122 Thirtieth Annual Meeting 



If there is any direct question that I can answer from per- 

 sonal observation I shall be very glad to do it. 



Mr. Peabody : AMiat do you know about the roiling of the 

 water ? 



Dr. Bartlett : At certain seasons of the year they do make 

 the water very roily. But we are to consider that our l^lack bass 

 are taken from waters that frequently have six or seven inches 

 of mud at the bottom, and so it makes no difference. 



Mr. Peabody : You do not think that that is important ? 

 Dr. Bartlett: Yes, sir. There are a great many places in 

 Illinois where the introduction of carp has proved a disad- 

 vantage. I know that to be a fact, in small spring lakes, take a 

 lake of four or five acres, something of that kind. 



Mr. Peabody: You would not think that a lake of one to 

 three miles in size would be affected at all ? 



Dr. Bartlett : No, sir. My observation has l)een that the 

 very best fly-fishing in the United States can Ix' had u])on the 

 Illinois river today. 



j\Ir. Titcond) : Is it not a base slander upon the bass to inti- 

 mate that it would allow a carp to touch its spawn ? 

 Dr. Bartlett : I should think so. 



Mr. Bower: I think that where bass and carp inhal)it the 

 same water it is natural that the bass should increase. We have 

 been hatching black bass for a number of seasons in ponds where 

 we have an opportunity to observe their spawning operations 

 from the time the male fish begins to prepare the bed until a 

 good many days after the hatching is completed, and we know 

 that the male bass guards the bed against all intruders. He will 

 put up the stiffest kind of a fight against any animal that 

 a})proaches the bed with a view of preying upon the s])awn. 

 There is no danger of a carp ever looting the s])awn from a black 

 bass bed. On the other hand 1 do not thiidc the carp can retali- 

 ate against the bass in 'any way, shape or form. While the bass 

 is preying on the carp, the carp can not come back at them in 

 any way. In other words, in the interchange of hostilities be- 

 tween the two species, the bass gets the better of it at every stage 

 of the proceedings, and I think it is a perfectly natural result 

 that the bass should increase in waters where there is an al)und- 

 anci' of carp. 



