58 AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 



ditional supply of fish food. I have closely watched this improve- 

 ment in the trout of Lake George, New York. Before the lake was 

 restocked by the State, the trout were very poor and small, and 

 because of the gradual taper from their heads to their tails 

 were called " wedges" by the fishermen. I do not know as they 

 appeared starved so much as they appeared dwarfed. Every 

 spring during the trolling season when the trout were " on top, " 

 quantities of small whitefish were seen at the surface of the 

 water, so the lake was not entirely barren of food for the native 

 trout. Five years after the State made the first deposit of trout 

 fry, it planted some whitefish for trout food. There w^as a 

 marked improvement in the trout almost from the first planting 

 of fry, and each year since the average in size of the catch has 

 been larger and the condition of the trout better. I have often 

 wondered if this was entirely owing to the food, for the anglers 

 can discover no increase in the whitefish fry on the surface in 

 the spring. 



In other words, does not the fresh blood or out-cross improve 

 the natives and leaven the whole. Among the mammals, this 

 fresh blood is sometimes necessarv to prevent a "going to 

 seed," and even man in families of high degree deteriorates or 

 " peters out " occasionally from too much blue blood and not 

 enough red. I know it is presumption on my part to intimate 

 that there is any affinity between the workings of warm blood 

 — particularly the blue kind — in man, and the workings of cold 

 blood in fishes, and I only do it to ask the scientists here gathered 

 together, if it is possible for the infusion of fresh blood to act 

 upon and improve and strengthen fishes that have been in breed- 

 ing for ages in circumscribed waters. Whatever scientists may 

 say about the infusion of fresh fish blood, which would apply 

 only in certain cases, I am satisfied that fish in alien waters im- 

 prove in food and game qualities only when they find better feed 

 or better water, which causes a more vigorous condition, which 

 is the gameness desired by anglers. 



Glens Falls. N. Y. 



Mr. Mather — The observations of Mr. Cheney correspond 

 with those of others who have given attention to this subject. 



