1883.] TROUT BREEDING. 141 



the period of protection there were also placed there some 

 pickerel. When the operation of the law ceased, — it chanced 

 to be on the last day of December of the year, — I will not 

 undertake to tell the year, — from that time onward, for some 

 time, the number of fish taken from the reservoir was re- 

 markable. Then they were largely pickerel, and I presume 

 that I am not over estimating when I say that there were 

 days in which a ton weiglit of pickerel was taken from that 

 reservoir. More or less pickerel continued to be taken, and 

 some are taken at the present time, but not to such an extent, 

 because the fishing has been continuous. 



But now with regard to the bass. Those fi^h were in the 

 reservoir, but for some reason fishermen were not successful 

 in taking the bass, and there came to be, in that neighbor- 

 hood, a sort of spite against the bass, because they would not 

 readily come up and take the bait. Well, perhaps they take 

 after the human family. The human family are not always 

 ready to take the bait offered to them. But time passed 

 along, and one day a brother-in-law of mine (you will pardon 

 me for making personal allusions) suggested that we try the 

 bass. It was, I think, along in August. He set a day when 

 he would come over. Previously to that time, I had fished 

 scarcely at all in the reservoir, because I had little confidence 

 in my skill as a fisherman, but when the time came, we went 

 up and selected what we believed to be good ground, and 

 went to fishing. The result of that effort was that we 

 caught some eleven bass, weighing from two to three pounds 

 each. The next day it was impossible for me to go with 

 him, and a little lad of nine or ten years old, wlio was with 

 us the day before, took my rod and went with him, and the 

 two that day captured thirteen, not spending all day, of the 

 same size. They were very uniform in size. It was thought 

 at that time that the fish caught were simply the bass that 

 were placed in the reservoir, and that in time they might be 

 caught out. But it has not been so. There liave been more 

 or less bass caught there ever since, and during the last sea- 

 son there were quite good-sized bass caught. But they are 



