134 Thirtieth Annual Meeting 



convincing the members of the utility of and the necessity for such 

 legislation as the measure asked, but little difficulty was experi- 

 enced in securing its passage, to take effect as already stated. One 

 of its wisest provisions in my opinion, and the one that will yield 

 the best results, is that which prohibits fishing within 400 feet of 

 any dam between the 15th day of April and the 15th day of June. 

 I mention here a single instance tnat came under my personal obser- 

 vation illustrating the destructiveness of the practice which this 

 provision is intended to cure. It was at the Waldron dam, in the 

 Kankakee river where one rod in a single day took 135 bass, most 

 of them females. Can there be anything in the way of protective 

 legislation more productive of good results in the perpetuation of 

 our game fishes, than the positive prohibition of this barbarous 

 method of taking the parent fish while on their journey seeking a 

 place to propagate their yoimg? We are simply endeavoring to 

 bring the law to the assistance of these pretty and useful denizens 

 of the water in their efforts to perpetuate their species for the 

 benent of mankind. The destruction of game fish by indiscriminate 

 angling from April 15 to June 15 below dams is the fruitful cause of 

 the depletion of many of our inland streams. In a word, it is the 

 paramount evil that has retarded the increase of game fishes in our 

 waters. 



Fish leave their winter quarters, ascend the streams early in 

 the spring, and they find their progress retarded by various obstruc- 

 tions, dams being the chief and most formidable. Before these 

 obstructions, the fish congregate by thousands, unable to proceed 

 further. A few succeea in getting ahead by means of fishways, 

 where such provisions are made; but the great body of them are 

 at the mercy of the unscrupulous angler who never leaves the spot 

 so long as a poor, heipless, hungry denizen of the water will consent 

 to be landed in his creel. He goes home with his enormous catch, 

 and ignorantly gloats over the destruction of millions of fishes 

 which future generations ought to enjoy. He is unable to see an 

 inch ahead of his nose, and to recognize the fact that he is taking 

 out of the water the multiplied and multiplying progeny of these 

 helpless creatures, the stock which nature is striving to supply for 

 the years to come. 



I ought to mention that the stipulated limitation here mentioned 

 — the sixty days between April 15 and June 15 — is a compromise. It 

 was the desire of the commission to make the limitation cover the 

 entire time from April 1 to July 1 ; but the opposition was so deter- 

 mined that it was deemed expedient to agree to the sixty day limi- 

 tation, rather than incur the risk of having the bill defeated in toto. 

 It is wise to recognize the fact that measures of a drastic character 

 must be brought before the people by degrees. 



Another feature of our new law which we regard as of vital 

 importance is the provision which prohibits the taking of bass with 



