lyS TRANSACTIONS iSqQ-'oO 



particles. Many of this batch of fingerHngs measured fully three 

 inches in length. The growth of fishes, especially j^oung fishes > 

 varies extremely ; thus brook trout are usually two inches long 

 when four months old ; three inches when eight or nine months 

 old, and five inches when a year old. Ivake trout are six inches 

 long at the end of the first year, and black bass at the same age 

 are four to six inches. Salmon, when confined in ponds, are often 

 stunted in growth, thus 3,000 salmon fry were planted in a small 

 lake near I^ouisburg, Cape Breton, in 1888. In 1889 they were 

 three or four inches long, and in 1891 (in their third year) some 

 were caught with the fly, but were not more than eight inches in 

 length. A similar experiment at the Restigouche Hatchery, 

 resulted in producing young salmon, seven inches long in the 

 third 3^ear, and ready to descend to the sea. 



Discretion is not always shown in the planting of fish suited 

 to the waters selected. Carp have been a questionable benefit, 

 black bass in soni'i waters have been far from a blessing, and 

 that splendid game fish, the maskinonge, proves to be a veritable 

 fresh-water shark in some lakes. "If planted in many of the 

 small inland lakes (says Mr. Annin, jr., Supterintendent of N.Y. 

 State Hatcheries) the result will be that perch, pickerel and bass 

 fishing would be greatly damaged." If predacious fish abound, 

 it is useless to attempt • stocking with a better class fish. The 

 fry are inevitabl}^ exterminated. In Chautauqua Lake, N.Y., the 

 U. S. authorities wisely decided to clean out that voracious 

 ganoid, the bill fish {Lepidosteii-s) , and in two seasons over 4,000 

 of these useless fish were captured in seines, pounds and traps, 

 such extermination being often necessary before stocking begins. 

 For some years the pike perch or dore {L^icioperca or Stizostedioii) 

 were hatched at Sandwich and at Ottawa. The first batch, 

 about one million, were hatched in 1881, but partly on account 

 of difiiculties in securing ample supplies, this species was, after 

 ten or eleven years, no longer embraced in the Government opera- 

 tions. Black bass too, for a time, were hatched at Newcastle, 

 and German carp were also included, for one or two seasons, 

 under the mistaken idea that it would introduce ' ' into ponds and 

 waters (to quote Mr. S. Wilmot's report) now depleted a highly 

 esteemed description of food fish hitherto unknown in our 

 country. ' ' A thousand young carp were, with the late Prof. Baird's 



