26 



done for a number of years, with some assistance from two 

 or three private hatcheries, which for their work were under 

 the supervision of the Commissioners. 



It took the Commissioners several years to thoroughly 

 satisfy themselves that they had made a mistake in the loca- 

 tion of this hatchery, and that all fish could not be success- 

 fully raised in any water. It was here supposed the tempera- 

 ture of the water could be changed in a sufficient degree to 

 fit any case by the use of ice and the widening or deepening 

 of the ponds through which the supply stream flowed. All 

 these methods were tried and eventually failed of success. 

 Here was time wasted on Atlantic salmon, California salmon, 

 Land-Locked salmon, Shad, Eels, White-Fish and other va- 

 rieties of the finny tribes ; — thousands of eggs were hatched 

 and the fry deposited in numerous streams and lakes through- 

 out the state, only to grow for a short time and then disappear 

 entirely. 



In 1874, a dozen speckled trout from six to ten inches in 

 length, caught in one of the streams of the northern part of 

 the state, were put into the ponds, for " observation and com- 

 parison with those hatched from eggs received from New 

 York and some of the New England states." The White- 

 fish work was taken to Detroit in 1876, and with it was 

 removed a great strain upon the limited resources of the 

 Pokagon hatchery. 



In 1865 the Legislature had passed a law protecting Brook- 

 Trout from capture by nets or seines in any inland lake, river 

 or stream, but specifying no time when they might not be 

 taken with hook and line, and a close season was not made 

 for them until 1873, when they were protected from Oct. ist 

 to April 1st next succeeding, and the Legislature following, 

 extended the time from Sept. ist to May ist. 



A number of these fish, in excellent condition, were in the 

 ponds according to the report of 1874 — 5, but no mention is 

 made of planting any fry : the fish seem to have been kept — 

 not as curiosities exactly, but as specimens of what some of 



