57 



somewhere almost every year. The Wisconsin Com- 

 mission had a great mortaHty about that time, and this 

 year the catfish in Monhagen and Highland Lakes, in 

 Orange County, N. Y., are dying by the ton, and the 

 shores are covered with them to such an extent that 

 men have been employed to cart them away. I have 

 several letters from residents of Oranorc Countv askinor 

 for the cause of this mortality, which of course I do 

 not pretend to know." 



Superintendent O'Brien, by advice of Commissioner 

 May, of Nebraska, wrote me under date of May 6th, 

 1895, as follows : 



Major Fred. Mather, 



" My Dear Sir : — During the past month a disease, 

 which is new to me, has broken out among the trout in 

 our ponds, and a number of them, weighing from one- 

 quarter to two and one-half pounds have died from it. 

 In looking over the reports I find that you mention 

 such a disease in the ponds under your charge, and 

 from your description it appears like that which is kill- 

 ing our trout. In order to be certain of this I have 

 shipped you by express, to-day, four of the trout taken 

 dead from our ponds, that you may examine them. 

 Kindly advise me if I am right in my surmise that it 

 may be the same disease, and any information that you 

 can give me on this subject, the cause, its final effect 

 in your ponds or the remedy, will be fully appreciated. 



Very respectfully, 



M. E. O'Brien." 



" I have no copy of my reply to Mr. O'Brien, but 

 said, as near as memory serves : ' The trout came to 

 hand, but the ice had left, and the fish were in the con- 

 dition of " rare-ripes," very soft and bad odor. The 

 ulcers look like those on our fish, but in each case were 

 on the head or the opercle, while my fish were mainly 



