THE STRIPED BASS 



fish-culturist with this species has thus far been 

 limited to fresh-water localities. 



Seth Green and Marcellus Holton were among 

 the early experimenters with the bass, their work 

 having been carried on more than thirty years ago 

 and just about the time of the beginning of artifi- 

 cial hatching by the United States Fish Commis- 

 sion. For a long period of years, for some reason or 

 reasons not well known, next to nothing was done 

 to increase the numbers of this valuable fish, al- 

 though desultory investigations were continued. In 

 the meantime new colonies of striped bass were es- 

 tablished in California, from which State we may 

 soon be compelled to obtain market supplies of the 

 fish for the East. As has been already stated, the 

 California Fish Commissioners, having observed 

 that the fish are not inclined to spread far from 

 their original centres, are introducing them at 

 points widely separated, hoping to create new and 

 successful fishing-grounds wherever the water con- 

 ditions permit. 



Legal restrictions of one kind or another are 

 necessary for the permanence of bass-fishing. In 

 the East there is a close-time corresponding by sup- 

 position with the breeding season. In California 

 there is a continuous open season, but no bass under 

 three pounds in weight can be lawfully sold or had 

 in possession. The sale of very small bass in East- 

 ern markets has certainly been one of the causes 



187 



