TWELFTH ANNUAL MEETING. 31 
than the above facts, the habits of the frost-fish for the balance 
of the year are as little known as those of the blue-back trout; 
only, like the latter, they are a deep-water fish. 
Within a few days I have examined lake trout from Blue 
Mountain Lake and compared these with Lake George trout. 
The former, although good-conditioned fish, lacked the abun- 
dance of fat inside the abdominal cavity, and the cream-like 
curd between the flesh flakes that the Lake George trout pos- 
sesses. I understand fully that this one instance of comparison 
does not decide the merits of either the frostfish or whitefish as 
fish food. One lake may provide fat-giving properties that the 
other does not, but the fact remains that lean trout in Lake 
George become fat trout after the arrival of the whitefish from 
the Caledonia hatchery. 
The qualities of the alewife or “saw belly” as fish food, have 
been praised because it is a spring spawner, and the alewives re- 
sort to both deep and shoal water, thus givifig fish, other than 
the lake trout, an opportunity to test their edible qualities. 
The “saw belly” is found in some Western lakes, and has 
been introduced into others, and investigation may prove that it 
is, from its accommodating habits, superior to the whitefish as 
general fish food. Spawning in the spring is in its favor, as also 
the short time required for its eggs to hatch. 
Crawfish or crayfish are excellent food for black bass, and 
multiply more rapidly than a like number of “ bait fish” would; 
but an angler might as well bait his hook with a cork as to use 
a crawfish in waters where previously it was unknown. Bass 
must be educated to eat them, and it is the same with the hel- 
gramite, or dobson, and the bass. There were 18,000 crawfish 
placed in Lake George as food for fish, but it was three years 
before the bass would pay any attention to them on the hook, 
Schroon Lake abounds with crawfish, and it is one of the best 
bass baits that can be used. 
In the above statement I refer to the small-mouthed black bass, 
M. dolomieu of Henshall, and I take into account the capricious 
nature of the bass as a biter. I have read several accounts of 
ponds or streams that contain black bass that will not take the 
baited hook, because the waters have such an abundance of food 
