169 



analogous circumstances, can be treated in the same way. 

 New and remarkable species may even be originated, 

 and as great changes effected as from the crossing of 

 ■flowers and fruits. This operation was repeated in 1877, 

 and fully ten thousand of this strange combination were 

 hatched and turned free in the river. They must soon 

 prove their capacity for existence, and more or less of 

 them should be caught in 1879 or 1880, enough to call 

 attention to them if they shall have successfully solved 

 the problem of life, and combatted the dangers that en- 

 compass them. The adaptability of bass to unusual 

 circumstances, their capacity ot living in fresh or salt 

 water, or ciianging from one to the other, and their inde- 

 pendent habits of life, make a favorable result extremely 

 probable. It will certainly be a " queer fish " that shall 

 be compounded of half bass, half shad, and we look to its 

 appearance with interest. 



Catfish. — These have habits somewhat like the black 

 bass. They make nests and guard over them and their 

 young. They spawn in June, and are exceedingly pro- 

 lific. The young grow rapidly, and should be transport- 

 ed about the time the mother leaves them, while they are 

 still in schools. As food, there are few better fish to eat 

 than the blue catfish, while the yellow variety, though not 

 quite so dainty, is equally satisfying to the cravings of 

 hungry nature. They dig out a room two feet across in 

 the solid mud at the bottom or sides in the stream or pond, 

 and deposit their eggs in that, and lay over them and 

 fan them with their fins until they hatch, which takes 

 place in eight or ten days. They leave a hole open as a 

 sort of door to their hatching chambers to give them 

 egress and ingress. 



Lobsters. —The American lobster is found upon the 



Atlantic coast from New Jersey to Labrador, and yet 



s 



