TWELFTH ANNUAL MEETING. 25 
a ae 
The failure to restock such streams, if any such failure exists, 
must be attributed to other causes than the introduction of the 
black bass, prominent among which is the unrelenting pursuit 
of the young fry by the predatory fishes mentioned. They are 
only exceeded in their destructiveness by the genus ome, with 
his miles of gill-nets at the mouths of the streams, to prevent 
the return of the shad or salmon during the breeding season; 
and should asfew run the gauntlet and succeed in depositing 
their spawn in the upper reaches of the rivers, the eels, bull- 
heads and suckers take good care of it. All of which is truly de- 
plorable, and deplorably true. But in your just and righteous 
indignation do not make a scape-goat of so good a fellow as 
the black bass. 
In Western waters where the bass exists with the usual 
varieties of fishes, there is no perceptible decrease in the num- 
bers of either. If any species suffers it is always the black bass 
on account of over-fishing, spearing, etc. I know of isolated 
lakes in Wisconsin where the black bass has co-existed with the 
cisco (one of the salmon family), longer than the memory of man 
runneth to the contrary, without a decrease of the latter fish- 
If then the bass cannot “get away with” the cisco in confined 
waters, how can he “clean out” the shad or salmon in large flow- 
ing streams? Moreover,I know of a small stream that abounded 
in black bass and crawfish, in which brook trout were introduced 
to the discomfiture of the former fish, for the trout increased 
while the numbers of the bass grew smaller by degrees and 
beautifully less. 
If then there are waters in which the brook trout or the rain- 
bow trout will not thrive, do not hesitate to aid in the further 
distribution of the black bass by introducing that desirable 
species. It is easily done, and success is already assured. You 
have only to look at the Potomac, the Susquehannah, the Dela- 
ware, and many other streams for evidence of its rapid increase 
in new waters. 
The black bass is excelled by no other fish that swims for 
gameness, and among fresh-water species by but one, the white- 
fish, for the table. And furthermore, he will not eat the spawn 
of his mate, or that of his fellows’ mates. ' His natural food is 
