90 



been introduced and built up from zero ; in the other, 

 a large native stock has been greatly reduced. It is 

 true that the returns show that at a few points the 

 shrinkage in the catch of whitefish has been checked, 

 but the aggregate for the entire lakes has fallen far 

 below that of ten or fifteen years ago. 



On the other hand, we find that catches of one hun- 

 dred brook trout per day, per man, are now too com- 

 mon in scores of our streams to attract attention. On 

 the first day of May, 1894, over 5,000 trout of legal 

 size were taken from a single ten mile stream in the 

 southern part of the State, a stream that a few years 

 ago was harc^ly considered capable of supporting brook 

 trout at all. Abundant results are also reported from 

 all quarters of the State, and the returns already real- 

 ized compensate the cost of production and distribution 

 many fold, amply justifying the work on grounds of 

 public policy. These results are quite the reverse of 

 what was at first anticipated, as the white fish are re- 

 turned to indigenous waters, while the trout have been 

 placed in waters in which the species had never existed. 



The fact that the planting of white fish has failed to 

 prevent a growing scarcity of mature fish, and a decay 

 in the fishing, is necessarily involved and interwoven 

 with economic abuses incident to the extent and 

 methods of fishing ; and while it is not my purpose to 

 discuss the needs of restrictive measures, some refer- 

 ence to this phase of the subject is necessarily in order, 

 otherwise those unacquainted with the facts might in 

 all fairness conclude that the planting of white fish has 

 been wholly barren of results. 



Reliable statistics show that over 70 per cent, by 

 weight of the white fish marketed from Michigan waters 

 of the great Lakes are not sexually mature. The per- 

 centage by count is of course much greater ; so that 

 for years, independent of the enormous loss in their 



