1. Black, or green bass, which attain the weight of five pounds in the Ohio.

2. Perch, attain the weight of 15 pounds.

3. Salmon, attain the weight of 18 pounds.

4. Jack Salmon, attain the weight of 3 pounds.

5. Blue Catfish, attain the weight of 20 pounds.

It is stated that the above named fish ascend the streams with the first rise of waters in the spring to spawn and remain until the autumn when they descend, and upon the approach of winter take up their quarters in deep water.

Mr. Shriver adds that "these fish are to be found in all parts of the Ohio river and all the northern lakes west of Niagara Falls, but we must extend the limits, at least of the black bass, further east and south."

Two members of this Society took the bass with hook and line in August last among the Thousand Isles in the St. Lawrence, and they exist in Lake Champlain and Lake George. They are also taken in several of the smaller lakes in the interior of New York, and from one of them they were introduced into Lake Skaneateles some five or six years ago.

The species of fish that most interests us at this time is the first on the list, the bass, as it is that species only, so far as we know, which has largely increased in the Potomac.

This fish has many synonyms. The vulgar names are green and black bass. In the New York Natural History Reports, Dr. Decay adopts (I think from Le Seur) the name Centrarchus fasciatus and gives sundry synonyms. Agassiz calls it Grystes nigricanus.

It is stated that the bass attains a weight of five pounds in the Ohio river, but grows larger in some of the affluents of Lake Erie, as Prof. Ackley took one in the Cuyahoga river weighing over eight pounds.

The largest yet taken in the Potomac, so far as I have heard, weighed four and a half pounds, so that the bass does not seem to have degenerated in the waters of that river. They are taken in great numbers in the Potomac with hook and line, from near

Harper's Ferry up to the vicinity of Piedmont, a range of more than 125 miles. They bite vigorously and one of large size not easily drawn out of the water and secured.

It appears that the bass of northern New York seldom exceed two pounds in weight.

I have been unable to get any certain information in reference to the increase of the other four species of fish put into the Potomac by Mr. Shriver. Some seven or eight years since I learned that an unknown fish weighing about 15 pounds was taken near Williamsport, and recently that an unusually large catfish was taken in the Potomac above Cumberland. During a recent trip to that region I was informed that the black bass were even more abundant in the south branch than in the north branch of the Potomac.

It can scarcely be doubted that they will range to Georgetown, and also to the head waters of both branches of the Potomac and up their affluents until arrested by mill dams.

Mr. Shriver states that he "was ridiculed by some of the enlightened citizens of Cumberland" for his pains, but now all are much pleased at having an abundance of fine fish within their reach, where formerly there were none of importance.

There are many other streams into which these fish should be introduced, especially as it can be done at so little trouble and

expense.

I would name the Patapsco and Gunpowder rivers above tidewater; the Little Falls of Gunpowder, the Patuxent (both branches), Winter's Run, Deer Creek, Octorora Creek, Little and Big Elk rivers and perhaps others of less size. As mill dams exist on some of these streams, the fish should be placed in each of the largest dams.

About thirty bass were taken from the Potomac river some three years since by Edw. Stabler, Esq., of Montgomery County, and placed in Swann Lake, which will eventually stock Jones' Falls.

I have learned that the credit of introducing the bass into the Potomac has been claimed for another party, but there is abundant evidence that the merit of this important work belongs to Mr. Shriver alone.

TRANSPORTED CONVICT LABORERS IN MARYLAND DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD.

BASIL SOLLERS.

When the charter for the tract of land comprised within the limits of Maryland had received the Great Seal, but one thing was lacking to make it a valuable property to Cecilius Calvert. Let the land be taken up under the conditions of plantation and the quitrents, however moderate, paid and an ample revenue would be the result. When an adventurer had secured a patent for a quantity of land from the Proprietary, there was one thing necessary before it could become a source of income, and that was an adequate supply of labor to clear and cultivate it. Thus a planter's income was not in proportion to the number of acres owned by him, but in proportion to the number and efficiency of the laborers he could obtain.1 The servants for a term of years brought with them by settlers of some means on their first arrival, and others brought over and sold for the number of years indicated in their indentures, could, on the expiration of their term, readily obtain land, and need only procure laborers to become planters themselves. They could at any rate do better, or at least live more to their satisfaction, by cultivating their land by their own labor and by that of their children, or by hunting and fishing where game and fish were plentiful, than by hiring themselves to labor for others. Thus, while land continued easily obtainable, these servants either became land-owners, or squatted on unpatented or unused land, and left a void in the labor supply which had constantly to be filled.

'The Poll Tax which was in general use for local taxation was practically an income tax, as the number of servants employed by any planter, and for whom he paid the tax, was usually proportionate to his wealth.

We get an idea of the relative value of land and labor in 1642, from a contract between Leonard Calvert, Esq., and John Skinner, mariner, in which the former acknowledges the sale to the latter of his three manors of St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and Trinity with all the tenements and hereditaments, including, I suppose, the right to hold court leet and court baron, and further contracts to finish the house at Pinie Neck with a stack of brick chimneys and make other improvements, for the consideration of the delivery of fourteen negro men slaves and three women slaves between sixteen and twenty-six years old, able and sound in body and limbs at some time before the first of March come twelve-month at St. Maries.1

In a word, capital, in the form of land, was plentiful and labor scarce. These conditions prevailed in greater or less degree throughout the colonial period, and in all the colonies in America, including the West Indies. Add to this that strength and endurance, rather than skill, were needed, or at least would serve, in the colonies having a staple product such as tobacco or sugar, and that in these crops there occur certain critical periods during which the absence of sufficient labor means the total loss of the crop, and we have the explanation of facts and conditions of colonial life otherwise difficult to account for.

In England every justice of the peace upon request might cause "all such artificers and other persons as be meet to labour, to work by the day in Hay-time and Harvest-time, for the saving of corn and hay," and upon refusal he might imprison them in the stocks "by the space of two days and one night." In the colonies there was no such resource. Even if the law had been operative, it would have been ineffective by reasons of lack of material to apply it to. A planter must therefore possess, before determining the extent of his crop, labor equal to the greatest demands upon it during the season.

Under such conditions it is not surprising that the transporting of servants to America became a business of great magnitude.

1Archives of Maryland, iv, 159.

2 The Country Justice: Michael Dalton, 1643, p. 94.

A short account of the means of obtaining a supply of laborers for transportation to the colonies in general, will be necessary to enable us to understand what will follow in relation to Maryland in particular.

We may classify the emigration from England to America as voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary emigrants may be divided into those who were free when they arrived, and those who were held to serve a term of years in payment of their passage. These were known as indentured servants because they had bound themselves by indenture before leaving England to serve a certain term in place of paying passage money. Involuntary emigrants were those who were sent by authority of the government to serve for a term as a punishment in place of more severe penalties to which they were liable for offences committed. These involuntary emigrants included at different periods prisoners taken in battle, rebels, traitors, offenders for conscience' sake, pirates, felons, rogues, and vagabonds.

Those persons who were brought into the colonies and sold as indentured servants I have classed as voluntary emigrants, but this must not be taken to mean that, in all cases, they left England voluntarily, but merely that they were so classed and treated upon their arrival. In the third quarter of the seventeenth century, all that came or were brought to the masters of vessels engaged in the business of transporting servants, seem to have been received on board without question. "Among those who repair to Bristol from all parts to be transported to his majesty's Plantations beyond seas," says in 1662 the Mayor of Bristol in a petition to the King asking power to examine all masters of ships belonging to Bristol bound for the Plantations, "some are husbands that have forsaken their wives, others wives who have abandoned their husbands, some are children and apprentices run away from their parents and masters, oftentimes unwary and credulous persons have been tempted on board by men-stealers, and many that have been pursued by hue-and-cry for robberies, burglaries or breaking prison, do thereby escape the prosecution of law and justice." The

1 Calendar of State Papers: Colonial America, and W. Indies, 1661–1668, p. 331.