Fish Culture in Inland Waters 271 



Problems of stocking and restocking of waters must be con- 

 sidered from at least two and probably three different angles: (i) 

 Is it the intention to make the body of w'ater entirely self-support- 

 ing and the fish self-sustaining? (2) Is it intended to make annual 

 plants, and depend upon them alone for the fishing? (3) Is it 

 expected that the products of natural propagation shall ht re- 

 inforced by annual plantings of fish? 



There are certain requisite conditions for each of these proposi- 

 tions. In the first there must be a permanent and adequate food 

 supply for all ages of fish from the time they begin to feed until 

 they cease to do so. There must be spawning places of adequate 

 area and suitability. These are the principal points for consideration. 

 All others hinge on them, for in a body of water otherwise of emi- 

 nent suitability, but lacking in either one of these essentials, the 

 stock cannot become self-sustaining. 



In the second proposition, in a body of water, if otherwise suitable 

 in every way, spawning places are not a necessary consideration, 

 and the stock may be maintained by regular plantings every year 

 with enough fish to take the place of those removed, or dying from 

 natural causes. But this is an uncertain and expensive procedure. 



An extreme example of this sort of procedure — extreme in that 

 a food supply had to be introduced also — is one related by " Billy " 

 Keil ('22) concerning " Salmon Fishing in Sterling Lake." Sterl- 

 ing Lake is a small body of water, according to Mr. Keil about 1% 

 miles long and a mile wide, situated on the E. H. Harriman estate. 

 It is stated that it carries an average depth of more than 75 feet 

 with a maximum of 126 feet. It has no tributaries and the general 

 character is rocky with the exception of a sand beach at the northern 

 end. Mr. Keil regards it as a spring-fed lake, in fact, virtually 

 itself a spring. It is related that in 1887 Alpine saibling from 

 Europe were introduced and subsequently a few were caught and 

 some were observed for a few years in the lake, then they dis- 

 appeared. In the late seventies it seems that lake trout had been 

 introduced and apparently " thrived " for a time and produced 

 fair angling. To the lake trout Mr. Keil attributes the disappear- 

 ance of the saibling. Finally the lake trout disappeared, due to 

 " lack of food, with its resulting cannibalism." In 1903 Mr. Keil 

 restocked the lake with 30,000 fingerling lake trout and he states 

 that for about ten years following this plant excellent angling for 

 these fish was to be had by the few individuals fortunate enough 

 to obtain a permit to fish this water. " It was not unusual," he 

 says, " for an angler to take four or five trout, averaging 7 or 8 

 pounds each, in a day's fishing, though from the size of the fish taken 

 it was plainly evident that if natural reproduction was taking place 

 (as no doubt it was) none of the resulting progeny were escaping 

 the voracious maws of the mature fish. From 1913 to 1918 not over 

 a dozen in all of these fish were taken, most of them old specimens 

 and none in very good physical condition." 



In 19 18 Mr. Keil was engaged by the Mid vale Company, who 

 had leased the property, to make a thorough examination of this 



