INLAND FISHERIES COMMISSIONERS’ REPORT. 5 
that the presence of the ‘ voracious’ Bass would militate against the increase of 
shad or salmon, The objections are not valid, or founded on fact, for the Black 
Bass prefers a diet of crawfish, when he can get it, varying it with minnows, 
insects, larvee and frogs, and in Eastern waters he would not object to young 
eels. The pike, pickerel, pike-perch and gar-fish, are almost entirely piscivorous 
in their habits, which might be expected from the character of their teeth, and 
their sins have no doubt been charged to Black Bass. But, while the Bass will 
take in a young shad or salmon if it comes in his way when hungry, he will not 
make them special objects of his pursuit like the canine-teethed fishes above 
named. 
The failure to restock such streams, if any such failure exists, must be attrib- 
uted to other causes than the introduction of the Black Bass, prominent among 
which is the unrelenting pursuit of the young fry by the predatory fishes men- 
tioned. . . . In your just and righteous indignation do not make a scapegoat 
of so good a fellow as the Black Bass. 
In western waters where the Bass exists with the usual varieties of fishes, there 
is no perceptible decrease in the numbers of either. If any species suffers, it is 
always the Black Bass, on account of over-fishing, spearing, etc, I know of 
isolated lakes in Wisconsin where the Black Bass has co-existed with the Cisco 
(one of the salmon family) longer than the memory of man runneth to the con- 
trary, without a decrease of the latter fish. If, then, the Bass cannot ‘get away 
with’ the Cisco in confined waters, how can he clean out the shad or salmon in 
large flowing streams? Moreover, I know of a small stream that abounded in 
Black Bass and crawfish, into which brook trout were introduced to the discom- 
fiture of the former fish for the trout increased while the numbers of the Bass 
grew smaller by degrees and beautifully less. 
If, then, there are waters in which the brook trout or the rainbow trout will 
not thrive, do not hesitate to aid in the further distribution of the black bass, by 
introducing that desirable species. It is easily done, and success is already 
assured. You have only to look at the Potomac, the Susquehanna, the Dela- 
ware, and many other streams for evidence of its rapid increase in new waters. 
The black bass is excelled by no other fish that swims for gameness, and among 
fresh water species by but one, the whitefish, for the table. And, furthermore, 
he will not eat the spawn of his mate, nor that of his fellows’ mates. His natural 
food is the crawfish and the minnow; he prefers these, and they are easily pro- 
cured. On them he will wax and grow fat, increase and multiply. The man 
who alleges that he depopulates the streams of valuable food fishes, or asserts 
that ‘he kills for the love of it,’ has never looked into the mouth of the bass 
with his eyes open.’ 
