153 
54,850 acres; by 1913, when our own last data of fish production were 
obtained, to 130,830 acres; and a year later, when Alvord and Burdick 
prepared their report, to 145,780 acres. Furthermore, there were at this 
time about 50,000 acres in drainage districts proposed or already formed, 
in which the work was in various stages of advancement, besides 7,755 
acres concerning the condition of which our information is incomplete— 
a total of 200,000 acres of Illinois River bottom-lands covered by levee 
districts acually complete or in immediate prospect four years ago. 
The land area overflowed by the extraordinary high water of 1904 
amounted to 2803910 acres, and if we add to this 49,340 acres in bottom- 
land lakes at low-water stages, we have a total of 330,250 acres, outside 
the area of the stream itself, formerly covered by water in time of flood. 
From 44 per cent. of this area the fishes of the river were already per- 
manently excluded in 1914, and another 16 per cent. will be added to it 
as soon as the drainage projects then in hand or in immediate view are 
completed. ; 
Coincident with this restriction of their range the yield of fishes 
declined, as shown by our data of shipments from Havana from 1908 to 
October, 1913, as shown in the following table. 
Tota FisH CatcH, HAVANA MARKET 
Per cent. of 
Year Pounds total catch Authority 
on river 
BEG fer aet. Wie ree ocle Slee 1,573,298 21.7 Illinois Fishermen’s Association 
US Ao ae ae a eee ee 1,600,183 16.5 Se i “s 
MeO crenccis s Fe Mere cieve ¢ 1,830,291 16.3 SS < “s 
GOD ci stops Mets eials-ey'e ers 1,368,010 11.4 sg - a 
EU ete seas seve) ahora areca ¢ 2,700,000 18.4 Illinois Fish Commission 
IGOR eee. es ches cas 3,800,000 19.7 a Me ss 
WANVETAR Gs chi cbse [tae Seselaia eo 4 LTS 
JW OD tavnencnestes Seeioe dite c DUBE pisieigiata'e es) alee R. E. Richardson 
TODO Fails ce cictcs bene eee « DOR TOR Nice aie mislsteieie.e he x 
OTe sete pele ccte Ss PEPPALGR OD Wirators stots ecmpe nest - 
DIS ce taresabeteracatele a <i de la BSUS Saf (1 aie < 
Te ee hata auviie cd apenas a 15 210 1 1 le) |, Bote Neale ie 
AgiertLe Octoher'el)..4 - 2293563). .... 6.6. sis a * 
Nore.—1,593,000 pounds average 1896 to 1900 inclusive. 
All the facts indicate that the relation here shown is one of cause 
and effect—that the yield of fishes is diminished, in the face of a greatly 
increased and rapidly growing supply of the raw materials of their 
food, because of the narrowing of the backwaters, which are for the 
river important places of digestion and assimilation in which the organic 
wastes of the city and of the land are worked up into forms fit for food 
for the higher animals. It is not only space but time also that is now lack- 
