Ward. — Preservation of Fish Fauna 165 



water to keep it company. I had been showing that fish in the morn- 

 ing to tourists at the hatchery, and I showed it again in the afternoon, 

 but instead of exhibiting one fish, I showed my pet fish and the tail 

 of the other sticking out of his mouth, one a three-year-old and the 

 other a year-old, seven inches long; so in the stocking of our streams 

 we should place the small fish where they are best adapted to the 

 stream. 



There is another proposition in regard to the protecting of our 

 streams, and that is the protecting our streams from fish depletion by 

 means of our irrigating ditches. 



Now, gentlemen, that is a condition which arises in our irrigating 

 districts outside of the eastern districts ; our states in the west have 

 that to contend with ; and, gentlemen, it means just simply this : we will 

 have no fish in our streams eventually unless we protect our streams 

 from depletion by the irrigating ditches. 



I am in rather a peculiar position here this afternoon and I will 

 explain to you why. At this morning's session, if 1 understood 

 rightly, Mr. Bower, from Michigan, stated in behalf of his own state 

 that, with the exception of Colorado, Michigan could boast of the 

 biggest fish liars. Now, I cannot understand why Mr. Bower should 

 except Colorado and place us in the position of liars as fishermen. 

 Judge Beaman took the floor a few minutes afterwards and said that 

 the true sportsman and true fisherman of Colorado always told the 

 truth. Now, gentlemen, you see what a position I am in. I wish you 

 would give me the credit of telling the truth part of the time when 

 I tell you the condition of the irrigating ditches and the condition of 

 our streams. I will only give you statements that I can verify. 



Last season the report came out in our paper from North Park 

 under the heading of farmers fertilizing their ranches with our moun- 

 tain trout. That looked like a pretty hard proposition. I can verify 

 by eye witnesses that these trout were drained out by irrigating 

 ditches onto the hay fields. The larger ones were taken for use and 

 the smaller left there to rot in the sun. These fish had been placed 

 in the streams by our fish commission. This is not only a condition 

 in Colorado, but it prevails in Wyoming and other states where irri- 

 gation is going on. 



Mr. Daniel B. Fearing, Rhode Island: I think the gentleman is 

 wandering from the subject ; he is talking on stream pollution. 



President: I think Mr. Thomson is talking on Dr. Ward's paper, 

 on the saving of the fish. 



Mr. Thomson : I do not desire to speak only as I am speaking upon 

 the paper, and I understood Professor Ward's paper was on the pro- 

 tection of our streams ; I desire to go a little farther along this line. 

 While I will mention no names, I think this statement can be verified, 

 that in many instances the water is turned out of the ditches at night, 

 where arrangements have been made beforehand, and then turned on 

 before daylight, and the fish are taken for table use. There is no 



