78 THE REPORT OF THE No. 31 



and unyielding to the last when hooked. He has the arrowy rush and vigor 

 of the trout, the untiring strength and bold leap of the salmon, while he has 

 a system of fighting tactics peculiarly his own. He will rise as readily to the 

 artifical fly as the salmon or the brook trout under the same conditions. I 

 consider him, inch for inch and pound for pound, the gamiest fish that swims. 

 The royal salmon and the lordly trout must yield the palm to a black bass of 

 equal weight." 



Parker Gilmore, an English authority, whose writings appear over the 

 nom, de plume of " Ubique," and whose statements on sporting subjects are 

 received everywhere without question, has this to say of the black bass : " I 

 fear it will be almost heresy tc place the black bass on a par with the trout, 

 but I am bold and will go further. I consider he is the superior of the two. 

 He is equally as good as an article of food, is much stronger, and is untiring 

 in his efforts to escape when booked." Many other recognized authorities 

 might be quoted to the same effect. 



It is not, however, the purpose of this paper to discuss the relative merits 

 of the trout and bass as game fish. I have myself been a bass fisherman for 

 many years, and I have enjoyed to the full the exciting sport it has always 

 afforded, for in our cold waters the bass are most active and vigorous. I have 

 also whipped the far famed Nepigon, which many have declared, and properly 

 so, to be the finest trout stream in the world ; and I should not like to say that 

 the black bass is the peer of the trout as found in the Nepigon. But I think 

 I have supplied testimony sufficient to satisfy the most exacting sportsman 

 that if the waters of Ontario are not being stocked with the gamiest of fresh 

 water fishes, we are introducing the next best, and certainly one which none 

 can honestly despise, and the only one, I may say, which, under existing con- 

 ditions, we are able to utilize, as the Government has at present no brook trout 

 hatcheries, and no resources upon which we can draw for trout. 



I shall not attempt either to discuss in detail what appear to me to be the 

 relative advantages and disadvantages of stocking in the manner which we have 

 been adopting, and that of pond culture and the introduction of the fry. Each 

 no doubt has its advantages in some respects, and each its drawbacks. Indeed, 

 I think that better results could be attained where practicable by a combination 

 of the two. Especially would this be so in the case of small lakes and rivers, 

 where a full carload would not be required, and to which a can of fry could be 

 readily despatched, and there are a great many such places in this province. 

 The work could probably also be carried on to a later period. But it is grati- 

 fying to us to know that the success of transplanting the parent fish has been 

 demonstrated wherever they have been introduced. As I have already intim- 

 ated, lakes which were stocked some few years before a department was estab- 

 lished, now afford excellent fishing ; and those into which bass have since been 

 introduced are said by our officers to be literally swarming with the young of 

 these fish. But pond culture would appear to be yet in the experimental stage, 

 judging by the reports of States which are propagating in that way, and I have, 

 therefore, refrained from recommending any appropriation for the construction 

 of ponds until the results of pond culture appear more certain Michigan, I 

 suppose, has more nearly solved the difficulty than any other State. But even 

 from that State I have a communication in which the writer says he has for 

 twenty years or more given the black ba^s considerable attention, and that the 

 result of his own experiment, and what he can learn from others is, that he is 

 v not enthusiastic on the subject of raising black bass for stocking other waters 

 for many reasons, one of them being that a given number of adult fish will not 

 produce one-half as many fry in artificial ponds as in the wild state. They 

 spawn too late in the season, in artificial ponds, to be of any use. The fry 



