AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 91 



query might bo raised, it niiglit be stated tliat the fry in the 

 Corry station are perfectly liealthy and normal sized fish. The 

 blood of the breeders has been changed twice within ten years. 



Mr. IMather: Mr. President, I desire to say a word in rela- 

 tion to one stream of water which we have in the state of 

 Kentucky, although it may not be found upon the map. A 

 number of gentlemen. 125 in number, the membership is lim- 

 ited to that figure, have leased the water of this stream. They 

 call the organization the Ellerslie Fishing Club. Therefore I 

 shall style the body of water as Lake Ellerslie. It covers 136 

 acres, with surface drainage, two small streams and a great 

 many small springs running into it. It has a maximum depth 

 of 4:() feet and an average in our main reservoir of over twenty 

 feet. In the summer it is about 60 degree Fahrenheit. Numer- 

 ous weeds grow^ in the water and furnish abundance of food 

 for the fish. We have large mouth black bass and some time 

 ago German carp were put in the smaller reservoir, and now 

 they are to be found occasionally in the lower or larger reser- 

 voir. Now. we find our trouble to be largely in the size of the 

 crappie. It remains just about three or four inches long. It 

 is rarely ever the case we catch anything larger. Sometimes 

 we catch a new^-light or crappie tw^o and a half pounds, but 

 it is rarely the case. I want to find out something that would 

 be good food for these fish. 



Mr. Titcomb: Do you have the smelt? 



Mr. Prather: What is that? 



Mr. Titcomb: I cannot give you the scientific name. It is 

 a small form of white fish. In some waters it never attains a 

 length of more than five inches; in other waters it will attain 

 a length of eight or ten inches; and we value them as a food fish 

 also; but w^e introduce them in our New England waters. They 

 are food for the salmonidae more particularly. They are in 

 the lakes where we introduce the land-locked salmon. They 

 increase very rapidly. They spawn by ascending the small 

 tributaries to the lakes, and in summer they inhabit the deep 

 waters of these lakes and furnish an abundance of food. In 

 fact, the chief complaint we have had in New England, and I 

 think all the New England states have encountered it, is that 

 these smelt increase so fast that the game fish are satiated 

 and do not take the lure of the angler so freely as they did 

 before the smelt were introduced. The smelt can be intro- 

 duced in the form of eggs. We have been more successful in 

 introducing the fish themselves, where we can get them easily 

 and transport them; but the fish spawn on bushes and shrubs 



