, tempera- 

 ture, &c., incident to strange waters. At partial maturity, however, 

 their vitality is far greater tlian in infancy, and they are not only able 

 to survive new conditions, but also to seek and approj)riate those most 

 congenial and best adapted to their requirements, and full acclimatiza- 

 tion for themselves and posterity follows. In short, the adults are capa- 

 ble of adapting themselves to a far wider range of conditions than are 

 the fry, and hence are more likely to survive the exigencies of pioneer 

 life. 



I think that the success which has attended the distribution and 

 planting of carp is due very largely to the fact that they have not been 



* Battle Creek, Mich., Octoher 9, 1885. — W. D. Marks, superiutencleiit of tlie Michigan 

 fish-hatclieries at Paris, Mecosta County, has been making tests, in the interest of 

 the State, in the lakes in this vicinity, to ascertain the result of fish-culture. One of 

 the first lakes stocked with fish in Michigan was Goguac Lake, a summer resort oue 

 mile south of Battle Creek. This lake was plauted ten years ago with the fry of the 

 California salmon, landlocked salmon, carp, whitefish, eels, speckled trout, and gray- 

 ling, and since that time has been repeatedly planted with thousands and thousands 

 of fry. Our citizens and our local sportsmen's club have taken great pains to protect 

 the fish in this lake, even securing a special act of the legislature forever prohibiting 

 the spearing of fish in the lake, and as the law prohibits the catching offish by nets 

 in all inland lakes of Michigan, fishing by hook and line was the only mode allowed 

 at Goguac. Superintendent Marks set 100 rods of gill-nets several nights, but did not 

 catch a single variety of the fish jilanted ten years ago and since in the lake. He also 

 tried the experiment in Metcalf's and Haniblin's Lake, and failed to find any signs of 

 the fish. He also made the test in several of the lakes in the western part of the 

 State, with the same result. — Chicago Intku-Ocean. 



