114 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



the pond was nearly destitute of small fry, but I found a great many 

 in the large pond, the exact number of which would be hard to deter- 

 mine, but should think I saw several thousand. I made one haul with 

 a minnow-net and transferred probably a thousand or more to the in- 

 closed space. At one end of the inclosed space I have dug a shallow 

 ditch some 10 feet long and 2 feet wide, in which the water stands 

 about 10 inches deep; have covered the bottom of this ditch with sand 

 and gravel ; it forms the outlet for the surplus water, and is provided 

 with a wire screen to prevent the escape of the young fry. I am in 

 hopes the running water will prove to be beneficial to the young fry; 

 they like it, and are constantly going in and out. I do not find many 

 dead fish or notice any that appear sick. They have all increased in size 

 wonderfully, and today I have not noticed any cannibalism; think they 

 are getting large and strong enough to protect themselves. I am try- 

 ing to protect the fry in the large pond from the old fish by making 

 brush protection along the shores of the pond, and keep the old ones 

 well supplied with food, which they usually take very freely, but have 

 not taken at all for the past week. The upshot of the whole is that I 

 am in hopes there will be enough of the young fry left to pay you for 

 the trouble of taking them away, but every day makes it more uncer- 

 tain; there will be no danger of losing any of the year-old bass, and 

 I would advise the whole lot be removed as soon as possible. Al- 

 though there are to-day several thousand young fry in the pond, I do 

 not believe there is the tenth part of what there was two weeks ago, 

 and 1 am afraid of making any experiments for their protection, as they 

 might not be successful. 1 should think 1,500 to 2,000 young fry have 

 disappeared from the inclosed space since the afternoon of the 21th. 

 There is a mystery in the loss, always occurring during the night, that 

 still remains unexplained. There are still quite a large number of 

 young fish in the main poud. 

 Indianapolis, Ind., June 23, 1882. 



I made small openings through the partition in my ponds this morning, 

 large enough to allow the free passage of the small fry from one part of 

 the pond to the other — too small for the mature fish to pass through. In 

 less than half an hour several thousand of the young fry had collected 

 near the outlet of the pond and were trying to find a passage through 

 the screens. After watching the fry for a couple of hours, it occurred 

 to me they might bruise themselves by rubbing against the wires, and 

 I had a wooden trough made, with a wire screen about 12 by 12 inches, 

 fastened across an opening in the bottom near one end so that the 

 water passing out of the pond goes through the screen in a vertical 

 instead of a horizontal direction. The trough is nailed to four posts, 

 driven into the bottom of the pond, and is placed so as to have about 

 3 inches of water covering the screen at all times. It effectively pre- 

 vents the wedging and jamming of the young fry. They have already 

 learned the road backward and forward through the partition. I notice 



