Biennial Report of the State Board of Fish Commissioners Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 Excerpt: ...as to the kingdom unto which he is appointed to go; and so with them his right to existence at all, is not unfrequently lugged in question. But in the face of all this, I stoutly maintain ichthyology as a science, and pisciculture as an industry, would be sadly defective without him; and that the' lake or the river is lacking in an important element of interest and attractiveness by his absence. His good qualities outnumber many of the more pretentions piscine nations. He is not a cannibal as are many; neither is he a pirate or a brigand. He secures his living by honest methods, and minds in a preeminent degree his own business. Besides, he is in a certain way, his way, gamy. And when captured by the craft of the angler, his fat and well rounded carcass becomes a tempting delicacy for either dyspeptic or gourmand. Hence we think no system of aquaculture complete without the eel. The only drawback to his introduction into any body of water, and that drawback we cannot believe to be a very serious one, lies in his propensity to' glean his food from the bottom of the pond or lake or river, and so by simple inadvertence, with no intent or "malice prepense" of any sort, might regale himself on the little scattering spawn that has almost miraculously' escaped destruction from his more rapacious neighbors. A MISUNDEKSTANDING AND WHAT CAME OF IT. The Superintendent, acting under the advice of his superiors in authority, had, by every means not incompatible with the successful prosecution of the general work, saved from the appropriation of 1874-5, a sum amounting to $1,387.54. This sum so saved and husbanded, was confidently relied upon to be used during the spring and summer of 1876, --it being the ever memorable Centennial year, --to introduce into the wa...