142 American Fisheries Society 



Then these secluded precincts were invaded by the lumber- 

 jack with his axe. The forest soon disappeared, the gloom and 

 deep shadows of the arboreal recesses were dispelled by the 

 admission of the scorching rays of the summer sun and the hot, 

 dry winds of the highlands; the moisture was dissipated, the 

 vegetation shriveled, while the streamlets dwindled and finally 

 disappeared entirely during the summer months. With these 

 changed conditions went the food of the young fry. The breeding 

 fish, failing to reach their former spawning grounds, in consequence 

 of the diminution of the streams, were compelled to utilize the 

 gravel beds at the lower reaches, where the food of the young fry 

 existed in but limited quantity. 



Then with the melting of the snows came the spring rise, and 

 with it the logs of the lumberman, plowing out the beds on the 

 gravel bars, scattering the trout fry and killing many of them. 

 In Michigan, in each recurring spring, the logs plowed up the 

 spawning beds of the grayling, destroying the ova and fry almost 

 entirely, season after season. To this cause alone, is to be charged 

 the almost total extinction of the grayling in Michigan waters, 

 and not to overfishing ; neither have they been driven out entirely 

 by the incursion of trout, as has been alleged. Before the era 

 of logging brook trout and grayling had existed in amity for all 

 time, in at least two or three of the grayling streams, where I 

 caught trout and grayling in about equal number as late as 1868 

 to 1873. 



The mining of minerals and the smelting of ores can not be 

 operated without water, consequently, the streams in the neighbor- 

 hood of mines become discolored and impregnated with deleterious 

 matter that destroys utterly, the food of fish fry, covers up the 

 spawning beds with silt and debris, and eventually pollutes the 

 stream to such an extent that but few, if any, mature fish can 

 survive in them. 



The offal from distilleries, if any remain, and the sawdust 

 from sawmills, likewise settle on the spawning beds, so that if 

 any fish eggs are deposited they are smothered and the embryo 

 perishes. Chaff from grist mills and sawdust from the lumber 

 mills become lodged in the gills of mature fish, causing inflamma- 

 tion and death. Coal mining is also fatal to life, inasmuch as the 

 washing of coal, as now practiced, not only discolors the water, 



