71 



the fisherman to prosecute his calHng will be open to 

 him for eleven months of the year under proper restric- 

 tions, his business in the end will improve, the public 

 will be assured of a continuing supply of good and 

 cheap food, the Canadian government, I am confident, 

 will be willing to restore the conditions it has just 

 withdrawn to protect the fisheries, and as honest men 

 we may renew our efforts to restock the great lakes 

 with a certainty of successful result. 



DISCUSSION ON THE PAPER OF MR. 

 HERSCHEL WHITAKER. 



Mr. Peabody, of Appleton, Wisconsin, took up the 

 discussion as follows : 



"While I do not entirely agree with the pessimistic 

 view Mr. Whitaker takes of the evils of the Great 

 Lakes, I will say that the question is a grave one. 

 Mr. Whitaker comes from the same part of the country 

 that I do, and our interests are mutual." 



"Last October, together with others, I made a tour 

 of the lake region adjacent, and where there formerly 

 were found white fish, trout and pickerel, now the 

 fishing is almost entirely destroyed. Within the past 

 twelve years hardly enough fish has been taken to pay 

 for the netting. The Commissioners of the State have 

 been planting fish in Green Bay, and on our trip up 

 the Bay last October, we interviewed the fishermen 

 alonor the line to oret at their views reeardino- the re- 

 stocking of the waters, and we found that these net 

 fishermen, (I do not look upon fishermen with a great 

 degree of fondness; they are a sort of pirates as a rule), 

 but these men are all of them anxious to see that 

 proper legislation is obtained to protect the white fish 

 on these shores, and they said to us that on account of 

 the planting by the Commissioners in that year, they 



