132 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
much less thau that flowing from the spring. Below the mouth of Warm Fork, 
Spring River flows with a very swift current over a very rocky bottom. 
When the Kansas City and Memphis Railroad was built, a few years ago, to 
avoid the erection of a couple of bridges the Spring River was changed from its orig- 
inal bed for a short distance below Mammoth Spring. The portion of the river cut oft 
forms a large bayou. The bottom of the bayou is very muddy and contains a large 
amount of grass and pond weeds. 
We seined in this bayou, in Warm Fork near its mouth, in Spring River just be- 
low the dam, in a small branch which empties into the bayou, and in Spring Branch 
near its mouth. With the exception of those fishes taken from the Spring Brandi, 
all were put together in one collection, and they are recorded in the following list as 
from Spring River. 
Within the past year and one-half a “Fish Farm” has been established at Mam- 
moth Spring. This place, from the nature of the soil, and from the abundant supply 
of cold water, is favorable for the hatching and rearing of fishes. Those interested 
in the first attempt to rear trout are pleased at the results of the experiment. The 
temperature of the water in Mammoth Spring was 59° Fah. The water in the bayou 
was much warmer, and evidently contains many large pickerel and black bass. 
Many young of these fishes were caught, and many large ones jumped over our nets. 
At my request Mr. A. Mizell, manager of the Fish Farm, furnished me with the fol- 
lowing data, which I extract from a letter written at Mammoth Spring, Ark., March 
7, 1890. 
The spring is 170 feet deep, 190 feet in diameter, and dews fifty thousand cubic feet per minn^e, tem- 
perature from 59° to 62° the year round, and does not vary in depth perhaps two inches at any seasou, 
so that the flow of water is almost uniform. 
The spring is seldom milky or muddy. This Fish Farm Company began the process of hatching trout 
February, 1889. At that time 200,000 brook-trout eggs, 7,000 English, and 25,000 California Rainbow 
trout eggs were placed in the hatchery, which has a capacity of at le.ast 1,000,000 eggs. Of those put iu, 
85 per cent, were hatched, and up to thirty days old the “young fry” did well, after which, from the 
carelessness of those employed, the water beetle was permitted to get in among the young fish 
in almost endless numbers, yes, millions, which killed from 75,000 to 100,000 of the young in less than 
thirty days. The corroding of the copper-wire gauze in the nursery boxes caused some loss, as did the 
placing of a number of the fish when four mouths old in outside ponds, supplied with water not properly 
aerated, from a subterranean flume. On this account, at nine mouths old, there were only 25,000 brook, 
2,000 English, and 10,000 California Rainbow trout. But in size and weight these have surpassed any- 
thing perhaps on record ; at nine months old weighing from 8 to 10^ ounces, and at twelve months from 
11 to 12 ounces, and numbers of them examined had a large quantity of spawn. One eleven inches long- 
had 1,470 eggs. These fish have been too much crowded to attain their most rapid growth; doubtless 
would not but for the superiority of the water to trout growth. This rapid development is doubtless 
due to the water which runs through the thirteen small pools in which they are. It abounds with 
varieties of moss, and water cress, besides snails by the million. The materials of which the levees are 
constructed is limestone soil, clay, small stone, and gravel. This farm is yet in its infancy, and by 
greatly enlarging its area, and by profiting from the mistakes and neglects of one year jiast, it is be- 
lieved that the results it will yield will be remunerative almost beyond a parallel. 
Myatt Creek was reached at a poiut 6^ miles southwest of Mammoth Spriug. It is 
a clear, swift stream, broken iu many jilaces into several channels. Where these 
channels are united, the stream is from three to four feet deep and about fifty feet 
wide. Some of the branches were converted into bayous, mud-bottomed and snag- 
strewn. In these quiet arms, suufish and catfishes were quite common. The bottom 
of the main stream was either rocky or covered with small, angular fragments of 
