114 Book of the Black Bass. 



exhausted, and the old fish will prey upon the young, should 

 any be hatched, until a certain average, proportionate to 

 the supply of food, is established and maintained. 



In the case of newly formed ponds, they should be well 

 stocked with minnows, Crustacea, frogs, etc., at least a year 

 before the bass are introduced. It is also necessary that 

 there should be in all ponds, holes of not less than twelve 

 feet in depth, to which the bass can retire in very hot 

 weather, and where they can also hibernate. 



In some waters, one species of black bass may prosper 

 better than the other ; for instance, in large ponds or shal- 

 low lakes, with a sluggish current, muddy bottom, and 

 abounding in fresh-water algte, the large-mouth bass will 

 thrive better than the small-mouth species. But in 

 streams, and ponds with a good supply of running water, 

 either, or both species may be introduced. 



The black bass has been successfully transported to Eng- 

 land. Mr. Silk, fish-culturist to the Marquis of Exeter, 

 has taken over two lots of yoimg small-mouth bass from the 

 Delaware Eiver, the first in 1878, and the second in 1879. 

 In a letter to the late Frank Buckland, Mr. Silk says : 



"In 1879 I went again, and started from America with 1,200 

 black bass, and on arriving home I had 812, having done better 

 than I did on the previous occasion. All of the black bass were 

 for the Marquis of Exeter, he having borne all the expense of the 

 experiment. Most of the fish were placed in a lake belonging to 

 his lordship, called Whitewater, near Stamford. Not any of them 

 have been caught yet, but two of them were found dead in a pipe, 

 where they had got jammed. The pipe supplied a, filterer, and 

 they had got in and could not get out again. From what I 

 could learn they would be about half a pound each in weight, so 

 that they had done very well. The first lot that were put in will 

 be three years old in April, when they are expected to commence 

 breeding." 



