AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 51 



found (Ik* bass, brooU titnii and raiid)ow trout. In (Jarrett 

 county, wliicli is the larj^cst in area of any county of tho State, 

 the IV is lino trout tishiiiii'. Tlicrc, nearly three thousand feet 

 above the sea. you can find the beautiful si»eckl(*d trout in its 

 native element. In that county are more trout streams than in 

 all the rest of the State combined. There brook trout have 

 been cauiiht twenty-three inches in length and weip^hing four 

 pounds. There you can have the hapjuness and i)leasure of 

 angling for trout and bass which comes to every true disei])le 

 of Izaak Walton. The historic l*otomac river, which is the 

 soutlicin boundary of the State, takes its rise up in these 

 mountains and runs thence through some of the finest scenery 

 in the country. This river furnishes an illustration of what can 

 be done by stocking streams. Prior to 1853 there was no bass 

 in the Potomac. In that year a lot of those fish were brought 

 from Wheeling Creek, near Wheeling. West Va., in the tender 

 of a P>. & O. R. R. Co.'s locomotive and planted in the river. 

 At the close of the war that river was one of the best bass 

 streams in the United States and at this time there are certain 

 ])arts where the excellent sport of catching large numbeis of 

 bass can be had. In 1870 some sportsmen of Pennsylvania 

 successfully stocked several of their rivers with bass taken 

 from the Potomac at Harper's Ferry, West Va. In the lower 

 Potomac large numbers of shad are also taken; the annual 

 catch being about 750,000. Among other important rivers we 

 might name the Susiiuehanna, Patuxent, Pocomoke, St. 

 Michaels, Choptank, Severn and several others in which there 

 are imj)ortant fisheries, giving emploj'ment to many of our 

 people. 



Among the fishes caught in our waters we mention the fol- 

 lowing, with their local names: Alewife or menhaden, blue 

 fish, sheepshead, butter fish, crocus, sea bass, squeteague, spot, 

 tautog, harvest fish, black bass, brook trout, rainbow trout, 

 sea trout, shad, summer herring, croaker, Spanish mackerel, 

 roclc 01- striped bass, salt water chub, w'hite perch, yellow 

 perch, cattish and others. 



The large variety and excellence of the food fishes of Mary- 

 land will compare favorably with those of any State in the 

 Union. Of course in this short paper we do not intend to say 

 anything of the diamond back terrapin and the Chesapeake 

 oyster. It would require a longer and more elaborate paper 

 than this one to describe their excellence. 



Among our fisheries the shad takes first place. In 1880 the 

 catch in Maryland was 1,074,121, valued at |!140.32r). In 1800 

 the shad catch of the Atlantic coast numbered 13,053.42!), 

 weighing 50,498,800 pounds and worth to the fishermen §1,- 

 651.44:*.; of this amount Maryland furnished 1,541,050 shad, 



