196 American Fisheries Society 



Dill}- the river itself available as a breeding ground for the 

 fish, and while it is very productive it presents but a small 

 area compared with the immense grounds once accessible. 

 Under conceivable conditions there might be a question as to 

 which would be the more profitable, the land or the water, 

 but with conditions as they are and have been there is no 

 doubt but that the land is the more profitable, since it can 

 be controlled absolutely by the owner, and no question 

 raised regarding its products, while the product of open 

 waters under natural conditions is the property of the state 

 until caught. This allows free fishing in the open water, 

 and the property owner has no redress except through action 

 for trespass, which has been a scanty protection in the many 

 suits that have been brought from time to time. The open- 

 ing of the Chicago Drainage Canal, which gave a fixed in- 

 crease in the depth of the water, covered thousands of acres 

 of land that previously were subject to cultivation. This 

 complicated matters even more, if possible, and. the only 

 remedy for the situation was to build levee systems and 

 reclaim the lands, if the owners were to reap any profit to 

 themselves, and this has been done with the results to the 

 supply of fish before explained. 



Do not understand me to be in opposition to such recla- 

 mation by the owners. I am but endeavoring to show some 

 of the causes that have led up to the present conditions, and 

 that will ultimately result in the destruction of all the 

 best breeding grounds of the coarse fish in this state. 



There is no doubt that if the waters could be controlled 

 in the interest of the owners the revenue to be derived from 

 the fish would, in most cases, be greater than if the land 

 were cultivated as farms, taking the cost of reclamation into 

 consideration. During the past session of the Illinois Gen- 

 eral Assembly T talked with a number of owners of im- 

 mense areas of water along the Illinois River, and. without 

 exception, I think, every one of them agreed to the propo- 

 sition that if their property rights were given equal protec- 

 tion the fishing privileges would be more profitable than 



