28 AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY 



me some hints when I had started in as a novice in fish-culture 

 nearly eighteen years ago, says, "perhaps" the fish are less pal- 

 atable. The adverb sliows that while he did not know it to be 

 so he recognized the fact that no fish which lives in fresh water 

 is as good for the table as if it dwelt in the sea, a thing well 

 known to all who live near salt water, but "Uncle Thad." gives 

 us no hint as to smelt hatching. 



Jerome Von Crowninshield Smith, M. D., the most absurd and 

 ignorant writer on fish that I know of, says ("Natural History of 

 the Fish of Massachusetts,") 1S33, p. 148: "An attempt has been 

 made to acclimate the smelts in a fresh-water pond, but they 

 liave soon degenerated, becoming first emaciated, and disap- 

 peared, by degrees, till they probably all died." This is mv 

 experience with adult fish, although I have now about thirty 

 male fish alive in fresh water, all the females having died. 



Mr. Charles G. Atkins, "Report U. S. Fish Commission," 



1879, p. 742, says: "November 6th. — This forenoon early, Mr. 

 Munson found a great run of smelts at the spawning shed (above 

 the dam). He said he could have dipped any number if they 

 had not been so shy and quick. As it was he dipped 150 or 200, 

 which I have preserved. They are mature, showing clearly 

 spawn and milt through their transparent bellies. [These smelts 

 are among the most diminutive of their genus, averaging in 

 length but little more than two inches. They are found in 

 several if not all the Schoodic Lakes. In one of the tributaries 

 of the "Uper Dobsey" Lake (Indian name, Sys/aJo/^sis-s/s) they are 

 wont to spawn late in the month of February." See also a series 

 of questions by Mr. Atkins, "Report U. S. Fish Commission,'' 



1880, p. 44. 



The best report on smelt hatching is contained in the report of 

 a Commission of Fisheries of Maryland (Thomas B. Ferguson), 

 1878, pp. 41-94, by Prof. H. J. Rice. His field of operation was 

 at the City of New Brunswick, about eight miles from the 

 mouth of the Raritan River, N. J. Prof. Rice alludes, p. 44, to 

 experiments of Mr. Atkins with the land-locked smelt which I do 

 not find, but which was "not favorable to the handling of this 

 species of adhesive spawn, and if I [he] mistake not, Mr. Atkin's 

 conclusions were that it would not pay to handle it." Prof. Rice 



