Fish^ Fishing and Fisheries of Pennsylvania. 95 



tion. The black bass may fairly be put down as one of the most proli- 

 fic and valuable of our fresh water fishes. Their fertility is wonderful, 

 a pair of large bass will deposit from 20,000 to 30,000 eggs, and these 

 are guarded with Spartan like fidelity by both parents, alternately re- 

 lieving each other, watching all intruders with jealous eyes and attack- 

 ing them with great ferocity should they approach too near. Even 

 after the young are hatched the watchfulness of the parents is still kept 

 up for some weeks, their numerous enemies are battled with, and the 

 little ones are taught to forage and obtain food suitable to their taste 

 and condition. 



The very rapidity with which they increased caused in a few years 

 fear, less they would drive out all other fishes, but this fear soon proved 

 groundless. Discussing this possibility the fish commissioners in their 

 report for 1883-84, say " while all will admit that the black bass is one 

 of the most prolific, palatable and gamey of our fresh water fishes, the 

 question has arisen and is being warmly discussed, whether its intro- 

 duction into the waters of eastern Pennsylvania has been a blessing or 

 otherwise. 



"Nearly everybody, but especially sportsmen, anticipated great re- 

 sults from their introduction. Anglers were especially delighted, while 

 commercial fishermen, turning their ej'es towards the Potomac, which 

 was producing great quantities of bass, looked hopefully forward to the 

 time when the streams of our own state would yield a like harvest. As 

 the trout streams in nearly every portion of the state had become prac- 

 tically barren, the black bass were welcomed with sincere joy. Antici- 

 pation ran high and it cannot be denied that it was fully warranted by 

 the almost immediate rapid increase in numbers and size of the new 

 comers. 



"That those bright anticipations were ephemeral, and that they were 

 realized but for a very brief period, needs not the saying. lu some 

 cases the bass were roundly denounced as nuisances, and among the 

 loudest and most vigorous complainants were those who were of those 

 who, only a little while before, had been their most zealous champions. 

 The strangers were charged with not merely devouring other fish too 

 weak to defend themselves against such powerful assailants, but that 

 when they had exhausted that source of food supply, with turning upon 

 and devouring their own progeny; that ultimately they would have en- 

 tire possession of the streams, and that, eventually failing to find the 

 required supply of animal food, would themselves become extinct. In 

 proof of the latter allegation, the gradual diminutions in the annual 

 catches in the Potomac and Susquehanna were pointed to. 



"Now, all this may be true, and it may not. The friends of the black 

 bass while admitting their ravenous disposition, stoutly deny that the 

 bass are indiscriminate exterminators of weaker fish, or that there is 



