67 



are pursuing the fish; in summer in the deeper waters 

 and in the fall months upon their spawning beds, 

 where the fish, attracted by that instinct of nature, the 

 reproduction of their kind, seek favored reefs, gravid 

 with thousands of embryos, to spend a brief season, 

 and are met with every engine of destruction in every 

 locality where the fishermen can set their nets for their 

 capture. 



Twenty-five years ago the fisherman was content to 

 capture and market white fish of a weight of from 

 three lbs. upward, but his eager and continued pursuit 

 of the fish soon began to tell, and fish of the larger 

 size began to disappear. Since then the history of the 

 fisheries has been that of a gradual decrease in size of 

 fish and a corresponding contraction of meshes, until 

 thousands of fish are taken too small to be of merchant- 

 able value and they have been ground into fertilizers 

 and strewn whole on the fields to enrich the soil. 



The white fish does not spawn under two lbs. 

 weight, and bearing this in mind a perusal of the 

 Chicago Rules of Inspection of white fish, which prac- 

 tically regulate the white fish trade of the lakes, may 

 not be without interest. Under that inspection 

 merchantable white fish are graded into three grades 

 as follows : 



Standard No. i Whitefish shall not be less than one 

 and onc-quartei' lbs. dressed weight, nor less than 

 twelve inches in length. Standard No. 2's shall not 

 weigh less than three quarters of a lb., or measure less 

 than ten inches. Standard No. 3's shall include all 

 fish under ten inches in length, and weighing less than 

 threefo7irths of a lb. 



It would seem to a man of average understanding, 

 after a elance at these rules, with a knowledsfe that 

 spawning fish are killed during their entire spawning 



