194 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
ermen.at the grounds. This year I have had every station on the American side of 
the lakes visited and canvassed. 
Q. You have steady communication with and reports from the dealers 7—A. I have 
reports only when I send specially after them, as I did in 1872and am doing this year. 
Q. How far have you got in your inquiry this year?—A. I have only a partial re- 
turn from Chicago. 
Q. What does that show ?—A. The total marketing of salted fish in Chicago up to 
the middle of October amounted to 100,000 half-barrels, with about 20,000 half-barrels 
expected for the rest of the season, or equal to 60,000 barrels of those fish for Chicago 
alone for the present year. The-corresponding swpply of barrels of fish in 1872 was 
12,600 in Chicago, so that the Chicago trade hasincreased from 12,600 in 1872 to 60,000 
in 1877, or almost fivefold—4,. The total catch of fish in the lakes in 1872 was 
32,250,000 pounds. If the total catch has increased in the same ratio as that market 
has done at Chicago, it will give 156,000,000 pounds of fish taken on the American 
side of the lakes for the present year. 
Q. That, of course, cannot be a matter of certainty 7—A. No. 
Q. What other large central markets for lake fish are there besides Chicago 7—A. 
Chicago and Buffalo are the most important. Cleveland takes a large quantity, but 
Chicago and Buffalo control the market. Detroit takes the fish to some extent, but 
it isnot such a convenient shipping point. 
Q. What proportion does that bear to the fish of Canada ?—A. Icannotsay. I may 
say, in regard to this point, that on the same ratio the total product of the salt fish 
from the lakes in the American market would be 48,546,000 pounds. Of course, those 
figures are comparisons, and the estimates may be fallacious. Chicago may have a 
larger share of the lake trade in proportion, or may have a smaller share ; other places 
may have crowded on it, or it may have gained on them. 
Q. You expect to have full returns?—A. I shall have them probably in the course 
of onemonth. I have not heard from my agent who is visiting all the Canadian sta- 
tions and fishing points on the American coasts. 
Q. You expect to ascertain the whole catch of the lakes for 1877 ?—A. Yes, with 
great precision. I have here an item which may perhaps be interesting in regard to 
the price of those fish. The ruling prices of fish on the 15th October in Chicago, were 
$7.50 per barrel for whitefish, $5.50 for salmon trout, and $3.75 for lake herring. 
Those are the prices paid to the captors for the fish by the merchants; that is, before 
they are handled and any profit put upon them. 
Q. In regard to the increase in the consumption of fish, are any as beneficial means 
beirg adopted in Canada to maintain the supply ?—A. Both Canada and the States 
bordering on the great lakes have striven very efficiently to prevent what would 
otherwise have been a great danger to the supply of an enormous amount of fish. 
They are hatching whitefish by artificial means to the extent of a great many mill- 
ions annually. The two countries are not co-operating but concurring in this busi- 
ness, and probably this year they may introduce as many as twenty, thirty, or more 
millions of young fish into the waters, and that must necessarily have a very im- 
portant influence on the maintenance of the fisheries. They have not done anything 
yet in regard to lake herring, but whitefish, which is a much more valuable fish, is 
being carefully guarded. 
@. What States of the American Union are engaged in the breeding of whitefish !— 
A. Ohio, Michigan, and Wiscunsin. 
Q. What has been the success generally of the fish-breeding system by artificial 
means ’—A. It is now being practiced to such av extent in Canada and the United 
States as to show it is a very efficient mode of preventing the diminution of fish, and 
even of increasing the supply. It has passed the region of experiment, and it is a pos- 
itive fact as shown by the large appropriations made on both sides of the border for 
this purpose. It commands the respect and consideration of men of all parties, and 
in our own country, at least, there is no difficulty in getting all appropriations that 
can profitably be expended to secure the result, : 
