176 American Fisheries Society 



sharp ; and every fish that 1 threw back, the man wet his hands before 

 the fish was taken off the hook, and a small hole was punched either 

 in his dorsal fin or tail, and I threw back that fishing season between 

 480 and 500 half-pound fish, and not a single one of those fish was ever 

 seen again — was ever taken again. Now, those fish we handled as care- 

 fully as possible with the hand wet ; and they were only thrown back 

 if they were not bleeding in the mouth and were not badly hooked, 

 and the hands were always wet before they were thrown back ; they 

 were treated with the kindest consideration possible, and yet not a 

 single one of those 500 fish was ever seen again. 



Mr. Ernest Schaeffle, San Francisco : Is it not possible that the 

 markings had regenerated? 



Mr. Fearing : Did you ever know of a case of a fish generating 

 a tail which had a hole punched in it? 



Mr. Schaeffle: They do regenerate in California. 



Mr. Fearing : It is not supposed to be possible. 



Mr. Schaeffle: That has been our great trouble, and we have 

 marked salmon and trout. 



Mr. Fearing : They mark salmon in England by a silver wire. I 

 will ask Professor Ward: Is it not supposed to be impossible for a 

 fish to regrow an attachment of that sort? 



Professor Ward: I cannot say with respect to those fish. 



Mr. Fearing : Did you ever hear of trout or salmon that would 

 grow a tail after one had been lost? 



Professor Ward : I do not know of experiments on salmon and 

 trout. As far as I know of such mutilations they remain unmodified. 



Mr. Fearing : Do you known personally of a trout or salmon being 

 marked in that way? 



Mr. Schaeffle : Yes, we have done that. These marked fish have 

 been held in troughs and special ponds, and we have watched the fins 

 regenerate. 



Mr. Fearing: I never heard that in salmon and trout. 



Professor Ward : Your statement is that none of those fish have 

 ever been returned. Is it not probable that they may have been taken 

 and not reported? 



Mr. Fearing : No. A careful record of them has been kept. This 

 is in a private club, and everything was marked, and watched, as I said. 



Mr. Thomson: How were those fish marked? 



Mr. Fearing : With a perfectly clean-cut round hole right through 

 the dorsal fin or the tail. I would like to inquire from Mr. Schaeffle 

 the source of his information. 



Mr. Schaeffle : I have taken my report from an employe who is 

 in charge of fish cultural work in California. 



Mr. Fearing: Then your information is not based on personal 

 examination? 



Mr. Schaeffle: There is no doubt of the fact. 



