94 Thirty-second Report on the State Musevm. 



the desirability of transplanting fish-food. 



If, as there is every reason to believe, the great abundance of trout in Cale- 

 donia creek is owing to two principal causes, viz.: the character of the water, 

 and the nature of its fauna and flora, then we may draw the following conclu- 

 sions : 



First. In any stream having the same character of water, the addition of a 

 similar fauna and flora should fit it for an equal abundance of trout. 



Second. Streams, ponds, and lakes having a different character of water (as 

 to current, temperature, substances in solution, etc.), by the addition of a simi- 

 lar fauna and flora, may be fitted for an equal abundance — perhaps greater — of 

 some species of fish desirable for food. 



It is evident that, however well adapted a body of water my be, in the con- 

 ditions above referred to, and others of the kind, for a fish population, there may 

 still be wanting the essential requisites of an appropriate and efficient food- supply. 



The absence of proper food is not necessarily the consequence of unsuitable 

 conditions of the water. There are, undoubtedly, in certain waters, conditions 

 which* are unfavorable to, perhaps inconsistent with, the presence of certain forms 

 of animal life, or of their abundance. For example, Dr. Kolenat, ut cit., asserts, 

 that in water containing an excess of lime or oxide of iron, only certain sub- 

 families of the PhryganidcB, as the Sericostomides and the Rhyachophilides 

 which inhabit sessile cases attached to stones, are to be found, to the exclusion 

 of those subfamilies which occupy cases swimming freely in the water. In such 

 waters, the writer claims that the propagation of fish cannot be advantageously 

 conducted. 



It should be borne in mind, that throughout nature, conditions are ever chang- 

 ing. It would be difficult to cite a locality where the conditions of to-day are 

 those of a century ago ; often a decade of years suffices to produce material 

 modification, especially when human agency lends its powerful aid — always in 

 the direction of disturbing the harmony in nature which had previously existed. 

 Forests are felled : the fauna which they harbored — the mammals, birds, reptiles, 

 insects — perish with it, or are driven elsewhere. The streams which they 

 sheltered are dried up, or change their character with the season, and the larger 

 bodies to which they are tributary, are modified in temperature, in their soluble 

 constitutents, in area, in the flora and geological nature of their bed. Mills 

 are erected, dams are constructed, and factories discharge their poisonous chem- 

 icals into the once pure waters. A too ardent pursuit of the pleasures of an- 

 gling, or an excessive love of gain, may have thoroughly depleted waters which 

 before had teemed with the animal life natural to it. 



With the evidences of such changes wrought, through the operation of known 

 causes, it would be inexcusable to accept a present unfavorable condition as 

 unalterable. We find a stream barren of animal life ; it has neither fish nor, 

 apparently, food for fishes. Tradition does not tell us whether it has always lain 

 thus, or whether it once swarmed with occupants. It may have rested so long 

 fallow, that it only needs the dropping of the seed to insure a bountiful return ; 

 or, in addition to the seed, its food-elements may also have to be added. 



In view of the valuable results which have attended the labors of your Com- 

 mission thus far, it would seem to be proper that the attempt should be made 

 to cultivate every now barren piece of water within our State, particularly as it 

 may be undertaken with the prospects of success.* I purposely employ the word 

 cultivate, for its use, I believe, is authorized by the examinations which I have 

 made in accordance with the request of your board, and heretofore referred to. 



*It is asserted that, in China, every body of water of the extent even of a small pond, has 

 been utilized for fish-culture, and that an acre of water yields a larger return than an equal 

 area of land. 



