I402 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



ACCLIMATIZATION. 



Economic results of great value have come from the transplanting of native 

 aquatic animals into waters in which they are not indigenous and from the 

 introduction of fishes of foreign countries into the United States. The supply 

 of food and game fishes of every section of the country has thus been increased 

 and enriched, fisheries of vast extent have been established, and the pleasures 

 of angling have been greatly enhanced. 



In all the waters of the eastern, central, and southern parts of the United 

 States the range of every important native food and game fish has been extended 

 artificially. Especially extensive work has been done with the black basses 

 {Micropterus) , the crappies (Pomoxis), the rock bass (Ambloplites) , the sun- 

 fishes (Lepomis), the brook trout [Salvelinus fontinalis) , the lake trout {Cris- 

 tivomer namaycush), the landlocked salmon {Salmo sebago), and the catfishes 

 (Ameiurus and Iclalurus). Among the more conspicuous examples of this class 

 of work has been the stocking of the Potomac River with black basses, crappies, 

 and catfishes. 



Among the eastern fresh-water fishes that have been established and more 

 or less widely colonized in the Rocky Mountains or in transmontane regions are 

 the large-mouth black bass, the crappy, the yellow perch, several catfishes and 

 sunfishes, and the brook trout. Sportsmen of all the Western States can now 

 find excellent black-bass and brook-trout fishing. Colorado, which has known 

 the brook trout only a few years, is thoroughly stocked and affords unsurpassed 

 opportunities for anglers. So successful has been the work in that State that 

 the Government now draws most of its supply of brook-trout eggs therefrom, 

 and the progeny of Colorado fish are used for replenishing eastern waters from 

 which the original stock was taken for introduction into Colorado. 



The most noteworthy results of the introduction of native fishes into new 

 regions have been seen in the Pacific States and represent two contributions from 

 the Atlantic seaboard — the shad and the striped bass. The economic outcome 

 of the acclimatization of these fishes is without parallel in the entire history of 

 migratory species. 



The colonizing of the shad on the Pacific coast was one of the greatest 

 achievements in fish acclimatization. Aside from the important financial 

 results, the experiment was noteworthy because of certain changes that have 

 occurred in the habits of the species, and because the feat of transporting shad 

 fry across the continent at that early day was justly regarded as remarkable, 

 and had a marked influence on the development of fish transportation, which 

 has now attained such perfection. With the experiment were associated two 

 of the pioneer fish culturists of America, whose name and fame are known the 

 world over — Seth Green and Livingston Stone. Relatively small plants of 



