1902 DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES. 75 



THE STOCKING OF INLAND WATERS WITH BLACK BASS. 



This is a subject which I must treat chiefly by the aid of such light as I 

 have obtained in the discharge of my official duties, rather than as the result of 

 special observation and investigation otherwise ; and my paper will therefore of 

 necessity be more of a relation of the work as it has been conducted in this 

 province, than a treatment of the question from a technical or scientific stand- 

 point. 



The work of re-stocking the inland waters of Ontario with black bass on 

 an extensive scale is but of recent origin. It is recorded that bass were trans- 

 planted by the Dominion Government as long ago as 1873, and have been trans- 

 planted at irregular intervals since ; but the instances are few, and the work 

 does not seem to have been prosecuted to any considerable extent or with any 

 special vigor, for only incidental references are made to it in the official reports. 

 It appears to have been treated merely as an incident to what presumably was 

 considered more important, or at least more necessary, work, the propagation of 

 the greater food fishes — the trout and whitefish. The Provincial Government, 

 while the dispute with the Dominion Government as to the ownership of the 

 fisheries remained unsettled, probably felt a difficulty in doing more than grant 

 pecuniary aid to localities which were undertaking a little stocking on their 

 own account. But, be this as it may, no systematized or organized plan was 

 inaugurated or carried into execution by the province until the Judicial Com- 

 mittee of the Privy Council of England nad decided that the fisheries were the 

 property of the province, and the province had assumed the duties which the 

 committee determined belonged to it, and had organized a department The 

 fact was at once appreciated by the Ontario Government that our inland waters 

 could be made a fruitful and lasting source of profit and pleasure to our people 

 if good fishing could be established and maintained therein, and that it was 

 manifestly a public duty to put forth every effort for the accomplishment of 

 that great end, and as speedily as possible. Most, if not all, of the inland lakes 

 and rivers of Ontario are well adapted to the black bass. It is well known that, 

 given a fair chance, a few pair will in a short time populate the waters in which 

 they are placed, their fecundity being great, and their habit of protecting their 

 young ensuring them immunity, to a great extent, from the depredations of 

 other fish ; consequently, a relatively large number reach maturity ; they will 

 thrive under conditions where the brook trout could not exist, and in water of a 

 much higher temperature ; and they can be successfully introduced into waters 

 in which they are not indigenous. These, and other reasons, seemed to indicate 

 the black bass to be the ideal fish with which to re- stock our waters ; and the 

 most practical, successful and speedy means of accomplishing this, having regard 

 to the success which had signalized the work already referred to, to transplant 

 the parent fish. Many lakes in the sparsely settled districts are already natur- 

 ally well stocked, and it was suggested that these waters might be drawn upon 

 for stocking waters which had become more or less depleted in the older and 

 settled portions. But such a policy was open to objection, because these lakes 

 would in turn, it might reasonably be expected, soon themselves become popu- 

 lar as a resort for anglers and tou-ists. Besides, they were so difficult of access, 

 and so far from railway communication, that the primitive means of transporta- 

 tion which would have to be adopted would be tedious and expensive, and 

 accompanied by so much loss as to make it impossible to enter upon the work as 

 extensively and as economically as would be desirable and necessary to meet the 

 demand which was known to exist. The department therefore felt that such a 

 plan could not be entertained ; that the fish would have to be obtained from 

 waters where a minimum of opposition would be raised to their removal, where 



