I 



Fisli Cidture in Inland Waters 225 



fashion with certain l)iologists and to some extent fishes have re- 

 ceived such attention. But until recently such study has had little 

 or no place in fish culture, although a fev^ scientists and fish cultur- 

 ists have recognized its importance in that direction. Neither the 

 United States nor any individual state has ever made a complete 

 survey of any lake or stream.- There have been a few surveys that 

 have been carried on for a number of years and a very few compre- 

 hensive studies of lakes, but never one that could be said to l^e 

 thorough. 



As long ago as 1886, Dr. R. E. C. Stearns wrote that a knowl- 

 edge of the character or peculiarities of the environment or native 

 haunts of the species selected for transplanting has to be obtained, 

 and preceding the distribution and planting of the young fish an 

 inquiry and consideration of the factors or physical character of the 

 region in which it is proposed to make the plant of fish should be 

 made. 



These investigations having been made, a comparison of the 

 conditions of the original and proposed new environment is the key 

 to intelligent fish cultural distribution. But such procedure has 

 never been the practice except in a vei-y general inadequate way. 

 To quote again from Evermann ('94) : " Most of the work 

 which has been done so far [in lake and stream study] has been in 

 the line of determining factors in each environment, rather than 

 guessing at what the factors mean. Heretofore great harm has 

 been done by guessing at the facts and also guessing at their mean- 

 ing. We believe it much better to be content for the present with 

 the observation and recording of the facts, and wait until more 

 facts are in before interpreting their meaning." 



Within certain limits this is sound reasoning. But in all the years 

 since those words were uttered the principal effort has been directed 

 toward the accumulation of facts. Numerous investigations have 

 been made and an almost unwieldy accumulation of facts has been 

 acquired, and until more recent years there has been scarcely any 

 attempt to analyze facts and apply them in practice. The result 

 has been that early ascertained facts have been consigned to garret 

 files, if not destroyed, or those which have been published have been 

 buried in reports which are not generally available and therefore 

 are virtually lost. When, finally, there has been an awakening to 

 the absolute necessity for solving certain problems, the facts have 

 to be sought anew. 



A few^ states have made a beginning along some such lines as the 

 foregoing pages suggest. For a number of years the Massachusetts 

 Commission has had a biologist on its staff, but his duties comprised 

 all biological subjects on problems pertaining to the fisheries of both 

 inland waters and the sea. With his report for the years 1912, 

 1 91 3 and 1 9114, he submitted a special report upon preliminary 

 investigations for the systematic stocking of inland waters, in which 

 he said : " Unless a State Fish Commission has a definite working 

 knowledge of the inland waters, as a basis for methods of distribu- 



