American Fisheries Society. 9'7 



From an experience of years of acquaintance I am in posses- 

 sion of data that has never been Secured, but from the fishermen 

 always freely given. Since the Duluth Hatching station has 

 been doing good work, tlie fisherman's interest has 

 been aroused, and when anything of especial interest occurs their 

 secretary is put into communication; when any large catches of 

 whitefish, lake trout, blue fin or long jaw occur, reports come 

 in. Last fall a short message came to me: "A splendid run of 

 whitefish had been seen in Siskowit Bay on the Wisct^nsin shore, 

 the first seen in years, and they had spawn in them." It was too 

 late at that time to report because the season was advanced and 

 navigation w^as closing; from Isle Royale there came a report 

 from one of the most reliable and intelligent of our fishermen: 

 "A large school of whitefish are working on the reef at Fish 

 Island; there are thousands of them and were there some days, 

 and are spawning." The water is so clear on this island that 

 the movements of fish can be watched at depths from fifty to 

 sixty feet. 



Arrangements are being made to report such matters as these 

 so that the Hatching station can secure eggs if they so desire, 

 but when fish commission employes go to a point when fish are 

 spawning, and plays sick because the waters arc a trifle rough 

 and he suffers from an attack of (jualmishness, and then returns 

 and reports that he could get no eggs because there were no 

 ripe fish, fishermen cjuickly estimate the cost of such incompe- 

 tence. 



(I am in a position to know that several boxes of spawn were 

 secured by fishermen, while the expert was laying under the 

 brush hugging a whisky bottle.) 



If the question of expense is to be considered, and the per- 

 centage of profit or loss, suppose we look at the possible water 

 areas that should be cultivated. It has been often quoted in past 

 years in the commission reports of different states that in some 

 portions of the world that an acre of water is made to produce as 

 much wealth in fish food as an acre of cultivated land produces. 



In the chain of great lakes backed by the falls of Niagara 

 there are 62.500,000 of acres of water. Suppose we adopt this 

 formula, it would read: 



Area, nuiltiplied by acres, nuiltiplied by products, nudtiplied 

 would ccjual and read A XacXpi'*-' =$74^^.000,000. 



The three lakes producing the finest of whitefish estimated 

 by this formula would read: 



