American Fisheries Society. 121 



introduced in the state of Illinois, the huffalo having become 

 almost extinct in our waters although it was once the great com- 

 mercial fish that the bass would have been gradually taken out 

 entirely from the list. As it is now, I want to repeat the state- 

 ment that we have more black bass than ever, and our carp cer- 

 tainly have increased in a greater ratio than ever before. 



Mr. Townsend : The figures prove that you have more black 

 bass than you ever had. 



Dr. Bartlett : Yes, sir. In our work for the United States 

 Fish Commission we took this 3'ear from Barlow Lake, which 

 would cover perhaps a mile in length and five hundred feet to a 

 quarter of a mile in width, low and shallow, 51,000 black bass 

 for distribution. Xow that is in a mud hole, and there is no 

 estimate as to the amount of carp that were removed at the same 

 time and put into the rivers — they have been simply beyond com- 

 putation. 



As I said before, I have worked faithfully for carp all these 

 years. For the first few years, fishermen would take the carp, 

 open them up and dress them for sale the same as buffalo, and I 

 had free access to the stomachs of the carp and failed to find to 

 any considerable extent evidences that the carp has interfered 

 with the spawn of other fishes. That is true at least for the 

 muddy waters of Illinois that abound with plenty of other food 

 for the carp. What might be the result in some of your cold 

 water lakes in Wisconsin I can not say. The carp have a very 

 peculiar value in that it is not necessary to dress them for ship- 

 ment. The buffalo fish you might ice down as carefully as possi- 

 ble and within a verv few hours he becomes soft, and therefore 

 you have to dress the fish before shipment, and I believe about 

 two-fifths is allowed for dressing. But the carp is shipped so to 

 speak, with guts, feathers and all; he is taken right out of the 

 water, covered with ice and frequently shows signs of life after 

 being in a refrigerator car forty-eight to sixty hours, and every 

 pound that is taken from the water by the fisherman is utilized 

 to In-ing back so much per pound from the market. 



It is only justice, however, to state that these carp are used 

 in the east by a class of people who will not eat anything unless 

 it is pretty nearly alive — Russian Jews, Poles, etc. 



