Fish, Fishing and Fisheries of Pennsylvania. 59 



CHAPTEE X. 



The Western Hatchery. 



The work at the Marietta hatchery g^rew to such proportions with 

 such rapidity that the need of another station was speedily made ap- 

 parent. The commissioners, in 1875, therefore, began again the work 

 of "house hunting." Among the places which attracted their attention 

 was one at Corry, on the line of the Philadelphia and Erie branch of the 

 Pennsylvania railroad, forty miles from the city of Erie, on the lake of 

 that name. 



The place was owned by Mr. Seth Weeks, and on it he had been con- 

 ducting a small hatchery for brook trout. It was particularly well 

 situated; its area was a little more than nine acres embraced in a com- 

 pact oblong form. Smith street, a thoroughfare extending to it from 

 Corry, divided the property in two parts, one of which, the lower, is 

 heavily wooded, chiefly with the white pine, one of the most graceful 

 of the American evergreens. 



About two miles from the center of Corry, nearly the whole area of the 

 lot is gemmed with springs of delicious water, but as the property has a 

 gently inclined surface, except on one portion, there was no extra damp- 

 ness or moisture. The streams which run from the springs flow over 

 heavy blue clay ; there the water, though clear as crystal, appears dark 

 by reflection, a color rarely seen in spring water. So intense, indeed, is 

 this reflection, that, except on very sunny days, the bottoms of the trout 

 ponds caimot be seen. 



But mucky though the waters appear, they are for the entire year of 

 a singularly even temperature, varying scarcely a degree in winter or 

 summer, and fishes of all kinds seem to grow rapidly and thrive, for at 

 the present time there are brook trout in the ponds there which, for 

 size, are more like shad than anything else. 



Besides the springs and woods a pond or two graced the grounds, and 

 there were also a very comfortable dwelling house and a large barn. 

 This bam was an ancient edifice, and had been at one time a primitive 

 saw mill, one of the very first in that section of the country. The tim- 

 bers in it are of enormous strength and look as though they would last 

 for a thousand years. 



For the purchase of this property the legislature appropriated 

 $2,000,and for its immediate improvement $3,000. With a portion 

 of this latter money a first-class hatching house was erected. It was 

 sixty feet long by thirty feet wide, and contained troughs of the most 

 approved patterns, and much better adopted to the purpose for which 



