ACCLIMATIZATION OF FISH IN THE PACIFIC STATES. 
383 
United States Fish Commission have disclosed the presence of a number of species of 
catfish, any or several of which might liave been obtained by Mr. Stone. Among 
these are the spotted catfish, blue catfish, or channel catfish [Ictalurus punctatus) ; the 
fork-tailed catfish ( Ictalurus furcatus)-, the mud catfish or yellow catfish ( Leptops 
olivaris ); the great fork-tailed catfish or Mississippi catfish ( Ameiurus lacustris ), and 
the black catfish or bullhead ( Ameiurus melas). The first, third, and fifth named 
species are known to be common in the river in question, and only these are recorded 
from Fremont. It is therefore probable that specimens of one of these were secured 
by Mr. Stone. 
The spotted catfish is probably the best of the tribe, and is the principal one 
distributed by the United States Fish Commission. In food value it is regarded by 
Jordan and Evermann as not inferior to the black bass. Several plants have in recent 
years been made in the Pacific States. In 1892 the following adult and yearling catfish 
were deposited in Washington waters, in response to requests: Seventy-five in Clear 
Lake, Skagit County; 125 in a private pond near Vancouver; 50 in Deer Lake, in 
Stevens County. In 1893, 100 were placed in the Boise River, Idaho, a tributary of 
the Snake River. Ten were put in the Balsa Chico River, California, in 1895. 
Plants of yearlings were made in Lake Cuyamaca and Feather River, California, in 
1891, each water receiving 250 fish. 
The results attending the introduction of catfish in California were immediate and 
marked. As early as 1875, the State commissioners reported on the matter as follows: 
The Schuylkill catfish and the Mississippi catfish, placed in the San Joaquin River, have grown 
rapidly and spawned, hut several of the large fish and many of the young ones have been caught by 
the fishermen near the San Joaquin bridge, and have been returned to the river. The fishermen at 
that point are much interested in their successful cultivation, and seem desirous that they should be 
preserved. By another year they will be so numerous that they may be caught with safety and 
shipped to market, as it would beimpossible to exhaust the river by ordinary fishing. The hornpouts, 
a species of small catfish from Lake Champlain, which were placed in the lakes near Sacramento, 
have increased so abundantly that nearly one thousand have been caught and transported to the 
various lakes and sloughs in the Sacramento Valley. We caused several hundred of them to be 
placed in lakes containing brush and dead trees, in which it would be impossible to seine them. The 
acclimatization and perpetuation of these fish in the Sacramento Valley is assured, as they are now so 
situated that no amount of tishing will exhaust them. 
In their report for 1876-77, the fish commissioners stated: 
The 74 Schuylkill catfish imported in 1874, and placed in lakes near Sacramento, have increased to 
a vast extent. They already furnish an important addition to the fish food supply of the city 
of Sacramento and vicinity. From the increase we have distributed 8,400 to appropriate waters in 
the counties of Napa, Monterey, Los Angeles, Fresno, Tulare, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Solano, Alameda, 
San Diego, Yolo, Santa Barbara, and Siskiyou. These, should they thrive and increase as they have 
in Sacramento, will furnish an abundance of valuable food in the warm waters of the lakes and 
sloughs of the interior, and replace the bony and worthless chubs and suckers that now inhabit these 
places. It may be proper to call attention to the fact that these fish have become so numerous in the 
lakes near Sacramento that they can now be obtained in any quantity for stocking other appropriate 
waters in any part of the State. 
In 1878-79 the California commissioners distributed 39,000 Schuylkill catfish to 
public waters in 22 counties, and reported as follows about the fish : 
These have increased to millions and furnish an immense supply of food. They have become so 
numerous that they are as regularly on sale in the city markets as the most abundant native fish, and 
are sold at about the same prices. They thrive in our rivers and lakes, and in the still-water sloughs 
of our plains, as well as in the brackish sloughs in our tide lands. They appear to be equally at 
