33 



Mr. Mather remarked that he agreed with Mr. O'Brien 

 that natural food was the best ; but the trouble was to produce 

 it in quantity sufficient for the daily food of a hundred thousand 

 fry. He had a reservoir, about 300 by 30 feet, which supplied 

 the hatching, and here he usually planted about 6,000 trout-fry, 

 which found sufficient food during the summer, and outgrew 

 those which were fed on clams and mussels, which, by the way, 

 is the best food he ever used, and, in October, he drew this 

 reservoir down and took out from 1,500 to 2,000 fine young 

 trout ; but it was doubtful if the water would grow many more. 



SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE BLACK BASS. 



BY C. F. HOLT. 



Having resided for the past thirty-five years on the bank of 

 the Thornapple river, a favorite resort for that king of Michigan 

 game fish, the small-mouthed black bass, I have had ample 

 opportunities of studying their habits, and for the past few 

 years have given the matter considerable attention. 



They leave their winter quarters, usually under heaps of 

 drift-wood or in hollow sunken logs, about the middle of April, 

 and in a short time repair to their spawning grounds. I am 

 quite sure that they pass the winter in hollow, sunken logs 

 whenever they can, for, about the first of April, 1885, while 

 removing some drift-wood from the river, we took out one hol- 

 low log that contained eighteen small-mouth black bass, weigh- 

 ing from two to three pounds each ; and again this year, at 

 about the same time, I found six more under the same condi- 

 tions. The spawning season here begins the last week in 

 April. The first bed seen in 1885 was on April 28 ; in 1886, 

 April 24 ; and in 1887 and 1888, April 26. The places selected 

 are in nearly still water, near the shore, and in water from one 

 to two feet in depth. 



The beds are circular in form, from eighteen inches to three 

 feet in diameter, and are formed by cleaning from the bottom 

 all sediment, sand, etc., leaving a bed of clean pebbles. This is 

 the joint work of both male and female fish. The bed having 



