lO 



definite proof of success which we have from a few other points 

 on the Great Lakes. In the face of the most persistent and 

 destructive methods of fishing, the ever increasing demands 

 of a growing and insatiable market, improved methods of 

 preservation and transportation, the stock of white fish in 

 Lake Erie has steadily increased for the past four or five 

 years under the influence of artificial propagation and plant- 

 ing. The season's fishing in Lake Erie last year was the most 

 productive for the past fifteen years. From 1885 the increase 

 has been gradual and marked. The improvement had been 

 closely watched by the fishermen, and in the season of 1888 

 many of them transferred their operations from the less pro- 

 ductive, bscause over-fished grounds of the Upper Lakes to 

 Lake Erie. The demonstration came first in Lake Erie, 

 because there the largest quantities of fish had been planted. 

 All the product of the Ohio hatcheries, generous allowances 

 from the United States Fish Commission's stations in Michi- 

 gan, regular plants by the Michigan Fish Commission in Lake 

 St. Clair, Detroit River and the Western end of the Lake, 

 and the entire product of the Canadian station on Detroit 

 River, have here concentrated, making the actual number of 

 fish planted for the area far in excess of the am.ounts depos- 

 ited in any other waters of the Great Lakes. Future fishing 

 seasons in Lake Erie will be affected by the product of the 

 Pennsylvania hatching station at Erie. The fishermen are to 

 a man finally convinced, that the success of artificial methods 

 has been proved beyond any doubt. They have ceased to at- 

 tribute the increase of white fish in Lake Erie to the small- 

 mesh gill-nets, and str.mge to relate, they no longer attribute 

 it to the use of the beneficent pound-net. 



State regulation of fishing methods has done something, 

 and in time may accomplish much more, but artificial propa- 

 gation is the prime factor, and this fact is fully acknowledged 

 by every intelligent observer. The re-stocking of Lake Erie 

 shows what can be accomplished in the other Great Lakes, 

 when the states interested can be induced to provide the 

 means for it. 



