fish which find their substance and obtain their growth in 

 the sea, where they find an inexhaustible supply of excellent 

 food. But the bass fills, and well fills a long felt deficiency 

 of fish food in the interior fresh water, occupying the middle 

 ground between the rapid leaping brook, the home of the 

 speckled trout (Salmo Fontinalis) and that frequented by tlie 

 white (Morone Ameiicana) and yellow perch (Pei'ca Flavescens) 

 They furnish a wholesome fish diet, and recreation to those 

 who had before their introduction only the Cat (Amiurus Al- 

 bidus) the Sucker (Catostonuss Communis) the Fall fish (Sinio- 

 tilus Pihotheus) and a few minnows. 



Although never taken in sufiiciently large quantities to be 

 found in central markets, yet there are hundreds of families 

 residing in tlie region drained by the Upper Potomac, who 

 are saved thousands of pounds of meat annually by the in- 

 troduction of this wholesome change of diet. Wo, through 

 the kindness and aid of Hon. Arthur P. Gorman, President 

 of the Ches. & 0. Canal, who rendered us every facility, 

 when the water was taken from the canal in December, 1874, 

 procured some five huhdred black bass, many of tliem large 

 fish, with which we stocked many of the rivers. We lioped 

 to procure a much larger supply, but when we recollected 

 that tlie abundance in the Pofomac is the result of the intro- 

 duction of not more than one hundred in 1854, we may ex- 

 ])ect excellent fishing in the streams stocked in four or five 

 years, if the fish are protected. It has been asserted that 

 tliey had destroyed all otlier fish, and were themselves dimin- 

 ishing, we, liowever, found quantities of small fish in seining 

 the deep places in the canal, and but few bass. We attribute 

 tlie^diminution of the bass in some of the upper waters to the 

 I'act that on the approacli of cold weather, they move down 

 stream, seeking the deep holes in which tliey lay dormant 

 during the winter. Having passed over the dams and Great 

 Falls in tlieir downward journey they find it impossible to 

 return, so the upper regions are each year deprived of many 

 of their fish. There would be a more equal distribution if 

 these obstructions were jji'ovided with proper fishways. 

 4 



