THE CHESAPEAKE BAY. 



By Talbot Denmead, 

 Chief Deputy of the Conservation Commission of Maryland. 



The purpose in selecting this subject is to give me something 

 to talk about which I know intimately, for it is with considerable 

 hesitancy that I address this body. As you are all so much better 

 acquainted with fish and fish matters than myself, who have always 

 been a hunter first and a fisherman next, I feel that if there is any 

 message I can bring to you it will be about conditions affecting 

 my own Chesapeake, where I am at home. 



The Chesapeake Bay lies entirely within the states of Virginia 

 and Maryland, the former controlling the lower waters, or south 

 end of the bay, where the fish enter from the Atlantic Ocean, and 

 the latter controlling the northern waters, where the fish go to 

 spawn. Since the time of George Washington there has been an 

 unending dispute between these two states over the proper regula- 

 tions pertaining to fish, oysters and crabs, and probably there 

 always will be, unless the Federal Government assumes control 

 over migratory fish that pass through one or more states in reaching 

 their breeding grounds. 



The Chesapeake Bay is unequaled in the country by any 

 similar body of water. Its shore front, if stretched out in a 

 straight line would reach from Maine to Florida; its waters teem 

 with many varieties of fish and crabs; its bottom is covered with 

 the finest oysters, and wild-fowl rest upon its not always placid 

 bosom. Weakfish, striped bass, white perch, yellow perch, 

 pickerel, large mouth bass, spot, king fish, blue fish, butter fish, 

 catfish and wall-eyed pike are some of its fish. 



At the head of the bay lies the Susquehanna Flats, a great 

 spawning ground for many fish, as well as a noted feeding ground 

 for wild fowl, where the celebrated canvas-back congregates in 

 quantities, to feed and grow fat on the enormous beds of wild 

 celery. Upon these flats flows the mighty Susquehanna River, 

 after traversing the state of Pennsylvania, in whose clear and rapid 

 waters the angler finds heaven in fighting the great striped bass 

 and the smaller black bass. 



