5 GEORGE V. SESSIONAL PAPER No. 39b A. 1915 



PREFACE. 



By Professor Edward E. Prince, Dominion Commissioner of Fisheries, Chairman 

 of the Biological Board of Canada, Canadian Representative on the International 

 Fisheries Commission, and Vice-President of the Fourth International Fisheries 

 Congress, Washington, D. C. 



The number of papers embodying researches carried on at the three Biological 

 Stations of Canada on the Atlantic and Pacific Coast, and at the Great Lakes 

 Station, Georgian Bay and now completed for publication, so considerably exceeds 

 the number which were available for each of the three preceding volumes, 

 that it has been found necessary to divide them into two parts or Fasciculi, as 

 pointed out in my preface to Fasciculus I. Fasciculus I consists of the papers on 

 the Sea-fisheries and marine Biology, while the present part, the second part, now 

 issued as Fasciculus II, includes papers treating of the Interior Fresh-water Fish- 

 eries and the Biology of the Great Lakes. 



Professor B. Arthur Bensley's paper entitled "The Fishes of the Georgian Bay" 

 is the first technical account of the fish fauna of that important part of the Lake 

 Huron waters known as Georgian Bay, and may be looked upon as the initial 

 systematic contribution towards a history of the fishes in the Canadian portion of 

 the Great Lakes system. Its numerous original illustrations add greatly to its 

 value and interest. 



Dr. E. M. Walker, who was Curator of the Georgian Bay Station for several 

 seasons, summarises his study of that important group of insects, the Odonata, 

 which contributes either in the aquatic larval condition, or in the adult dragonfly 

 condition, to the insect-food of fishes. Dr. Walker's eminence as a specialist gives 

 importance to this original study which is of high scientific as well as practical 

 interest. Taken along with Mr. W. A. Clemens' three papers on the Mayflies of 

 the same water areas, they meet the need prominently brought before the Com- 

 mission of Conservation, in January 1913, by Dr. C. Gordon Hewitt, Dominion 

 Entomologist, who said that reliable information was absolutely necessary upon the 

 insects and other food supplies in the waters in which fish abound, or in which fish 

 have been introduced. Dr. Hewitt had previously brought before the Entomolog- 

 ical Society of Ontario, a resolution expressing very strongly this need, and in 

 the resolution it was stated that as the food of many of our important commei cial 

 fishes consists of larvae and adult insects, a study should be made of the available 

 or possible food supplies in the way of insect life before attempts are made at re- 

 plenishing or stocking waters. Otherwise by stocking waters in which the food 

 supply is not suitable, or cannot be made suitable, large sums of money, and con- 

 siderable time and energy, will be uselessly expended, owing to the fish being planted 

 where the food is either insufficient or of the wrong character. The resolution con- 

 cluded by emphasising the necessity of more knowledge being secured as to the 

 feeding habits and requirements of fresh-water fishes, and of the insect or other 



