Bartlctt. — Decrease of Coarse FisJi 203 



biological character. They are quiet waters with an abundant oppor- 

 tunity for plant growth and with splendid areas for the development 

 of young fish. The progress of the conquest of the land leads natu- 

 rally to the reclaiming of these areas. Cultivated land bordering on 

 the river is of considerable value. An organization with financial means 

 gets the right to control a certain part of the back water, puts up there 

 a dyke or levee and brings the whole area under cultivation. The 

 inevitable result of that tendency is to confine the river to a relatively 

 narrow channel, to make of it, in other words, a canal. 



By the very clear presentation which Dr. Forbes gave the matter 

 this morning, you can see the inevitable result of the increase of pollu- 

 tion and the springing up of cities on the banks of a river. It becomes 

 for large portions of its course, and during the summer season at least, 

 a septic tank or an open sewer, if you please to call it so, where the 

 conditions of existence are so radically changed that fish cannot main- 

 tain themselves. 



Now, while other states, with a different type of land, will have in 

 their forest preserves or elsewhere, opportunities for the breeding of 

 fish, there is apparently only one way in which the state of Illinois can 

 gain such opportunities, and that is through a new and untried and 

 perhaps an unwelcome method of treatment, namely, the acquirement 

 by the state of the right in fee simple to certain of these areas and 

 their preservation under natural conditions. For the fish live up in 

 these back waters, in those creeks, and the expansion of the river 

 where the water is still pure ; they live happily there when the condi- 

 tions in the main river are such that they cannot maintain themselves 

 there; and you will recall that Dr. Forbes gave examples of that this 

 morning. 



It seems like a strange thing for a state to acquire a considerable 

 ana of swamp land or of overflow land; and yet after all, gentlemen, 

 that is directly along the line which the state follows in securing tracts 

 of beautiful mountain or forest land; it is for the preservation of 

 natural conditions for future generations. 



The maintenance of the fish supply is of real importance to the 

 state. It cannot be maintained if the river is narrowed down, in this 

 case, to a plain channel through which the sweep of the sewage-con- 

 taminated water eliminates all possibilities of fish existence. 



There must be set aside for the people, for the state, some of these 

 areas of back-water land, where the natural conditions of quiet water, 

 of plant growth and other conditions favorable for the existence of 

 fish shall be maintained. So, strange as it may seem, the state is to be 

 called upon to preserve for itself and for the maintenance of its fish- 

 eries and for use of its citizens a type of nature that is fast disap- 

 pearing, and to maintain in perpetuity a certain part of this land un- 

 changed in order that suitable conditions for fish existence may be 

 afforded, and that the generations to come may see something of the 

 wild bottom land in which the fishes now live. 



