Creek from the prohibition against fishing with nets, 
was stricken out, and the law made uniform as to this 
county. 
At his suggestion the section giving the right of local 
legislation was also amended so as to read as follows : 
Section 37. “ It shall be lawful for the board of supervi¬ 
sors of any county "at their annual meeting, to make any 
regulations or ordinance protecting other birds, fish or 
game, than those mentioned in this act; and also for the 
further protection of such birds, fish or game as are in 
this act mentioned, except wild deer, and to this end to 
prohibit hunting or fishing in particular localities or 
waters lying wholly within their respective counties for 
limited periods and during certain months of the year, 
and to prescribe punishments and penalties for the viola¬ 
tion thereof, and adopt all necessary measures for the en¬ 
forcement of such punishment and the collection of such 
penalties and such regulations and ordinances shall be 
published in the papers in such county in which the ses¬ 
sion laws are published and a certified copy thereof shall 
be filed in the office of the clerk of the county.” 
The powers conferred by this section are'still indefi- 
nate, but it was impracticable to obtain any more com¬ 
plete amendment. As the law now stands even aB amen¬ 
ded, the powers vested in Boards of Supervisors are possi¬ 
bly more limited than is generally supposed. 
The constitution authorizes the Legislature to delegate 
certain powers to Boards of Supervisors, but it cannot 
confer a power it doeB not possess itself. 
The right of the Legislature to pass game and fish laws 
arises only from the power to control or regulate the 
manner in which a right or privilege belonging to two or 
more in common shall be enjoyed by all possessing this 
common right. 
To illustrate : If a person has a pond exclusively on his 
ownland with neither inlet nor outlet, the fish, being in a 
state of captivity, are the exclusive property of the owner 
of the land, and the owner can probably take them when 
and as he likes. 
But when two or more own land underlying a pond or 
stream, the Legislature has the right to pass a law for the 
protection of the fish whicli are common to the water 
therein, and such a law is made for exclusive protection 
to the owners of the adjacent or underlying land, not 
only against outsiders but as against each other. 
Suppose that four persons, each own one quarter of the 
land underlying a pond having no inlet nor outlet, it is 
questionable whether the Legislature have the power to 
draw an imaginary line through the centre of such pond 
and, under the pretense of protecting the fish which roam 
through the entire waters, or by virture of then power 
to regulate the manner in which these four persons 
shall enjoy a right or privilege common to all; then 
say to the persons on one side of such line that it shall be 
unlawful to take fish in any. way for a period of years, 
and at the same time permit those on the other side to 
take them when aud as they choose. And yet w 
different laws are passed for different counties this result 
must often follow. 
And if it is not clear that the Legislature has such 
power, then it is equally uncertain whether Boards of 
Supervisors can be empowered to pass any ordinance 
regulating the taking of fish in their own county in 
waters which in part lie in or flow through an adjacent 
county. 
The question must sooner or later come before and be 
settled by the courts, whether local acts for the protection 
of fish must not be made to apply to the entire waters of 
a stream or pond or lake, instead of being limited by 
arbitrary geographical lines. 
Your Committee therefore respectfully submit whether 
it would not be well for this Board, in view of the large 
interests involved, to take immediate steps tewards secur¬ 
ing the passage of such general laws as shall more clearly 
define the powers of Boards of Supervisors in regard to 
local legislation, especially in regard to waters lying 
partly in then- own and partly in other counties. 
At the present time the local laws passed by this and 
other boards are not only not respected, but their enforce¬ 
ment is very generally defied, and your Committee 
recommond that any ordinance for Bueb further protec¬ 
tion of fish which may he passed in accordance with the 
powers conferred by the above section should for the 
present he made to apply only to waters lying wholly 
within the boundaries of the county. 
The belief that the ordinances heretofore passed, can¬ 
not be enforced has led to an open defiance of the law in 
this county, and has, it is believed, done much towards 
creating an indifference to protecting our waters. 
Your committee are of the opinion that it is desirable 
to procure as soon as practicable, a supply of the Michigan 
grayling and of foreign carp, and although they are not 
advised that these fish can he procured during the com¬ 
ing year, yet in suggesting a further appropriation, the 
possibility of obtaining these fish is had in view. 
A our committee have boen impressed with the fact that 
for want of definite information as to the waters of this 
county, and the varieties of fish therein, they have been 
unable to apportion the fish reoeived by them, equitably 
among the different towns. 
Instead of delivering fish simply to those who may ap¬ 
ply for them, they are of the opinion that in order to 
carry out fully the purpose for which they were appointed, 
they should he able to stock the waters generally with 
desired varieties of fish so far as any appropriations com¬ 
ing into their hands will permit—such action must be 
preceded by the definite information which, as stated 
above, they have solicited but have failed to obtain. 
They therefore suggest for the consideration of the 
Board* whether it may not tend to a more just as well as 
economical use of any further appropriations which may 
be made, for them to give some Committee of the Board 
the power to obtain such information ; and to that end, to 
authorize some person to make a personal inspection of, 
or to inquire into the character and location of the prin¬ 
cipal streams and ponds in this county, and the varieties 
of fish now therein. 
Such information could probably be obtained and col¬ 
lated at an expense of not exceeding $50 or $75, asjno 
doubt some persons interested in the matter would vol¬ 
unteer to do the work if only his actual expenses should 
be paid. 
In distributing fish during the last two years it has 
been necessary to notify parties who have called for them, 
that they would have to bear the expenses incurred in call¬ 
ing for them at the place of delivery and depositing them 
ii» the stretuns, 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
_ 
925 
This has entailed upon persons who were quite willing 
to give their time and services, a bill of expanse with no 
means of reimbursement, and it has evidently deterred 
many from taking an active part in stocking the streams. 
If we are correct in the above suggestions and facts, 
wo feel persuaded that the board will agree with us in 
the following brief conclusions. 
1st. That before makingany further considerable expen¬ 
diture, your committee should be fully advised as to the 
needs of the county. 
2nd. That in stocking any water, the supply in the first 
instance should be sufficient for all practical purposes. 
3rd. That tliexpropriation should be sufficiently large 
to enable your committee to pay the necessary expenses 
incurred in so stocking once, any pond or stream with any 
needed variety of fish. 
If the board concurs in the above views, your commit¬ 
tee believe that the appropriation for the coming year 
would have to be somewhat increased, and they therefore 
respectfully suggest that in their opinion an approbation 
of the sum of $500 for the coming year will prove in the 
end to be a wise expenditure of money. 
In closing their report, your committee desire to ex¬ 
press then - sense of the. great obligations which they are 
under to Mr. Seth Green, not only for personal favors and 
attention to your committee, but especially for the very 
liberal supply of fish furnished to our county during the 
past year. 
DIGESTION AND GROWTH OF SUNDRY 
FISHES. 
AN INTERESTING CHAPTER OP [STUDY. 
I AM now engaged in the business of fish culture in the 
far West, in sight of the turbid waters of the great 
Missouri, where I spend a great portion of my time, not 
only in cultivating the finer varieties of fish, such as the 
salmonidte, but also in studying the nature aud habits of 
those varieties which are indigenous to this country, and 
are commonly termed natives. For the purpose of being 
better enabled to study the habits of these last-named va¬ 
rieties during the fall of 1878, 1 had a dam constructed 
in my spring branch, immediately below my fish ponds, 
in such a manner as to form a small body of pure, clear 
water. In this I placed some 700 or 800 native fish of 
different varieties, embracing the beach bass, sheeps- 
heads, buffalos, and pickerel. From the banks of this 
body of clear water I was enabled to see every movement 
of my finny pets, and many moments of leisure have 1 
spent in watching their habits. The black bass (Microp- 
ter pallidas) would usually swim into the current, where 
he would sport about on the gravelly bottom, while the 
buffalo would retire into stiller water and browse in 
the grass and water-cress growing in the bottom. 
Thus I ascertained their habits of feeding, and was en¬ 
abled to determine what growth they would make in a 
given time without being fed. artificially. Hence I sel¬ 
dom, if ever, gave them any feed. The buffalo ( Buba- 
lichthys bubal us) in a few weeks became attenuated, and 
began dying. This I attributed to their being in cold 
spring water with a current too rapid, and their not being 
able to procure sufficient food. The black bass, on the 
other hand, tlirived amazingly well, and were making a 
most marvelous growth, TIub I attributed to the fact 
that they were in pure water of a uniform temperature. 
The bass, although found in all kinds of water, undoubt¬ 
edly thrive best in clear, pure, spring brooks with grav¬ 
elly bottom. The size of these bass when I first put them 
in this place was from four to six inches in length, and in 
less than three weeks had grown upwards of an inch. 
Tins, I must confess, notwithstanding I had implicit con¬ 
fidence in their making a rapid growth, astonished me 
much. I had always been a believer in heavy feeding, 
and felt satisfied that the amount of growth that would 
be derived in a certain rime depended mainly upon the 
quantity of feed that had been consumed. This led me 
to speculate where these bass obtained their food, confined 
as they were in a very small body of water containing 
some 800 fish, and immediately below, my ponds contain¬ 
ing some 40,000 salmon young and older. For the pur¬ 
pose of ascertaining this, I made my bass frequent visits, 
and by remaining quietly secreted on the banks, soon dis¬ 
covered the source of their food supply. One day as I 
was thus occupied, in company with my eldest hoy (an 
urchin of ten years, and “all fish”), he called my atten¬ 
tion to the fact that a snake (:Tropidonotus grahami) was 
leisurely swimming through their midst. At first I felt 
inclined to pursue* the snake, fearing that lie might in 
some manner injure, if not destroy, a large portion of 
my native stock. My fears were, however, speedily ter¬ 
minated by one of my larger bass making a rapid dart at 
the snake with open mouth, and nearly severing its head 
quite close to the body. The scene that then ensued beg¬ 
gared description. Never shall I forget it—such a floun¬ 
dering and splashing ! The surface of the water for an 
instant seemed literally covered with perpendicular tails 
enveloped in foam. So great was the commotion that 
wo were compelled to retire to a greater distance in or¬ 
der to avoid being thoroughly drenched. After the dis¬ 
turbed waters had become somewhat calmed we resumed 
our former position in order to make further observations, 
and found our large bass hero, with one end of the snake 
in its month, rapidly making away with it, and a smaller, 
but not less pretentious brother, at the other end, en¬ 
deavoring with all his might and main to eat even with 
him. Thus these gamey lads continued for some time, 
swimming up and down the stream, like two boys run¬ 
ning with a rope. The distance between them, however, 
rapidly diminished. This had continued for some rime, 
when we saw emerging from under a log at the edge of 
the banks one of my pike (Esox Indus), At first lie came 
slowly but steadily, when he made a rapid dart, with 
open mouth, at my smaller bass, and at a single gulp 
placed himself outside of it I Then he came face to face 
with our hero. It was an awful moment of suspense for 
some time. Our finny gladiators remained motionless, 
eyeing each other, measuring the dimensions of each 
other's mouth, as it were. The crisis at length came. 
The bass, by force of digestion, had made way with his 
part of the snake rope, and making one mighty effort, 
stretching maxillary and dental to their utmost capacity, 
soon enveloped the pike to a point just below the aper- 
culuru. At this point we departed, feeling perfectly sat¬ 
isfied that our hero would take care of himself, 
I presume it is unnecessary to say that I no longer en¬ 
tertain any doubts as to the ability of the bass to take 
care of himself, and that heavy feeding is indispensable 
to a rapid growth. 
The above may, perhaps, seem somewhat fishy to a 
reat many, but when we consider the structure of the 
ass, our doubts will be, in a great mea sure, abated. The 
variety above mentioned has a very large mouth—in fact, 
they seem all mouth, thus enabling them to envelope any¬ 
thing not exceeding their own circumference, with ample 
room for respiration through the gills. The oesophagus 
is very large (about the size of the stomach) and short. 
This enables them to take into the stomach all that may 
he embraced by the mouth. 
The stomach of the bass secretes larger quantities and 
stronger gastric juices that that of' any other animal,films 
rendering their digestive capacities greater than those of 
any other living vertibrce. When we consider all these 
facts we can easily conceive that the above may bo true. 
If, however, there are any doubting Thomases, they may 
be made to believe, if they will only visit my fishery at 
Council Bluffs, Iowa, as I still have the bass above men¬ 
tioned, which has now grown into a whale. Should such 
parties, however, be unwilling to make so long a tramp, 
if they will only induce the Forest and Stream to send 
that big fish-hook, I have no doubt that my bass might 
be transported by its assistance, Wm. A, Mvuster. 
Council Bluffs, la. 
Fish for Planting.— Rochester, Dec., loth, —Mr. Edi¬ 
tor : — The Commissioners of Fisheries of the State of 
New York desire to announce to the public that they are 
now ready to receive orders for the following-named 
fishes :—Brook trout, salmon trout, black bass, Oswego 
bass, rock bass, yellow perch, pike perch, or wall-eyed 
pike, and bull-heads. Orders will be received until March 
1st, 1880, 
Parties wishing fish to stock any of the public waters 
in this (New York) State should address the undersigned, 
and give a description of the waters they wish to stock, 
as the success depends on putting the kinds of fish in 
waters suitable for them. Seth Green. 
Tarred Hatching-Boxes.— McCloud River, Shasta 
County, Cal., Baird Post-Office, Nov. 28t1i —I see that Mr. 
Fred Mather says that Mr. Woodbury was not the first 
man who used cold tar ou hatching-boxes. One thing 
that I can say is, that he is the first who ever used cold 
tar and asphaltum on hatching-boxes. Mr. Stone was 
againBt using it at first. They used their boxes charred 
at the first start of taking of salmon eggs on the McCloud 
River, Hr. Mather wants to give the credit to some one 
in France, whose name he does not know. He had better 
find out his name before he puts such statements in the 
papers. 
1 think it is better to give the credit to our own coun¬ 
try. I am well acquainted with Mr. Woodbury; I am 
engaged in the trout culture, so it gives me a good oppor¬ 
tunity to know what is going on. J, B, Campbell. 
^ Ravages of Perch in Lake Magog.— Magog, Nov. 
28th. —What can we do? The perch here increased so 
fast the last few years that they are destroying all the 
lunge, or lake trout, in our lake. It is a fact there have 
beeu less caught the last year than ever before. The 
perch were put at the head of the lake about five years 
ago. Three years last summer they were first caught 
here at the outlet; now the lake is perfectly full in all 
depths from six inches to one hundred feet. They have 
not only taken possession of the lake, but have made 
their way up all the small streams, thereby destroying - 
all the trout. They put into this lake a year ago some 
twenty thousand small sabnon trout, and of course there 
was a million mouths open, There has never been one 
seen since. A, W. H. 
A Second Supply of Eaas,—Manchester, N. H., Dec. 
20th. —Commissioner Powers writes me this week that lie 
has taken lau.OOO salmon eggs and 150,000 trout eggs at 
the hatching house at Plymouth maintained by New 
Hampshire and Massachusetts. These salmon eggs will 
he hatched aud returned to the Merrimac River. Bear 
in mind, that the salmon from which these eggs wero 
taken, were artificially planted, and had returned 150 
miles from the Bea to the place where they were deposi¬ 
ted. Samuel Webber, 
mid §ivci[ ^gisJtimj, 
FISH IN SEASON IN DECEMBER. 
FRBSH WATER. 
Biuclc l!u as, Mirmplrrux satmn- I Pike or Pickerel, EsoxluciUS. 
ides; i[. nigricans. Yellow Perch, Perm fneeseaw. 
Sea Hass, Sciuuw/is ocdlatus. 1 White Pereli,Jfertw amcrimna. 
A TEXAS FISH. 
Corpus Christi, Tex., Dec, 8th. 
Editor Forest and Stream : — 
Enclosed. I send you a pencil outline of a curious fish, 
which has appeared in ilia hays of this coast during the 
past summer, for the first tine, lie is known here as a 
pike, hut he being a salt water fish, and without teeth, 1 
am unwilling to accept that name. As you see by the 
draft, which was taken by laying the fish on the paper, 
and running the pencil around it, this fish is well pro¬ 
vided with (ins, and can go through the water like “ shot 
off a shovel.” 
The spines of the back fin are five in number, and 
very sharp and strong, being as large as a lead pencil 
near the fish. Each of the fins under the fish has one 
large spine. Thefin on the back, near the tail, was quite 
bony also, but covered with a tliick, glutinous covering, 
terminating in a soft edge, The tail was of this charac¬ 
ter also. The undor-jaw projects beyond tbe upper, and 
ends in a rubber-like substance—a sort of a bumper. The 
Upper part of the fish was of a dark green color, like a 
black bass caught in still, water. There was a black satin 
stripe extending from the back of the head on each side 
io the middle of the tail. From the stripe to the belly 
tlio color brightened, until, directly underneath it was 
