406 Miscellanies. 



About fifteen years since Mr. Robert Kinyon, then living at the village 

 of Amber on the east shore of the Otisco lake, in Onondaga county, de- 

 termined to make an effort to introduce into its waters, yellow perch from 

 the Skaneateles, in the waters of which they abound; and pickerel from 

 the cluster of lakes or ponds that constitute the extreme nortliern sources 

 of the Tioughuioga branch of the Susquehanna river, in some of which 

 this fish is very plentiful. Neither of these fishes had been seen in the 

 Otisco ; but suckers, an occasional white fish from the lakes, and the 

 delicious speckled trout abounded in its waters, as well as the smaller 

 fishes common to all our lakes. Tn the Skaneateles, only three miles dis- 

 tant, were found the perch and the salmon trout, both strangers to the 

 Otisco. A dozen perch of medium size were caught with hooks, put in a 

 barrel of water, and transported from one lake to the other without diffi- 

 culty. The third year from their removal the Otisco seemed to be filled 

 with them ; and I have frequently heard it remarked, that in that and the 

 succeeding year, the perch both for size and numbers exceeded that of 

 any year since in these respects. If we may speak of our own piscatory 

 labors, we may say they were decidedly more successful in those years so 

 far as this fish was concerned, than they have ever been since. A quan- 

 tity of the pickerel were the same season introduced in the same way, but 

 they have not multiplied ; indeed we have never heard of a fish of this 

 kind being taken in the Otisco. 



The fine trout that formerly were caught in the lake have gradually 

 become scarce, and are now very rarely taken. This by some has been 

 attributed to the introduction of the perch ; but it is believed a more sat- 

 isfactory cause is to be found in the perseverance and success with which 

 the trout was pursued when entering the inlets or making its beds on the 

 shores in October and November, for the purpose of spawning. Very few 

 that entered the streams escaped, and in this case, the capture of one was 

 frequently the destruction of a thousand. 



We have knott'n the common dace and bullpout of this lake, trans- 

 ported some three or four miles to a mill pond, in which they have multi- 

 plied to a great extent; the former filling the streams both above and be- 

 low the pond, while the latter preferred the deep water and muddy bottom 

 of the pond to the clear water of the streams. We imagine there are few 

 if any of our fresh-water fishes, that may not be successfully removed to 

 other locations, should it be found desirable. W. G. 



Otisco, N. y. Jan. 1841. 



8. Stars missing. — Tn the volume of Greenwich Astronomical Obser- 

 vations made in 1838, (published in London, 1840, 4to.) the following 

 stars are reported as having been repeatedly sought for, but without 

 success : 



A star A.R. 2h. 9m. ; N.P.D. 24^ 31', observed with Ramsden's sector, 

 in the Ordnance Survey of England. 



