26 FISHES OF ILLINOIS 



The artificial propagation of lake sturgeon was seriously con- 

 sidered by the United States Government in 1898, when a hatch- 

 ery would have been established on Lake Erie or Ontario if a 

 location had been found where spawning females and ripe males 

 were plentiful enough to justify it. The Michigan Fish Com- 

 mission hatched and planted 450,000 young sturgeons in the 

 Detroit River in 1893, 130,000 in 1894. 



The sturgeon fisheries of the Illinois lake shore, at Chicago, 

 South Chicago, and Waukegan, were formerly of considerable 

 importance, the catch at those three points in 1885 amounting 

 to 101,362 lb, or nearly as much as was obtained in 1899 from 

 the whole of Lake Michigan. The quantity taken in 1899 was 

 negligible, finding no place in the statistics. The decrease in 

 Lake Michigan in the two decades ending 1899 is shown by the 

 following totals: 



1880 3,839,600 lb. 



1885 1,406,678 " 



1890 946,897 



1893 ... 311,780 



1899 108,279 



We find no early statistics of the sturgeon fisheries of the 

 Illinois and Mississippi rivers, though it is generally known that 

 they have decreased greatly in the past 30 j^ears. The quantity 

 of lake sturgeon taken from the Illinois River in 1894 was 2,145 

 lb, while the Mississippi on our borders the same year furnished 

 37,366 lb. In 1899 the Ilhnois River product had fallen to 635 

 lb, and in 1903 no lake sturgeon at all were reported from the 

 Illinois. The total product of the interior waters of the United 

 States, exclusive of the Great Lakes, in 1894 was 1,494,022 lb, 

 falling in 1899 to 234,145, and in 1903 to 142,059 lb. 



Genus SCAPHIRHYNCHUS Heckel 



shovel-nosed sturgeons 



Snout broad and shovel-shaped; caudal peduncle long and flattened 

 and completely armored; lower lip well developed, with 4 lappet-bearing 

 papillose lobes; spiracles wanting; pseudobranchs rudimentary; gill-rakers 

 2- to 5-pointed; ribs 10 or 11; air-bladder 5 in length of head and body. 

 Fresh-water fishes of the Mississippi Valley. One species known. 



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