REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. xH 



This method has been more especially practiced iu the United States 

 ill the case of black bass, pickerel, * pike-perch, yellow perch, alewife 

 or fresh- water herring, the brook-trout, «&c., and to some extent, indeed, 

 the white fish, or Goregonus albus t and, indeed, is almost the only method 

 by which it is possible satisfactorily to accomplish the desired object ; 

 the efforts of pisciculturists not having been very successful in impregnat- 

 ing the eggs (excepting with the white-fish) and hatching them out, 

 although there would be no particular difiBculty in regard to the alewife. 



A second method, quite similar to the first, consists in simply collect- 

 ing and penning up the mature fish in a suitable inclosure at about the 

 time of spawning, and keeping them until the operation of reproduction 

 is accomplished, but without taking any special charge of the eggs 

 themselves. 



The third is that especially practiced by the Chinese, of collecting 

 the fertilized spawn, after it is laid, either by gathering it from localities 

 under the water where it has adhered, or by straining it out while float- 

 ing. The first method is in some instances assisted by introducing 

 bunches of ozier or brush into the water frequented by the gravid fish, 

 so as to furnish convenient objects of adhesion, and such as can be 

 readily handled for the purpose of removing the eggs from them. The 



* From a very early time in the settlements of the different States, the transfer o f live 

 fishes has been attempted. One of the first species that attracted what was really a 

 most mistaken interest was what is known as the pickerel, and represented by at 

 least two species, the Esox reticulatus iu the streams of the Atlantic slope, and the Esox 

 htcius west of the Alleghanies. This must not be confounded with the so-called pick- 

 erel (the Lucioperca americana) of the Lake Erie shores. 



This genus (Esox) is among the most ravenous of predacious fishes. They have a 

 wide mouth, with a formidable armature of long, sharp teeth, and are long, slender, 

 clipper-like creatures, swift in the water, where they are able to run down ordinary 

 fishes, or, lying concealed, as is their habit, in the sedge and rushes at the edge of 

 the clear channel, dart suddenly upon the passing fish. They are very bony, of indif- 

 ferent flavor, and it is only' where people are undiscrimiuatiug in their choice, from 

 the lack of opportunity to compare them with better food-fishes, that they consider 

 them desirable. Thej' attain considerable size and take the hook eagerly, but their 

 destructiveness of much superior fishes shouLd condemn every effort to propagate 

 them or to extend their distribution. 



It is a singular coincidence that in earlier times in portions of Europe the same spe- 

 cies as our western one (Esox Iticius) was introduced into new waters rather exten- 

 sively, and it is now acknowledged to be a most mistaken enterprise. 



The commissioners of Maine have expressed their regret at the misguided enterprise 

 of citizens of that State in introducing the pickerel into certain rivers and water- 

 systems. 



t One of the earliest experiments in the transfer of fish, other than pickerel and 

 black bass, to new waters, was made by Governor L. J. Farwell, of Wisconsin. In 

 1854 he had one hundred fine, large white-fish carried alive to Madison and deposited 

 in good condition in Lake Mendota in Dane County. A careful examination a few 

 years later showed that they had increased raj)idly, and occuijied the deepest part of 

 the water. In 1858 they appeared on the northeastern side of the lake, where they 

 were caught in considerable numbers. A concurrent transfer of brook-trout into a 

 tributarv of the lake was not so successful. 



