18SB.] TROUT BREEDING. 139 



keeping everybody from fishing in that pond. At the end of 

 the three years, the pond was perfectly alive with fish. I 

 don't know that the bass ever bred there. There have been 

 a few good-sized bass caught there ; but of pickerel, there 

 have been large quantities caught. The first day after the 

 law was off, there were over five hundred pounds taken out of 

 that pond, — some good-sized ones, that weighed four pounds 

 and a half. Alfred Whiting, of Hartford, caught over twelve 

 pounds. He had only four. John Brooks, of Torrington, 

 caught thirty-five pounds. Malachi Gillett caught thirty- 

 seven pounds — the greatest weight that was brought to my 

 house. That was in one day — the first day after the law 

 was off. 



The bass have never injured the pickerel in that pond at 

 all. It is a little pond, covering only thirty-two acres. Two 

 or three men came to my house from a place called Scotland, 

 and stayed three or four days, stopping at my house, and 

 fished through the ice, and carried home a barrel of pickerel. 



Mr. Hodges. How many fish were put in there ? 



Mr. KiMBERLY. There were seventy five put in. The man 

 who brought them came to my house, and I went with him 

 and helped put them in. I have no evidence that there was 

 ever a small bass in that pond. There have been bass caught 

 there that weighed over four pounds. 



Mr. Hodges. That is my idea, — that the seventy-five put 

 in have been caught out. 



Mr. Sedgwick. This question is a very important one to 

 us who like fish, and it is important that we protect our ponds 

 in this State from bass being put into them through a mis- 

 taken motive. Near where I live, in Cornwall, is a pond a 

 mile and a quarter long, where I could formerly go at any 

 time and get a mess of pickerel and perch. A dozen or fif- 

 teen years ago it was stocked with bass, and now it is almost 

 impossible to catch any fish there at all. I have been to that 

 pond fishing, and have seen bass in the water that would 

 weigh from three to four pounds, and I could not get them to 

 do anything but just lie there and look at me. 



