Riley. — Bass Rearing in Texas 109 



of many moods will sympathize with me, and if there are 

 stations where power other than gasoline is used, their 

 superintendents have missed much that would have had a 

 tendency to add to their vocabulary of forceful English. 

 However the tender heart of our Assistant in Charge has 

 been touched by my lamentations and I have reason to 

 hope that our station will soon receive a better supply 

 of water more economically in the near future. 



The brood fish are carefully selected from our stock, 

 an effort being made to get three females to every male, 

 but unless the fish are well developed there is more or less 

 uncertainty in the selection and very often the percentage 

 of females is a little greater. Of course our station, being 

 so far south, has an early season and we have fish spawn- 

 ing in February and March and, as a matter of fact, some 

 bass can be found spawning every month of the year. It 

 may be that here the bass spawn more than once each 

 year or possibly all eggs are not thrown off at one time. 



Usually we commence our distribution about the first 

 of April, sometimes a little earlier, depending of course 

 upon water and air conditions. Sudden drops in temper- 

 ature cause us much trouble and frequently considerable 

 loss of fish in the fry stage. These sudden changes at 

 San Marcos will cause the bass to leave the nest, the sud- 

 den change kills the eggs and the anticipated large school 

 of fry proves a minus quantity. This catastrophe I try 

 to avoid by pumping the warm water of the San Marcos 

 into the ponds and so raising the temperature. Our 

 river has its source near the hatchery where it bursts 

 forth in springs from beneath the hills and has a uniform 

 temperature of about seventy-three degrees. A number 

 of times when the approaching "norther" has given 

 warning, I have been able to guard against losses in this 

 manner. 



As soon as a school of fry is noticed, it is kept under 

 close observation and, when reaching the size of No. 1 

 fingerlings, is taken from the pond with a bobbinet seine, 

 placed in a tub, carried to our retaining apparatus, 

 counted into buckets of water and carefully poured into 



