DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES,

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