FARMERS' REGISTER. 



619 



SALT-WATER FISH NATURALIZED IN FRESH- 

 WATER PONDS. 



From tlie Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural His- 

 tory, 1840. 



Dr. Siorcr presenled the following report on the 

 fisliea releired to him at the last meeliiig ol' the 

 society. 



The fishes presented to the society at its last 

 meeting, as having been taken fiotn the Jamaica 

 pond, about five miles Irom this city, are the 

 Osmerus eperlaiws, common smelt. You may 

 be surprised at the circumstance of salt water 

 fishes being taken in a Iresh water pond emirely 

 disconnected with the sea. During the prepara- 

 tion of my report upon the fishes of Massachusetts, 

 I learned from Benjamin Weld, Esq. ol' Roxbury. 

 it was generally understood ihat ihe smelts found 

 in Jamaica pond, were originally placed there by 

 Governor Barnard. Investigating this subject, to 

 procure some certain data, 1 met with the Ibllow- 

 iiig extract, in a note, i>y Daines Barrington, the 

 then vice president of the Royal Society, to a 

 letter from John Reinhold Foster, " on the ma- 

 nagement of Car[) in Polish Prussia:" '' I have 

 been informed by Sir Francis Barnard (the late 

 Governor of New England) th it in a large pool 

 which he rented not lar from Boston, and which 

 had not the least communication with the sea, 

 several of these fish, originally introduced from the 

 salt water, had lived many years, and were, to all 

 appearances, very healthy."'* As I have never 

 heard of this fish having been taken in any other 

 pond m this neighborhood, there can be but little 

 doubt that the "large pool" referred to in the above 

 note, was Jamaica pond. t The specimens you per- 

 ceive are considerably smaller than those purchas- 

 ed in our market — all that I have seen Irom this 

 pond, for the last year, are smaller than those j 

 commonly met with. From the quantities year- 

 ly taken, hovvever, they must have inrreased con- 

 siderably in number; and their flesh has lost no- 

 thing of its sweetness or flavor, as 1 have repeated- 

 ly had opporlunities of testing. 



This is the onl}' experiment, so far as I am able 

 to learn, which has been made to transport marine 

 fishes to fresh water, in our counir}'. It has proved 

 that this species can bear the change, and that 

 it will increase in numbers in its new locality. In 

 many ponds in our state more favorably circum- 

 stanced, better supplied with food, this fish would 

 undoubtedly retain its usual size. In a highly 

 interesting paper, entitled "Hints on the possi- 

 bility of changing the residence of certain fishes 

 from salt water to fresh—by J. MacCidloch, M. 

 D., F. R. S.," we learn that this same species, 

 (he sinelt, has been kept by JMr. Meynell, of Yarm, 

 Yorkshire, in a fresh water pond for four years, 

 having no communication with the sea, and they 

 grew icell, and bred as freely as under other cir- 

 cumstances. J In the valuable communication of 

 Dr. MacCulloch,just alluded to, several other spe- 

 cies ol fishes are mentioned as havin<j been trans- 



year 



"Philosophical Transactions Vol. 61, for thi 

 1771, p. 312. 



1 1 have ascertained since writinjr the above, that 

 Gov. Barnard's residence was on the border of Jamai- 

 ca pond. 



J Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature and the 

 Arts, Vol. 17, London, 1S24. Also, Yarrell's British 

 Fishes, Vcl, ii , p. 77. 



ported in a similar manner, and he observes that 

 the flavor of every fish has been improved by the 

 change. "The soZc becomes twice as thick as a 

 fish of the same size from the sea. The plaice 

 also increases materially in thickness : in some 

 cases, it appeared three times as thick as in the 

 sea. The bar se also turns much thicker, and im- 

 proves in delicacy. The mullet almost ceases to 

 grow in length, but enlarges in breadth, and pre- 

 sents a much deeper layer of fat."* No one can 

 give this elaborate paper, which I have merely 

 rderred to, a careful perusal, without being satis- 

 fied that our own ponds, many of them now utter- 

 ly useless, may be made rich repositories of nume- 

 rous marine fishes. 



Several instances might be referred to of fresh 

 water fishes bc'ing transported euccesslLilly, not 

 merely to neighboring ponds, separaied from each 

 other by a liivv miles, but also from countries even 

 ill very different degrees of latitude. The Oypri- 

 nus carpio, common carp, originally from the 

 central part of Europe, is now distributed through 

 almost all its ponds, rivers and lakes — and I have 

 previous y slated to this society, that a pond in 

 Newburgh, N. Y. was stocked with English carp.f 

 The Osphromenus olfax, a native of China, has 

 been introduced into the Isle of France, wliere it 

 increases rapidly, and has been taken (hence to 

 Cayenne. J The Cyprinus auralus, so generally 

 known as the gold flsh, the native of a lake in 

 China, in about the 30ih degree of latitude, has 

 been introduced and naturalized in the Mauri- 

 tius by the French, where they now abound in the 

 fish ponds and streams; they are cempletely na- 

 turalized, and are found in large numbers in many 

 of the streams of Portugal, whence they are carried 

 to England by trading vessels from Lisbon, St. 

 Uties, &c. in large earthen jars. § It breeds freely 

 in small ponds and even in tanks in England. || Nu- 

 merous ponds in Massachusetts abound with them, 

 notwithstanding the severity of our winters. IT 



The only instance with which I am acquainted 

 of a fresh water species being removed from one 

 sheet of water to another in this country, is that 

 of the Percaflavesceiis, yellow perch ; and lor this 

 successful attempt we are indebted'to the zeal and 

 perseverance of the late Dr. Miichill, ofNew York, 

 whose paper on the fishes of New York, published 

 in the transactions of the Literary and Philosophi- 

 cal Society of New York,** is of great value to the 

 American ichthyologist. He first published an 

 account of his Iransporiing ihe perch in ihe " Me- 

 dical Repository, "ft and afterward referred to it in 

 his paper just spoken of. From the original state- 

 ment I extract the following remarks : " In 1790, 

 Uriah Mitchill, Esq., high sheritt' of Queen's 

 county, and myself went to Rockonkoma pond, 

 in Suffolk county, a distance of about forty miles, 

 in a wagon. The object of our journey was to 

 transport alive some of the yelloiu perch with 

 which this body ofwaier abounds, to Success pond, 

 in the town of North Hempstead. We took 

 about three dozen of those which had been wound- 

 ed most superficially by the hook, and were so 

 Ibrtunate as to dismiss all of them but two into 



*Quarterly Journ. Science, Lit. and Arts, Vol. 19. 



t Silliman's Journal, Vol. 36, p. 342. 



j Griffith's Cuvier, Vol. 10, p. 220. 



II Yarrell's British Fishes, Vol. 1, p. 31G. § lb. 



H State Report on Fishes of Massachusetts, p. 82. 



** Vol. 1, p. 422. tt Vol. 3, p. 422. 



