The larvæ of the dragon-fly, under the name of the "What is it," was said to have been "discovered as a black bass bait in the Mohawk River, and its fame as such has traveled far into the State, and it is an excellent bait and will take black bass when other baits fail. Anglers have sent from various parts of the State to the Mohawk for the bait, when probably they have it in their home waters, and it requires only the manipulation of a landing net with strong frame and small mesh in the water weeds to obtain it.

There is such a demand for this bait that men may be seen almost daily from the car windows on the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's railroad, netting the flags in the pond holes near West Troy.

Perhaps the most rapacious of water insects is the water beetle, Dytiscus. The larvæ have mandibles which close upon their victims with certain destruction, and little fishes are their victims on occasions; but larger fishes eat the beetle; though they are not to be cultivated, for in larval and in perfect form they will work destruction among a lot of fry. The larvæ has six legs near the head, and its segmented body tapers towards the tail. In the different species, the larvæ may be from one to one and a half inches long.

If the test net is used to determine the desirable fish food that may be in any water and the amount of it, it will be of considerable assistance to the Commission in filling applications for fish for public waters understandingly; and if its use is further continued as a means of transplanting fish food from waters where it abounds to waters where it is scarce, it will add greatly to the success of fish planting. The cultivation and transplanting of fish food should receive some attention from every one interested in fishes, whether as food or for sport.

A. N. CHENEY,

State Fish Culturist.

Commercial Fisheries of the Interior

Waters of the State.

T

HE interior rivers and small lakes of the different States have never been thoroughly investigated to ascertain the capital invested, fisher

men employed, and the value of the product. In the exhaustive canvass made about fifteen years ago of the fisheries of the United States, the value of the product of the interior fisheries of the different States was chiefly an estimate, and it was given at $1,500,000; but subsequently it was believed that the figures should be $5,000,000 annually. It is almost impossible to obtain figures which will cover the actual amount received for all fish sold in any particular State, for while the returns from professional fishermen may be obtained with reasonable accuracy, the returns from desultory fishing in minor waters must remain incomplete. Nearly every trout stream and black bass pond, however remote, furnishes more or less fish which are sold to summer hotels and boarding houses for sums which never will find their way into statistical returns when an attempt is made to find the total value of the fisheries of the State.

There are some lakes in which valuable food fish are going to waste because no effort is made to catch them. This refers to whitefish in interior waters which have been planted, and where the fish now thrive abundantly, and may be taken under the law if State regulations are complied with.

In one of the large interior lakes perch fishing in winter has been prosecuted for years, so many that no one can remember to the contrary; and the sweet little pan fish furnished not only food but a fair revenue to those who sought them. The law which forbids fishing through the ice in any waters inhabited by trout closed the winter perch fishing. The trout in this particular lake are lake trout, and perch fishing through the ice could in no way injure the trout if the fishermen desired to obey the law which protects trout of all species through the winter months; but under the pretense of fishing for yellow perch through the ice certain fishermen have persistently fished for and caught trout until there is something of a sentiment in favor of the present law as being the only means of protecting the trout. Lake trout and yellow perch do not inhabit the same water, and there is no reason why yellow perch should not be taken up to a certain time in the spring if the fishermen would observe the trout law.

118

REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS.

119

The first effort to obtain statistical information in regard to the fisheries of the interior waters of this State was made in 1895 by the United States Fish Commission, when Mr. John N. Cobb, field agent of the Commission, was sent from Washington to inaugurate the work. A summarized account of the extent of the economical features of certain named waters of the State is herewith given by courtesy of the United States Fish Commission.

TABLE I

SUMMARY OF PERSONS EMPLOYED, CAPITAL INVESTED, AND PRODUCTS TAKEN IN THE COMMERCIAL FISHERIES

INTERIOR WATERS OF NEW YORK.

OF CERTAIN

543 $16,103 $19,745 591,119 $55,072 754,730 $60,086