i71 



the coarser kiads, a fair supply of what are commonrly known as pickerel 

 blue pike, pike perch, and bass, which still afford a fair market stock at 

 moderate cost. Yet so enormous has become the draught on the north shore 

 and islands of Erie, that the cry of scarcity is already sounded from there. 

 Farther up the great lakes, the stock of whitetish is yet abundant : not, how- 

 ever, by reason of providence in the use, but from the well sustained efforts 

 that have been made by the states of Michigan and Wisconsin, and on a 

 lesser scale by Ohio and Pennsylvania to keep up the stock by artificial 

 propagation. 



On the Canada side of these waters, the supply, though showing each year 

 an additional falling off, yet holds good for protitable netting, and it is fi'om the 

 fisheries of Canadian waters that the principal market supply for the State of 

 New York comes. It may not be long, however, before the necessity of self-pro- 

 tection will force the Dominion Government to shut out exportations of fresh 

 fish. Such a condition should be foreseen in time and met by timely measures. 



Cause of the Growing Scarcity. 



The cause of the growing- scarcity of food fish is too apparent to need discus- 

 sion. The rapid and enormous increase of population in all the States and Pro- 

 vinces bordering on the great lakes, has caused a proportionately increased de- 

 mand for food of all kinds. The increased want is made up in respect to the 

 products of the soil, by the constantly enlarging range of cultivation, and by im- 

 proved agricultural methods, but in respect to the products of the waters there 

 has been no such extension of culture, and the field remains where nature placed 

 it years ago, when there was comparatively no demand for fish as food for man. 



The Remedy. 



Given then that the food fish supply needed for the consumption of the 

 border States is approaching practical exhaustion, what is the remedy ? Two 

 leading measures are obviously necessary. They are protection and multiplica- 

 tion, and to make these effective, concert and harmony of action is necessary be- 

 tween all the Government authorities interested. 



Of the unnecessary causes of depletion, it is evident from observation and 

 experience, that the practice of in-shore netting is the greatest. The setting of 

 pound nets of small mesh with leads extending often a mile or more from shore, 

 causes the capture of myriads of young fish scarcely fit for human food, but 

 which, if left to develop on their natural feeding grounds would add immensely 

 to keeping up the market supply ; and the innumerable fykes, trap and hoop 

 nets, and other effective devices for tiie capture of coarse and immature fish 

 which seek their food in the shallows and along the shores, is another of the lead- 

 ing causes of depletion. The use of small mesh gill nets is also a source of ma- 

 terial waste. The small fish taken in these nets are of but little value for food, 

 and are a nuisance to the market men on whose hands they are thrown. 



The remedy for the cure of the ills stated, is to prohibit the use of nets of any 

 kind, within one mile of the shore line of the great lakes and the rivers connect- 

 ing them and the St. Lawrence river, and to require that the mesh of all pound 

 and gill nets set outside this limit, shall be not less than three and one-half 

 inches stretch, and as an efl'ective aid to the enforcement of such a regulation, to 

 make illegal the sale or possession of any fish of less than specified weights, 

 as follows, viz : — 



Salmon trout, two pounds. 



