6G4 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



thousand eels which had been promised were ready, but the man offered 

 to set Ms pots at once, pretty small eel-pot, to catch an eel 4 inches long. 

 I immediately discharged the inefficient fishermen, and after considera- 

 ble difficulty I found a man who had had experience in evading the law, 

 and who had tbe only real seine in the vicinity. By promise of liberal 

 pay, I secured his valuable services, together with those of his sons, and 

 to them is due the credit of undertaking and carrying through the work 

 that scarcely any one else could or would have brought to a successful 

 issue. While Clayton was preparing his seine and finding men to help 

 him, I instituted inquiries among those who had any reputation as fish- 

 ermen as to the habits of the bass. Aside from the uniform opinion 

 that bass could not be kept alive overnight, I found no two who agreed 

 as to the primary facts. Only one could be found who had ever found 

 a bass with the spawn in her. He said that he found it in February, 

 but added the incredible story that it weighed thirty pounds. Some 

 thought the bass spawned in the fall ; others, in the winter; a few, in 

 the spring, while scarcely any agreed with me that about June 1 was 

 the time. Many said the fish spawned in the ocean ; some thought in 

 the brackish water; while others said that the ditches and brooks was 

 the spawning ground. No one had ever as much as seen a bass less 

 than 3 inches in length, and thought it a useless expenditure of time 

 and money to look for them. This is one of the chief places for striped- 

 bass fishing in the country. It is not my place to mention the lack of 

 fish culture among the natives. 



At high tide, Thursday, June 5, was commenced the series of hauls 

 that lasted without interruption at every high tide for a week. The 

 seine was hauled until midnight Thursday, and twenty fair-sized bass 

 obtained; average length, 8 inches; average weight, f pound. The 

 water was salt, as the tide was high. The temperature of the water at 

 six o'clock was 80° ; at twelve o'clock, 78°. In the same water, at the 

 same temperature, ten fish lived two hours after being put into the tank. 

 In the same water, at 70°, the rest lived four hours, the water in both 

 cases being constantly aerated. All the fish were dead at 3.30 a. m. 

 Friday. 



Friday morning, hauls were made farther up stream in hopes that 

 something that might be denominated "fry" might be obtained. In 

 three hauls no fish were taken; in the fourth, three small striped bass 

 were caught and put in brackish water freshened with ice, temperature 

 65°. After several barren hauls, nine more were obtained. These were 

 all the fish that could be induced to come ashore on Friday, and all but 

 four lived to be placed in the San Joaquin River two weeks later. Not 

 satisfied with the size of the small bass, I mailed two that died to you 

 to obtain information, and also spent Saturday morning in exploring the 

 mysteries of mud and water in every ditch and brook that empties into 

 or communicates with the Navesink Eiver, above Red Bank, but was 

 unable to find anything that looked like a bass-fry. In a similar expe- 



