Simpson. — Conservation and Propagation 37 



of Winona during the past season has clearly shown the wisdom 

 of this policy. We feel that if the other cities, located in the 

 territory in which this work could well be undertaken, would 

 interest themselves in this matter, it would be but a short time 

 until the upper waters of the Mississippi would become the finest 

 fishing territory imaginable. 



Restocking the river in this manner is different from the 

 ordinary methods adopted in restocking streams and lakes, 

 in that the extent of transportation of the small fish is practically 

 nothing. The fish are taken in the seine directly from these pockets 

 to the river, or placed in pails and tubs and transported quickly, 

 so that there is practically no loss from this source. If these fish 

 are once placed in the deeper water, even though we do have 

 higher water level in the season, they do not go back to the sloughs 

 and pockets, but care for themselves in the deeper water. The 

 expense involved is very small when we take into consideration 

 the results obtained. A crew usually consists of three men, a 

 small launch, a seine and a few tubs and pails. Two men operate 

 the seine and the other transports the fish. It is estimated 

 that such a crew will rescue one hundred thousand fish a day. 



Even though the dead sloughs and pockets do not entirely 

 dry up and the fish live through the summer season, these small 

 bodies of water will freeze to the bottom in the winter following 

 and the fish will be destroyed in this manner. 



While considering this matter, I feel it my duty to call the 

 attention of this body to the lack of a fishway in the Keokuk 

 Dam, located at Keokuk, Iowa, on the Mississippi. There can 

 be no question that several species of the fish that inhabit the 

 upper river migrate south during the fall and early winter, and 

 once they go over the Keokuk Dam it is practically impossible 

 for them to get back up the river the following spring. It has 

 been said that the river below the dam at Keokuk is just alive 

 with fish, during the spring, trying to get back to the upper 

 waters of the river. This condition prevails especially with 

 reference to the skipjack, which although not a food fish, is very 

 useful in the upper river as food for the pike. Up to the time of the 

 construction of the Keokuk dam it was a common saying along 

 the river, that wherever you saw the skipjacks working you could 



