1902 DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES. 77 



towed alongside a steamboat. Upon the scow. are placed a sufficient number of 

 tanks or barrels to conveniently hold the fish without crowding. Flat-bottomed 

 boats, where these can be obtained, answer admirably. For carrying fish, ordin- 

 ary washtubs (new, of course), are considered much better than cans or pails, as 

 more can be carried at a time. A few inches of water should be placed in the 

 tub. In transferring the bass to the water, we place a dozen or so, as may be 

 desired, in a tub and dump them quickly but carefully at suitable spots. This 

 plan we find preferable to depositing with dip nets, as the fish are not so likely 

 to become separated. We know the parental instinct is very strongly developed 

 in the bass, and why not the social habit and other domestic qualities also ? 



Discretion is of cour-e exercised in regard to the waters which are being 

 stocked. The department has been criticised somewhat for placing bass in a 

 certain lake which at one time had been inhabited by speckled trout, on the 

 ground that it should have been restocked with trout instead of bass, or the 

 trout remaining therein given the protection which would have resulted in their 

 increase in due time. The waters referred to are waters which are being ex- 

 tensively visited by holiday-makers. They were clamoring for fish. The resi- 

 dents desired that we stock with fish that would re-establish themselves in the 

 shortest possible time, and afford sport during July and August. They said : 

 " There may be trout in the lake, but we cannot get them ; we want a fish that 

 will bite during July and August, otherwise people will not come here ; let us 

 have bass." The council of the municipality unanimously appropriated a sum 

 to assist in the work, realizing its importance, and bass were accordingly put in. 



Of course we did not approve of putting bass into streams or small bodies 

 of water which are inhabited by brook trout, or in waters where there would be 

 a possibility, however remote, of restoring the trout fishing ; but in large bodies 

 of water, several hundred acres in extent, in which the trout are practically ex- 

 terminated, and which we wish to stock with the greatest possible expedition, I 

 claim that bass are the proper fish The opponents of bass may also be too 

 apprehensive with regard to the eftect on trout which the stocking of large 

 bodies of water with bass will have. Henshall, in his " More About the Black 

 Bass," says : " The black bass gets the best of other game fish, not by devouring 

 the fishes themselves, but by devouring their food. For this reason, more than 

 any other, they should not be introduced into the same waters with brook 

 trout," 



I should like to mention that I am acquainted with a gentleman who has a 

 fishing preserve in Muskoka, in which he tells me he has trout and bass, and that 

 they are thriving equally well, that the trout are not only holding their o »vn 

 but are increasing rapidly. He showed me last season three trout taken in 

 his preserve which measured 19f, 19| and 1 8f inches respectively, the largest 

 of which weighed three pounds. He had frequently, he said, opened bass to 

 ascertain upon what they were feeding, and had never in a single instance found 

 a trout. The food consisted principally of crawfish, minnows and perch, which 

 abound in these waters. The preserve comprises three hundred acres. There 

 are no screens to prevent the trout and bass from intermingling. I have also 

 been told that in some of the lakes along the St John railway in Quebec bass 

 and brook trout have naturally and always co-existed. 



There are some who look with contempt upon the black bass as a game 

 fish. Indeed, I remember hearing a delegate at the Montreal meeting say that 

 a man would not be seen going up a back street in his country with a string of 

 bass. There are many, however, who consider the bass quite the peer of the 

 brook trout. Henshall speaks of the salmon as a king, the brook trout as a 

 courtier, and the black bass, "in his virescent cuirass and spring crest, as a 

 doughty warrior whose prowess none can gainsay. He is plucky, game, brave 



