f m * and since that time the blue waters of the lake fishermen, quantities of the fish are shipped to 
Black Bass tor rlexico. have become more in evidence than formerly. Ocotlan, Chapala, Guadalajara and other sur- 
Mexico City. Mexico, Dec. 26.— Editor Forest With the planting of the bass it is expected that rounding towns, furnishing a profitable income 
and Stream: Lake Chapala, the finest inland three or four years will see the great body of for the fisherman. 
body of water in the republic, and its most fam- water well stocked with game fish. Angling is Motor boats and one good sized yacht have 
ous shooting resort as well, will, within the next a sport entirely lacking on all the other inland lately been put on Chapala, and the finest course 
four or five years, become a fishing resort, for waters of Mexico. The bass are prolific breeders for yachting or powerboating in Mexico has thus 
this beautiful body of water has been stocked and Chapala’s waters are always cold, furnish- been opened to the sportsmen who can afford to 
with 1200 black bass brought here in a special ing ideal conditions for their increase. bring their boats so far from the sea. With e 
car from Kern River, in California. In addition to these features there is a river growth of the black bass, which will find abund- 
Fifteen hundred black bass were brought to flowing through the lake, keeping the waters ant food in the charral of the waters and the 
Mexico, only two dying on the way, but 300 of constantly in motion. This river, rising in the frogs of the marshes, the one needed factor in 
these were planted in the lake on the private hills of Jalisco, is known as the Lerma, until it the opportunities for sport has been a e . 
grounds of Governor Landa y Escandon. chief flows out of the lake, when it becomes the San- Other inland waters will be stocked with bass 
executive of the Federal District, in which the tiago, flowing thence 412 miles to the Pacific and trout, of which latter fish there is not one 
Ocean near San Bias. At present there are in Mexico, according to native sportsmen and 
three native species of fish in Chapala. These 
are the whitefish, pink-bellied catfish, and the 
charral, a fish about two inches long. The cat- 
City of Mexico is situated. The fish planted 
ranged in age from six months to three years, 
though most of them were of the former age. 
In custody of the special car from California 
guides. 
Harry H. Dunn. 
Commissioner Meehan’s Report. 
Commissioner William E. Meehan has made 
were: R. W. Requa, Francis McCrea, George fish are caught on set lines; the whitefish taken 
McCloud, R. P. Sullaway and George Neale, all in seines, both of these fish often running up to 
connected with the hatcheries at Sisson. Cal. The six and seven pounds in weight, tut the com- his report of the operations of the Depar 
fish were caught in Kern River, one of the wild- mercial fish of the lake is the charral. of Fisheries of Pennsylvania for the year 1909. 
est mountain streams of California. They were This little fish forms the staple food of the He sa\ s in P ait - . , 
brought in fifteen-gallon milk cans, and the Indians, of whom numbers live in brush huts “In the work of hatching and distributing , 
water was not changed from the time the fish around the lake. Charral fishing is a profession the department has broken all previous recor 
left California until they were poured out into among these Indians, throw-nets being used in as well as the previous records of al o er 
Lake Chapala, but was continuously aerated by the surf of the lake. This surf all round States, and nearly half the magmficen recor 
the pumps with which the car is equipped. Chapala is one of the interesting and unex- made b> the Unite fates ureau o 
The air was passed through coiled, ice-cooled plained features of the lake. Always there is in 1908. The total output from the eight S a e 
pipes, and by this means the water was kept at a rim of white breakers, and at certain seasons hatcheries foots up the great total of 1,114,361,264. 
a temperature comparable with that of the these breakers run three feet in height, literally divided as follows: Corry ,4,239300; Erie, 244,- 
mountain torrent from which they came. filled with the charral, which evidently seek the 136,245; Belle onte, 3,577,0 2 , ayne 4 , 
Lake Chapala is the largest body of water in inshore waters to escape the white and catfish 900; Torresdale, 156,851,182; Union City ibl- 
Mexico, being about sixty miles long and twenty °I the deeper parts of the lake. The whitefish 750,030, Craw or . ? rt *. Ce 1 ^ 
wide at its widest point. On its shores are many W ^1 not bite at any kind of bait yet used at 540,625. The principa s es ate e an 
towns, Chapala being the largest, and one beau- Chapala, and there is no sport in taking the cat- tributed were whitefish, 47,867,700; yellow perch, 
tiful resort, Ribera Castellanos, to which fish, so that hitherto there has been no sport 397,046,140; blue pike, 99,660,000; shad, 15,000,- 
Mexico’s society goes to spend a part of each I° r the rod and reel enthusiast on Mexico s in¬ 
land sea. 
Armed with his throw-net, the charral fisher¬ 
man wades out to his knees in the lake. These 
nets, by the way, are woven by the Indian women 
from a fibre from the maguey plant, the same 
from which pulque, tequila and other intoxicat- measurably increased by new ponds, additional 
however, that the Indians still take these ducks in g drinks are drawn - hatching houses and more jars for the batteries^ 
with baited bone fish hooks and with cleverly The fisherman waits until a school of the tiny Among the notable additions were a pond of 
devised traps set up on the islands in the fish P asses and casts his net over them - Weight- nearly two acres at the Crawford hatchery for 
marshes ed k y small round stones, the net closes beneath small-mouth bass; a pond a tenth of a mile long 
Forty thousand dollars is spent each year by the school, and often 100 pounds are taken at at Wayne for yellow perch; a pond of nearly 
the Government of the two States named in one cast of the net. I have seen three Indians half an acre at Corry for mature brook trout; 
keeping this lake clear of water hyacinths. There hard at w ° rk bringing in a net which one man and a pond of nearly three-quarters of an acre 
is considerable freight traffic on the lake, par- kad oast into the school of fish. at Spruce Creek for lake.trout and mature brook 
ticularly during the corn and wheat harvest, Aft er the fish are caught they are kept alive trout. The vast quantities of fry of whitefish, 
immense crops being carried to market in In- in S reat water-tight baskets woven from dried lake herring and blue pike deposited annually 
dian canoes‘ twenty-five or thirty feet long. Susses. Thus the charral are taken to market proves conclusively the efficiency of fish culture. 
These canoes are propelled with oars, but when °r preserved in the larder of some hacienda Five or six years ago it. scarcely paid the fisher- 
the wind blows, the Indian boatman plants an on the lake shore - When wanted for use the men of the port of Erie to fish, especially for 
oar in the bow of the boat, lashes another oar charral are not cooked as are larger fish, but whitefish. At present there are at least six large 
across it at a height of five or six feet, and are dum P ed > alive and whole, into a wooden steam tugs fitted out with whitefish nets and 
fastens his cerane to this forming a sort of trough of dough. This is then thoroughly mixed everybody fishing for any species is sure to bring 
lateen sail, the lower corne'rs'of which he holds »i,h the fish and baked, forming a sort of fish in a greater or less quantity of this valuable 
in his hands. loaf. 1 have tasted this fish bread and can tes- food fish daily. It is very gratifying to note 
The lake became so choked with the hyacinths tify that it is good, especially if the charral are that the catch of whitefish in Lake Erie this 
that the canoes were frequently stuck in the small > 50 that one does not have to bite too hard year was greater than in 1908. Another evi- 
vegetation and commerce much impeded. On in crushing the bones. dence of the value of propagation is shown by 
this account the large appropriation was made. Besides furnishing much of the food of the the great numbers of all sizes of whitefish 
year. The lake is on the line between the States 
of Jalisco and Michoacan, and at the upper end 
are extensive marshes where myriads of ducks 
come every year, furnishing the best of sport 
to the few shooters to be found in this country. 
Guns are so scarce throughout rural Mexico, 
000; large-mouth bass, 83,200; small-mouth bass, 
506,906; catfish, 459,816; sunfish (blue gills), 
697,280; brook trout, 9,246,375; lake trout, 2,- 
395,000; lake herring, 114,934,400; pickerel 
(chain), 300,150,000; pike perch, 167,125,000. 
“The capacity of most of the hatcheries was 
