132 American Fisheries Society. 



out upon the desert sands; and drainage of wet lands for agricul- 

 ture which lowers the underlying water table of the surrounding 

 country and exerts a harmful effect upon lakes perhaps miles dis- 

 tant in addition to absorbing a large part of the normal precipita- 

 tion. The number of anglers is increasing with the population. As 

 trout and other streams become uninhabitable to fishes the stream 

 fishermen, urged on by the enormous amount of bass advertising run 

 by the manufacturers of tackle, turn to join the multitude already 

 on the lakes. As lakes and ponds become "fished out," polluted 

 or are taken over by private individuals or protective associations, 

 and the number available becomes less, concentration even upon 

 the more distant waters is e:^ected through the agency of the trolley, 

 the automobile or the railroad. Once there, the outboard motor and 

 the latest developments of tackle, which give surprising accuracy 

 and speed in combing the waters, are brought into play, and baits 

 which seldom miss a strike drag out the fish. In addition to all 

 this — day and night, month after month, year after year — the great 

 nets of the commercial fishermen reap their harvest. That is one 

 side of the story. 



On the other hand we find a native fish fauna whose repro- 

 ductive capacities, even at their best during periods of favorable 

 readjustment, are less than two per cent efficient under 

 natural (undeveloped) conditions and have not increased one iota 

 to withstand the tremendous devastation inflicted by the opposing 

 forces. The fishes know no cooperation. Their entire lives are 

 practically devoted to securing food without becoming it, and at 

 the end nearly every one comes to a violent death in good health. 

 Behind them, it is true, is solidly lined up every hatchery in the 

 country turning out fry and fingerlings which have been carried 

 through the period when they are subject to greatest mortality; 

 hence so far as the body of water into which they are placed is con- 

 cerned, this terrible loss is escaped. The hatcheries do not entirely 

 overcome loss of young fish, but they do provide a concentrate 

 of fry and a still greater concentrate of fingerlings for stocking 

 which have survived owing to the care bestowed upon them. Hence, 

 if one is to stock waters, the fingerlings used represent more effi- 

 ciency at the time of planting than a like number produced natur- 

 ally in the waters, the degree of efficiency achieved being the differ- 

 ence between the number of eggs required under natural conditions 

 in the waters and the number required in the hatchery to produce 



