NATIONAL FISHERY CONGRESS. 
365 
close inspection of about 50,000 which had escaped through the dam gate and were 
penned in the channel immediately below. A dozen of the largest of these were 
taken with an improvised dip net. In contrast with the fry of the same or a greater 
age in Utah Lake, these had attained a superior growth of at least twice the length 
and ten times in weight. They would average 6 inches in length and weigh nearly 
h pound each, being very stocky. I can not account for this vast difference in the 
growth of the young bass the first year in these two places, unless it might be that in 
the new reservoir there are no large fish of other species to interfere with or disturb 
them; and the new ground perhaps furnished abundant food in the development 
of worms and other minute animal life exactly suited to their age and condition. 1 
shall watch this reservoir plant with considerable interest to see how long the 
superior growth may continue. 
Recognizing the superior adaptability of this splendid fish for the lakes and 
ponds of the lower valleys of this State, I recommended a legislative appropriation 
to stock these waters with large mouthed bass, and the general assembly in March, 
1S97, appropriated a sum sufficient to stock all the suitable waters of the State. 
Arrangements were therefore made to catch the fish out of Utah Lake and place 
them in small ponds near the railway, preparatory to shipment to the various places 
of planting, and by May 4, 1897, enough had been taken to make a large carload, 
which was shipped on that date to Bear River and Bear Lake in the northern part of 
the State. This consignment consisted of 2,500 fish in all, 450 being large spawners 
averaging close to 2.} pounds each. Of this lot, 100 spawners and GOO yearling fry 
were deposited in Bear River at various points in Box Eider and Cache counties, and 
the remainder taken to Bear Lake and planted at a number of places on the eastern 
side of the lake embracing a range of about 25 miles in length. This beautiful sheet 
of water has approximately the same surface area and dimensions as Utah Lake, with 
the elongated axis north and south in a similar manner, and both lakes are flanked 
on three sides by majestic mountains. The southern and main part of Bear Lake 
has a beautiful sandy, gravelly, and rocky bottom and shores, with water as clear 
and limpid as glass, and attaining a depth of 250 feet in places, with the summer 
temperature on the surface ranging quite 10° F. below that of Utah Lake. It lies 
in the extreme northeast corner of the State, about 300 miles north of Utah Lake, 
and at an altitude of 5,911 feet above mean sea level, and is fed mostly by short cold 
streams flowing into it from the snow-clad mountains on the west. The common 
fishes are more numerous here than in Utah Lake, with two species of large growing 
trout, locally known as salmon trout (which frequent the inflowing streams to spawn) 
and the bluenose trout, which I am told spawns in the lake. Some of these trout 
in early times, before the use of seines and gill nets for commercial purposes, are 
reported to have attained the weight of 30 pounds. 
This lake is about equally divided between Utah and Idaho, the east and west 
dividing line of the two States cutting the lake in about equal proportions, so that in 
stocking it with the black bass, Idaho receives as much benefit as Utah, which we do 
not at all begrudge. Theoretically this lake should produce a better quality of bass 
than Utah Lake. It apparently has equal if not superior food and spawning facilities, 
with a much purer quality of water that should impart a better flavor to the fish. The 
question of the considerably lower temperature of the water may and perhaps will 
prove to be an important factor for good or evil in the growth and development of 
this valuable food and game fish in this lake, which the next few years will no doubt 
