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Ontario, led me to the conclasion that they were almost strictly piscivorous, preying<br />
very largely upon the young of other fish that had taken to the weeds for shelter<br />
Unlike the small mouthed black bass which appears to hibernate in the winter, they<br />
are voracious the entire year. Prof. S. A. Forbes, in a paper read before the American<br />
Fisheries Society, stated that he found the large mouthed black bass was strictly<br />
a fisheater and that the small mouth made up oriethird of his food with crayfish.<br />
The large mouth is much inferior to the small mouth in the pan and infinitely se<br />
upon the hook, but I believe they are better suited to the stocking of certain classes<br />
of our lakes than carp, because they are a better pan fish and can be caught at any<br />
time of the year by the most inexperienced person; they can be placed in a lake in<br />
company with the most predacious soecies of fish and will thrive; such a thing canziot<br />
be said of carp. Herr von deni Borne, the great German fish culturist, speaking<br />
of American black bass said: "I can breed the black bass with the same certainty<br />
as we do the carp, I have many thousands of young fish from a few spawners. I have<br />
only three small mouth and ten large mouth spawners. The fry of last season,<br />
barely six months old, are now growing finely." The small mouth black bass is well<br />
adapted for stocking many of our lakes, a splendid table fish, one of the finest upon<br />
a hook and tremendously prolific, it would be invaluable to the country. My experience<br />
with it in Rice Lake, Stony Lake, the Muskoka Lakes and other places in the<br />
east, where I have caught thousands of them and examined the stomachs of many,.<br />
led me to believe that not one-third, as stated by Prof. Forbes, but fully one-half of<br />
its food was composed of crayfish, and the balance of insects and their larvre, frogs,<br />
minnows, perch and the young of other fish. They breed and growapace in clear<br />
water with clean, stony or gravelly bottom and where there is an abundance of cray.<br />
fish, all of which can be found in many of the lakes of Assi&boia.<br />
The maskinongé would be a valuable addition to the fishes of many of our lakes'<br />
where at present there are only pike or pickerel.<br />
Last spring I commenced a series of investigations into the conditions of the<br />
Qu'Appelle Lakes with a view to ascertaining the depth, temperature at the bottom<br />
at the various seasons of the year, formations of the bottoms, the insect and other<br />
fish food, &c.; but the necessity for my being away superintending the work upon<br />
the two dams built by your department across the Qu'Appelle River, compelled me<br />
to lirop the work. I found that the pressure at a depth of sixty feet ruined my<br />
thermometer, an ordinary mercury affair. I think such investigations, carried on<br />
carefully, would furnish the department, at a very slight cost, with data of very<br />
great value in the near future, when the question of restocking these or other<br />
waters, arises. In all the lakes of the Qu'Appelle system, where the bottom is<br />
gravelly or stony, there is an abundance of crayfish. in Pasqua Lake after a storm.<br />
lasting three or four days, I have seen the crayfish piled upon the shore to the<br />
depth of two inches. Every stone almost, at certain seasons of the year, has one or<br />
more crayfish under it. The whitefish eat the young of this crustacean in<br />
great quantities. The shrimps or water-fleas are in countless swarms in the Qu'-<br />
Appelle Lakes and some of the small outlying lakes are literally alive with them.<br />
They are the favorite food of the coreqoni. The larvte of a species of diptera, blood<br />
red in color, jointed and one.haif of an inch in length, also forms a large portion of<br />
'their food. They are found in immense numbers in the soft mud at the bottom of<br />
the lakes. Several varieties of case or caddis worms, the larva) of the phryganids<br />
are found in these waters in large numbers, and are much sought after by the whitefl<br />
fish. They are said by fish culturists to be nearly always an indication of good water.<br />
I have the honor to be, Sir,<br />
Your obedient servant,<br />
F. C. GILCHRIST.<br />
Fishery Overseer.<br />
flon. CHARLES H. TUPPER,<br />
Minister of Marine and Fisheries,<br />
Ottawa.