136 Tiventy-ninth Aimital Meeting 



and as low as 2,000 or 3,000. But it is just as easy to arrive at 

 the number, approximately, as it is of trout or any other fish 

 that are estimated from a partial actual count. I don't know 

 of any better way than that, unless you count them all. We 

 have very little guess work about it ; we know positively that our 

 estimate is very nearly correct, as nearly so as any careful estimate 

 can be. 



Mr. Clark: Mr. President, I didn't propose to take any 

 part in the bass discussion, but Air. Bower made one statement 

 that I want to correct a little. He says, it is just as easy to 

 arrive at the number of bass as it is of trout or whitefish. Now, 

 with the trout we have a chance to handle the eggs and know 

 exactly just how many eggs we have just previous to hatching; 

 that is something you cannot do with the bass. Now, if we have 

 a box of 60,000 trout eggs, we know that usually we are going 

 to have 58,000 fry anyway. 



The Secretary: That is all very true, I will admit that, but 

 Mr. Clark will agree with me, I think, that there is far more 

 guess work telling the number of whitefish after they are 

 hatched than there is with bass. Now, we hatch quite a number 

 of bass, and while it isn't practical to count them all, we count a 

 sufificient number so that we know our figures are very nearlv 

 correct. 



The President: An\- more remarks on the bass? If not, I 

 would like to tell you our experience in Vermont. A number of 

 years ago, perhaps fifteen, a bass fad swept through New Eng- 

 land. The State Commissioners up there and the United States 

 Commission both had the small mouth bass and put them into 

 every pond they could find; they put them into our troat ponds 

 and into our large and small ponds. When they were put into 

 the small ponds they would clean out the perch and bullheads. 

 I have one pond in mind of about fifteen acres that was full of 

 bullheads or hornpouts and perch, and the bass were introduced 

 there and they cleaned out every fish in that pond. To-day the 

 bass seem to thrive there to a certain extent, that is, propagate 

 there very rapidly. We use that pond as a source of supply for 



