STUDY OUR OWN FISHES. 131 



able to tell you. Fish breeding has been practised thus far, in 

 the old world, upon fishes no one of which do we find in our 

 waters. Therefore, whatever has been learned in fish breeding 

 abroad will avail us only in a measure, — to the extent to which 

 our fish resemble those fishes, — and not fully, because ours are 

 distinct and separate kinds, peculiar to our waters, and not 

 found elsewhere. It is true, if we should judge by the names, 

 we should at once infer that we have plenty of the same fishes. 

 We have the trout, we have the pickerel, we have the eel, we 

 have the white-fish, we have the bass ; in fact, all our fishes 

 have received names which apply to fishes in Europe ; but, for 

 all that, they are not the same. The first settlers of this coun- 

 try, when they met these fishes in these waters, gave them the 

 names of the fishes which they most resembled ; but they did 

 not recognize the slight differences, or, sometimes, the more 

 prominent differences which distinguish them. You have a 

 familiar example in some of our birds. Everyone knows that 

 the European robin is a small bird, not larger than a sparrow, 

 which is totally different from the bird which we call the robin, 

 but both have red breasts, and struck by the similarity to the 

 European robin in this respect, the first settlers, seeing a bird 

 approaching their houses as familiarly as the robin does in the 

 old world, gave it that name ; and yet it is a bird that does not 

 even belong to the same family among birds. So you see that 

 in order to be successful in carrying out this new business of 

 fish breeding, we must first study our own fishes ; we must 

 learn in what manner the trout of these waters differs from the 

 brook trout of the old world ; we must remember that even in 

 different parts of this country there are different kinds of brook 

 trout ; that the brook trout in the high north, beyond Lake 

 Superior, is another kind from our own brook trout ; and we 

 have to learn what are tlie differences in the habits of our lake 

 trout as compared with the lake trout of Europe ; we have got 

 to learn what are the differences in the ways of our pickerel, as 

 compared with the pickerel of Europe ; and so with every kind 

 of fish. Here is, therefore, one of the first difficulties which is 

 to be overcome ; and while following in a measure, the indica- 

 tions of those who have been succsssful in this business abroad, 

 we must remember that if we meet with failure, it may very 



