4C2 State Board of Agriculture, &c. 



will ever be flattered or tempted in the same way that 8t. 

 Kevin was. It is related in the legend that he lived on the 

 fish he caught in Lake Glendaloch. Upon a certain occa- 

 sion, having had excellent luck in filling his basket, a cele- 

 brated beauty having observed his good fortune, saluted him 

 with this bit of poetry : 



"You're a rare haucl at flshiug," says Kate, 

 " It's yourself, dear, that knows how to liook them ; 



But when you have caught them, agrah, 



Don't you want a young woman to cook them ?" 



Scientific inquiry, aided by intelligent observation, has 

 developed in a great measure the nature of the causes which 

 have contributed to the decrease of fishes in our streams, 

 and has suggested remedies for the prevention of further 

 decrease, and methods which it is hoped will re-populate 

 them. The great natural cause of this decrease is the 

 immense diminution in the volume of water. Probably there 

 is not ordinarily in the streams throughout New England, 

 at the present time, more than one-third the amount of 

 water that they formerly discharged. This, of course, is 

 beyond our control, and without the limit that can be 

 reached by legislative action. But if some of these causes 

 are without this limit, others are within it, and are the proper 

 subjects for remedial statutes. The building of mill-dams 

 across our streams without suitable fish- ways over or through 

 them ; the introduction of poisonous substances into the 

 waters from manufacturing establishments ; the cruel and 

 wanton destruction of young fish, and the introduction of 

 Pike and Pickerel into waters where they do not now exists 

 are all matters which law can reach and prevent. A case 



