Fish^ Fishing and Fisheries of Pennsylvania. 53 



found dead on the banks of the Susquehanna under the Shumokin dam 

 some time ago. This fish weighed twenty-two pounds and bad evidently 

 in life been a trifle heavier "but the average weight of the narket speci- 

 mens is less than five pounds." But fishes of ten or twelve pounds are 

 not uncommon. 



" The pike-perch feed on the bottom upon other fishes, and has been 

 charged even with destroying its own young. It prefers clear and rapid 

 waters, and lurks under submerged logs and rocks, from which it can 

 readily dart upon its prey. Spawning takes place in April and May, and 

 in Pennsylvania continues until June. The period of hatching varies from 

 about fourteen to thirty days, depending upon the "temperature of the 

 water. The eggs vary from about seventeen to twenty-five to the inch, 

 and a single female has been estimated to contain from two hundred 

 thousand to three hundred thousand eggs. In a state of nature only a 

 small percentage of the eggs are hatched out ; the greater portion are 

 driven upon the lake shores by storms and devoured by fishes upon 

 the spawning beds." " Dexter," in Forest and Stream, August 14, 1890, 

 makes the following statement about its habits in the lakes: "These 

 fish run up the rivers before or as soon as the ice is out, and after spawn- 

 ing lie off the river's mouth feeding on and off the sand flats, as the 

 spring rains bring down plenty of worms and probably other matter 

 which they feed on. As soon as the water gets warm they sag off and 

 work along the shores in two to thirty feet of water, preferring cobbly 

 bottom ; from here they go into very deep water, coming on the reefs 

 to feed, and when the wind blows very hard for a day or so after a big 

 blow, you will 'find them right on top of a reef. I think the wind 

 changes the water over the reefs, making a new current and cooler water, 

 so they come up to feed. They are a bottom fish, and to fish for them 

 successfully we must go to the bottom for them. They are nearly as 

 particular as salmon-trout about the water they inhabit, and conse- 

 quently rank very high as a food fish, being very white, solid and ex- 

 tremely free from bones." 



The pike-perch is fairly entitled to be called a handsome fish, even 

 though there is something of ferocity in the appearance of its jaw. It 

 is long and slender like a pike, with markings somewhat similar; a gen- 

 eral color of mingled olive and brassy yellow, and with the strong 

 shapely fins of the perch. 



This is the characteristic appearance of the mature fish; the young 

 are equally striking, with rapidly changing color as they advance to- 

 wards maturity. They have, in their earliest stages, oblique dark bands, 

 very much like the king-fish of the sea. " The eye of the living fish is 

 like a glowing emeralcT," so green and fiery is it in its younger days. 



The same reckless disregard of the rights of posterity and of others in 

 their generation was observed by the fishermen on the Susquehanna 

 with regard to the pike-perch as to the shad. As a result, this noble 



