American Fulieries Society. 97 



E. I., July 5th, 1873. It was in very poor condition, long-, thin, 

 and emaciated. If it had been in good condition, it, undoubt- 

 edly, would have weighed close to one hundred pounds. 



The largest average catch of striped bass, taken with a rod 

 and reel, of which I can find any authentic record, is ten bass, 

 weighing 58, 5G, 54, 53, 51, 50, 49, 46, 42 and 36 pounds respec- 

 tively, or a total of 495 pounds; making an average of 491/4 

 pounds. This catch of striped bass was made on the 29th of Au- 

 gust, 1881, between 6 and 11 o'clock a. m., with a heavy sea, and 

 a rising tide, by Mr. Seth Barton French of New York, and Mr. 

 John Whipple of Xewport. It is with pleasure that I present to 

 the American Fisheries Society reprodiictions of photographs of 

 the large bass mentioned above, and also of the large catch of 

 bass taken at the time mentioned. 



Authenticated catches of bass weighing 125 pounds have 

 l)een made in the Chesapeake, seine fishing. Several bass weigh- 

 ing over a hundi-ed pounds have been taken with a hand line. 



Probal)ly the most successful introduction of a fish to waters 

 previously foreign to it, has been the introduction of striped bass 

 into C'alifornian waters. 



In the report of the United States Commission of Fish and 

 Fisheries, for the year ending June 30th, 1893, we find the fol- 

 lowing : 



The introduction of striped bass was accomplished in 1879, 

 when al)out one hundred and fifty fish a few inches long, taken 

 from the Shrewsbury river in Kew Jersey, were successfully 

 carried across the continent, and deposited at the mouth of the 

 Sacramento river hy an agent of the United States Fish Com- 

 mission, co-operating witli the California commission. About 

 six months later an examj^le se\(Mi or eight inches in length was 

 reported from ^lontert'y, or one hundred miles south of the lo- 

 cality wbcrc planted, and in eleven months another specimen 

 twelve and one-half incites long and weighing one pound. \va- 

 caught in San Francisco harljor. 4'liis very rapid growth indi 

 cates tlie special a(laptal)ility of tlu' waters of the region to this 

 fisb. In 1SS2 another plant consisting of three Inindred fish 

 was made in the same region by the California autborities. .Vs 

 a result of these two small deposits, the species soon became dis- 

 tril)uted along the entire coast of California, its occurrence, 



7 



