688 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
that river was so much changed physically because of the results of mining and agri- 
cultural operations. If those are the facts, it seems to me that they point a very impor- 
tant question and suggest very strongly the wisdom of the course which has been 
recommended by two or three gentlemen in the papers they have presented. It 
appears to me that we should no more depend upon natural reproduction in any of 
the species of fish that we can handle than we should depend upon natural reproduction 
of corn or potatoes or any other thing that may be left to the wild. [Applause.] 
Dr. TARLETON H. BEAN (New York). Just a word, Mr. President and gentlemen 
of the congress, merely to remind you of the present condition of the shad fisheries of 
the United States, which, it appears to me, is one of the very best illustrations of what 
can be done by artificial culture as against natural reproduction in streams that have 
been more or less polluted. I shall go not very far south of the Hudson River and the 
Delaware for my illustration, and say the Potomac. You gentlemen know as wellas I 
that to-day the fisheries—the commercial fisheries of those rivers, especially the shad 
fisheries—rest absolutely on an artificial basis; and they have so rested for the past 
quarter of a century. It is within my knowledge and within your knowledge that in 
1874 shad were selling in the Washington markets at 75 cents apiece on the average., 
You know what they are worth to-day, and you know why it is that you can buy them 
to-day for one-third the price that you paid in 1874. I will not enlarge upon this topic, 
but merely remind you that the Hudson, the Delaware, and the Potomac for the past 
quarter of a century have been increasingly polluted. The natural spawning beds or 
grounds have been covered with cinders and other waste products of industries; and 
without artificial propagation there would be no such thing as a run of shad in the 
North River or the Hudson River to-day, as there has been in 1907 and 1908, equaling 
the catch of more than twenty years ago. : 
Mr. Fryer. I do not gather that all the spawning grounds of all the whitefish in 
the Great Lakes are polluted; neither do I gather that they are spoiled by refuse from 
timber works, sawmills, orfrom any other such cause. 
Mr. Frank N. Cyark. If I understand you correctly, you do not understand that 
the spawning grounds of the whitefish are polluted. They most certainly are. In my 
paper I speak of the Thunder Bay River region, where the beds are polluted out 9 miles 
in a bay that is 30 miles across, and there are no whitefish in that territory where they 
used to spawn in great numbers. 
Mr. Fryer. If that applies equally to all the spawning grounds of the whitefish in 
the Great Lakes, then, of course, my point falls. 
Mr. CrarK. It does not apply to all. 
Mr. Fryer. Then the point I wished to make is that, assuming there are natural 
spawning beds still left in the Great Lakes 
Mr. CLARK [interrupting]. Oh, yes. 
Mr. Fryer [continuing]. I am glad the assumption is correct for the sake of the 
fisheries themselves. My argument is this: There is a great distinction to be drawn 
between the case of the Great Lake fisheries and the cases that have been referred to, 
such as the shad fisheries of the Hudson and elsewhere, where it is found that all the 
spawning beds are either polluted or are so cut off from the fish as to be practically 
unavailable, and I expect that in the paper that is about to follow, on the fisheries of 
the Rhine, you will find information given which will enforce the point that there is a 
great distinction to be drawn between those cases where nature still has a little room 
left to perform its own functions and the cases where the natural conditions have been 
practically destroyed; and, on the premise that there are still natural spawning beds 
available for the whitefish, I would venture to support the view put forward by Professor 
Prince, that you have great cause for hesitation before you put aside the question of 
improving or endeavoring to improve these fisheries by restrictive measures and rely 
