The daily gazette., 1879-12-24
Fish for O,ss. Rivers.
SAMUEL TOWNSEND DISCUSSES THE
sUBJECT AT LENGTH.


DEAR SIR Some years ago l saw
quantities of young fish taken down the
Queen Anne Railroad. ! made applica-
ton TO one of the parties in charge of
them for some fish ;sbe told me said fish
was furnished by the State Of Maryland;
but if would pay expressage from Bal
timore he would send me some fish. l
told him would be glad to do so. That
was the last ever heard of him or the
fish. saw some time afterwards in the
papers, that man named Ferguson had
charge of the Maryland Fish Hatching
business. l wrote to him. He never
answered. Afterwards heard the gen.
eral government at Washington had fish
Matching establishments, but that they
were bound all around with several lay
ers of red-tape. l then knew that this
| corps of fish hatchers were paid out ef
the treasury and every Congressman's
noe was important to them. Iwrote to
our Congressman, Edward L. Martin,
an old friend, thinking that he in his
official position could help unwind the
red-thpe.
wrote for lake white fish and salmon,
knowing that if the salmon did not like
the mill pond they could pass out
through NoxentOwn pond Of 300 acres
into the Delaware and thence to the sea,
and that white fish was fresh water
fish a native. of the lakes and also that
the upper mill pond being of 250 acres
back of my home farm was a spring
water pond and would average the year
around nearly as cold as Lake Erie.
This pond empties into Noxentown
pond.
| | received two letters from Washing
ton; one from Congressman Martin and
one from the fish commissioner, he say
ing neither salmon nor white fish was
suitable, but that carp from Germany
and principally from the Danube river
would be good and suitable fish. Not
having very favorable opinion of Ger
man carp, or, l suppose, mud suckers,
and that we always had mill pond null
lets or suckers, l wrote again tor salmon
and white fish and stated We had white
perch and few roach fish in the mill
ponds that these fish were considered a
salt water fish, but that they got accli-
mated to fresh water; that fish commits
sioners in Jerseyand Maryland were let
ting out large quantities Of salmon into
mill ponds, which would no doubt
make good breeding grounds, as the
fish could pass out to the Delaware
| river.
then received a letter from the fish
men at Washington, saying that If 1
would pay Tor gathering, packing and
expressing salmon eggs from Columbia
river they would supply me With them.
| wrote back to Washington that did
not propose to go so extensively into
the fish business on my own account
that | understood the said fish breeders
or commissionersiwere paid out of the
public treasury, but as | had somewhat
calched the fish propagation fever to
send me anything they had, from 8
whale down to an alligator, and sooner
than be disappointed l would take fe "
water snakes.
That closed the matter. Last winter
and sp'ing, and on the first of tbit
month, after the assembling of Congress
wrote to Col. Martin, our sail Con.
gres, man, for fish. | heard nothing
un,il last Thursday. On the 10. 80 a. IN
mail train 1 received two letters, ont
know that on Saturday would receive
some German carp; the other letter wa,
a large skeleton letter, with the printed
name of Spencer f. Baird, U. S. Com
missioner. Said document let me know
! a messenger of q. S. Commission with
stock Of German carp, would leav,
w Washi Dgton via the Philadelphia, Viii
mington and Baltimore Railroad, OF
Saturday, Decemb Der Goth, at SIG o'clocl
a. m., and be due at Townsend at 10 p
m., on the Goth of December, saying the
tish you applied for will be furnished
free, and for me to besat the station witt
tanks, buckets, tubs, &c, on arrival o
train; and further in order that | SHOULD
know something of the wonderful fsl
business, they sent me book OF
last Thursday night as big as an ordinary
with whales and ending with mud min
nows, eels and swapping turtles. As tn,
| time was short between Thursday night
(the mail by which / received the biz
Dook) and Saturday 2.19 sharp. the tim
| was, as l supposed to receive myriad
of the said German carp or suckers,I ha,
to let whales, sharks, surgeons and al
other large fish alone, and dive into th
. | pages that treated OF German carp com
mencing in the Black Forest ponds il
Germany then into and down the Da
nube River to the Black Sea, then juml
over into the Caspian Sea, although it i
said to be bitter salt, then up the Rive
Don across to the Dnieper, Rhine an,
ponds in Switzerland and France, ant
before got through with this volumi
nous description OF the said Germal
carp, was reminded on Saturday tn
train and fish would soon be here.
q ordered team and three men to procee,
at once to the depot with clean AZ gal
Ion tight barrel half full of pure waite
large tubs and buckets. As the depo
was not over two hundred yards away
| drove down to personally superinten
the Job of transferring the fish. Tn
train hove in sight, and all was expecta
ton. In few minutes the train arrive
and off stepped man with tin buckle
in one hand. 1 told him who l was an,
looked into the bucket and saw a fe,
small fish about two inches long. l ask
ed the man how many fish there were
he said fifty. The printed circular re
quested should reportif the fish arrive
= IN good condition. l believe they die
MY reasons for giving this long descrip
ton is TO show the red tape and hum
buggery and robbery of the U. s. Treas
ury. After several years writing an
bothering about fish, which would bent
fit my neighbors as well as myself,
. have in the year of our Lord eightee
hundred and seventy-nine, Decembe
the Goth, 219 p. m., received from the |
S. Fish Commissioner fifty German car
two inches long. SAMUEL TOWNSEND.
Townsend, Dec. 22, 1879.