596 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [58] 



also ice, so that the water does not get too warm, the young fish may 

 he shipped a considerable distance without great loss. The consign- 

 ment of fish should in every case be in charge of a practical, intelligent, 

 and reliable person. 



There is of course much less difficulty in transporting grown fish. 

 Director Haack has succeeded in transporting alive from Pisa to Hii- 

 ningen young eels, known under the name of " blind eels." 



In Italy the first attempts to stock the public waters with fish were 

 made by Professor De Filippi, and continued during the last few years, 

 by the aid of the ministry of agriculture, industry, and commerce, by 

 Professor Pavesi. But in order to make these experiments with the 

 certainty of favorable results, they should be preceded by investigations 

 relative to the physical and biological conditions of our fresh waters, 

 such as Professor Pavesi has made in some of the lakes of northern 

 Italy, Lake Trasimeno and Lake Albano. 



All the kinds of salmonoids found in Central Europe, with the excep- 

 tion of the Khine salmon, the Danube salmon, and the different kinds 

 of Corcgonus, are also found in the fresh waters of Northern Italy; and 

 it is therefore certain that these efforts to increase the fish in our waters 

 will be crowned with success. The trout, the Salvelinus, and Thymallus 

 could easily be cultivated, and there is also reason to hope that the 

 Corcgoni introduced at first in Lake Maggiore by Professor De Filippi, 

 and recently in Lake Como by Professor Tavesi, will become acclima- 

 tized and will propagate. 



In Central and Southern Italy only trout are found; but it would not 

 be difficult to increase their number in the upper tributaries of the 

 Arno, the Tiber, and in all the streams of fresh waters coming from the 

 Apennines. I have not yet been informed of the results of the attempts 

 made during the past year to introduce Khine salmon in the Po and the 

 Pescara. During my stay in Germany, I was advised more than once, 

 especially by the illustrious president of the German Fishery Associa- 

 tion, von Behr, to attempt the acclimatization of the California salmon 

 (Oncorhynchus cliouicha), which lives in localities whose natural condi- 

 tions greatly resemble those of Italy. The non-migratory salmon of 

 the Schoodio Lakes (Salmo sebago) might be raised to advantage in the 

 deep lakes of Northern Italy, and the volcanic lakes (craters) of Central 

 Italy. 



Throughout the whole of Italy, but especially in Central and Southern 

 Italy, the industry of carp culture is, as I think, destined to be developed 

 veloped on a large scale ; so far it has been introduced in some lakes 

 and ponds. Mr. Max von dem Borne also advised the cultivation in 

 Italy of the American black bass {Hum nigricans). It is true that it is 

 a very voracious fish, but the same may be said of the pike; and yet 

 they do not destroy all the other fish in the waters in which they are 

 found; suitable precautions and careful watching may prevent much 

 of this evil; and there is no reason to exaggerate the dangers to which 

 one kind of fish is exposed by another. 



