THE HISTORY OF FISH-CULTURE. 525 



The hlach hass and Osivego bass. — The fish that before the days 

 of artificial fecundation of fish eggs have been perhaps the most exten- 

 sively introduced are the black basses of the species Micropierus sal- 

 moides and the Microiiterus nigricans ; the former being the one better 

 adajjted for clear streams and lakes, and the latter for grassy and com- 

 paratively shallow lakes and ponds. Mr. Thaddeus Norris relates in 

 his volume on American angling that when a boy he knew of the stock- 

 ing of a pond in the vicinity of Kichmond, Va., with the black bass, 

 {Micropterus salmoides.) Among numerous records of their introduction, 

 in very few instances discriminating properly between the two species, 

 we give the following : In 1850 twenty-seven live bass were brought by 

 Mr. Samuel Tisdale, of East Wareham, Mas ;., from Saratoga Lake 

 and put into Flax Lake, near his home. In the years 1851 and 1852, 

 others were brought to the number of two hundred and reared in ponds 

 in the vicinity. The matter was kept quiet and fishing discour- 

 aged for five years, when the fish were found to have increased 

 very rapidly. Some twenty-five ponds were stocked in the same county 

 after Mr. Tisdale had initiated the experiment. Afterward black bass 

 from Mr. Tisdale's ponds were supplied to a lake in New Hampshire 

 in 1867, and to waters in Connecticut and Massachusetts. In 1866 the 

 Cuttyhunk Ckib, of Massachusetts, introduced the black bass into a pond 

 in their grounds. In the year 1869 the commissioners of the State, 

 together with j)rivate parties, stocked several iionds and the Concord 

 Kiver with black bass, and in the following year other waters were 

 stocked. 



In Connecticut, in the winter of 1852-'53, the black bass was introduced 

 into Waramang Lake, in Litchfield County. They were brought from a 

 small lake in Dutchess County, New York. A few years later they were 

 said to have increased greatly. Another lake in the same county was 

 stocked not long afterward. 



Saltonstall Lake, near New Haven ; East Hamilton Pond, in Chatham ; 

 Winsted Pond, in Winchester, and many ponds and lakes of the State, 

 I)articularly in the northwest portion, were stocked with the black bass 

 previous to the year 1867. 



In the years 1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872, thirty-seven lakes and ponds 

 in different parts of the State were supplied with black bass. 



As early as 1804 or 1865 black bass had been put into Rust's Pond, 

 near Wolf borough, New Hampshire ; in 1868 a few were brought to 

 Charlestown and lakes Massabesic, Sunapee, Pennacook, and Echo, and 

 Enfield, Wilson's, and Cocheco Ponds were well stocked ; in 1870 and 

 1871 the New Hampshire commissioners introduced the black bass 

 from Lake Champlain into the waters of the State at Meredith, Canaan, 

 Webster, Canterbury, Harrisville, Munsonville, Hillsborough, War- 

 ner, Sutton, New London, Andover, Loudon, Concord, and in Croy- 

 don. In Massabesic and Sunapee Lakes, where they had been intro- 

 duced, in 1868 and 1869, they were found to have increased, and, on 

 the authority of Dr. W. W. Fletcher, they have become exceedingly nu- 

 merous in Sunapee Lake. 



