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BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
THE BLACK BASSES. 
HISTORY OF INTRODUCTION. 
Plants of both large- mouth black bass (Micropterus salmoides) and small-mouth 
black bass (M. dolomieu) have been lhade in the Pacific States. The small-mouth fish, 
however, was introduced much earlier and in larger numbers. It appears to have been 
first taken to California in 1874 by Mr. Livingston Stone in his “aquarium car.” The 
original lot consisted of 75 full-grown spawning bass from Lake Champlain, Vermont, 
and 24 small fish from St. Joseph River, Michigan. Two of the large fish and 12 of 
the small ones were lost in transit. The adult fish were placed in Napa Creek and 
the immature lot in Alameda Creek. 
The probable extermination by anglers of the fish put iu Napa Creek led the com- 
missioners to renew their attempts to acclimatize the black bass, and in 1879 they had 
Mr. Stone take out 22 fully matured fish from the East. These were put in the Crystal 
Spring reservoir of the Spring Valley Water Company, in San Mateo County, with 
the assurances of the company that the fish would be protected and be at the disposal 
of the commission should they increase. Shortly before this a small lot of black bass 
seems to have been imported by a sporting club and placed in Lake Temescal, in 
Alameda County, near Oakland.* 
From 1879 to 1889 no bass appear to have been planted by the California com- 
mission, although in the meantime the fish had probably been distributed privately 
from the waters previously stocked ; thus, in 1889, it was reported as being in the 
Russian River. In 18S9 the State authorities began the distribution of black bass 
from planted waters, chiefly the San Andreas reservoir, and 500 fish from 0 to 9 inches 
long were deposited iu Clear Lake in Lake County, Thermalito Reservoir in Butte 
County, and Sweetwater Lake in San Diego County. 
In the following year small lots of bass were put in Clear Lake, Blue Lakes, 
Pajaro River, Laguna de San Luis, reservoirs in Monterey and San Luis Obispo coun- 
ties, and a lake at El Monte in Monterey County, the aggregate plants being 357. 
Some bass were taken from the reservoir of the Spring Valley Water Company in 1891 
or 1892, but the number was quite small and no details of the distribution are recorded. 
In 1893, 155 fish were sent out by the State commission. The extent of the work iu 
1894 eclipsed all previous records. The State authorities sent a deputy to the Russian 
River, where in May the wild fish were seined. The number caught and distributed 
was 9,350, which were chiefly consigned to public waters not previously stocked. The 
* In a report of Mr. J. G. Woodbury, California superintendent of hatcheries, printed as an 
appendix to the biennial report of the State fish commission for 1889-90, the following statements are 
made : 
“Seth Green brought the first black bass to California. These were brought out at the expense 
ot' a sportsmen's club and placed iu Temescal Lake, near Oakland. The second lot of black bass was 
brought out by B. B. Redding, for the California fish commission, and planted in the Crystal Springs 
reservoir, near San Mateo, with the permission of the Spring Valley Water Company.” 
Mr. Woodbury gives no further particulars, and is certainly in error in claiming that the two lots 
mentioned by him were the first and second, respectively, taken to California. He has overlooked the 
bass carried by Mr. Stone in 1874. The fish planted in Temescal Lake probably comprised the second 
lot transported to the State. 
