THE WHITEFISH PRODUCTION OF THE GREAT LAKES. 689 
solely upon the measures proposed in those three very excellent and admirable papers 
which were read this morning, the sincerity of whose authors one can not fail to appre- 
ciate and admire, however one may differ from their conclusions. 
Professor Prince referred to the difficulty of regulating the sale of undersized fish. 
In England it has been found—as has been recorded in very quaint language in some 
old statutes—that although the law prohibited the sale of small fish their capture was 
inevitable; and when such methods of capture as hooks and lines were employed, and 
the small fish had to be thrown back into the sea, they were destroyed, and the public 
were thus deprived of a certain supply of fish. This is another illustration of the diffi- 
culty referred to by Professor Prince. 
At the present moment we have in Europe a difficulty in connection with certain 
grounds on the southeastern part of the North Sea, where very large quantities of what 
are known as immature or undersized plaice are caught, with very few adults. The 
suggestion was therefore made in that case that an international regulation might be 
passed which would prevent the sale of fish under a certain size, the idea being that 
although the prevention of sale would not in itself prevent the capture, yet the pro- 
portion of small fish taken on those grounds is so large that if the sale were prohibited 
it would not be worth the while of the fishermen to fish there any longer, and so, indi- 
rectly, under those circumstances, the prohibition of sale would have the same effect 
as the prohibition of capture. A period of one hundred and eighty seconds is not very 
long to deal with such an important question as this, but I would like to enforce one 
point made in the last paper, namely, that our knowledge with regard to the spawning 
of fish is not as perfect as it ought to be. On the mere point of fertilization of the ova, 
a very simple test would settle the question as to the proportion of the ova fertilized 
naturally. I may, incidentally, indorse Professor Prince’s experience in the matter 
of salmon eggs. I have myself collected salmon and trout ova fertilized naturally, 
under normal conditions, and I have not found 5 per cent of the eggs unfertilized, 
so that, prima facie, there seems very great reason to doubt that the proportion of 
unfertilized eggs in the case of the whitefish can possibly be 99 per cent, as suggested. 
If I might intrude one minute longer, I would throw out the suggestion—I do it 
with great diffidence, because I do not know all the local details, but as a very broad 
‘proposition for consideration—that it might be possible to arrange between the United 
States of America and the Dominion of Canada for the waters of the Great Lakes to be 
treated as a common fishery, common to the two countries, subject to common laws, 
equally enforced on both sides, and based on the most perfect knowledge that it is 
possible to obtain with regard to the lrabits of fish, and of course with regard to the 
habits of man, as to which I personally, as I said before, have insufficient knowledge. 
I just make the suggestion for consideration, with the addendum that if such an idea 
were accepted it might be possible to arrange that the fishermen who are interested in 
conducting these fisheries should themselves contribute to the expense of the adminis- 
tration and regulation of the fisheries in these waters. Whether that administration 
were limited to regulations only or whether it included artificial culture does not matter. 
This might be done by means of a system of tolls leviable not merely by licenses to the 
fishermen, giving them the right to fish, but on the quantity of fish which they brought 
ashore, no matter where they landed it, so long as it was taken in the Great Lakes. 
I make the suggestion with very great diffidence, but if it were possible to elaborate 
it I could give you several reasons in support of it. 
Mr. J. W. Trrcoms. I will answer the question raised by Professor Evermann 
about the run of salmon in the Sacramento River. Practically all of the salmon 
which ascend the river by the canneries are caught at the Bureau’s hatchery and stripped 
of their eggs. Occasionally, say once in three or four years, with a very high freshet, 
the fish get by, or a part of them get by. The fish in the Sacramento River have 
B. B. F. 1r908—44 
