THE INVESTIGATION OF A RIVER SYSTEM IN 

 THE INTEREST OF ITS FISHERIES 



By Stephen A. Forbes 



We have in Illinois a river of the same name as the state, 

 which is in many ways one of the most remarkable streams 

 in the country, and in no respect is it more remarkable than 

 in its natural adaptation to the breeding and maintenance 

 of a large and varied population of fishes and other useful 

 aquatic animals; in none has it made a more remarkable 

 record than in the supply of fish as food which it has 

 produced and is now producing — not for Illinois only, but 

 for the country at large, sending out of the state, as it does, 

 and mainly into eastern cities, much the largest part of its 

 catch. The annual yield of the Illinois River in fishes only 

 is over twenty-four million pounds, worth at wholesale 

 about $738,000. If this annual output were turned into 

 silver dollars, and these were placed in a row, equidistant 

 from each other, along one of the banks of the stream, there 

 would be a dollar every year for every two feet of the 

 river's course from its origin to its mouth. 



Furthermore, we have no reason to suppose that this 

 stream and its adjacent waters have yet reached their limit 

 of economic yield. The effect produced on them by the 

 opening of the drainage canal from Chicago, and the still 

 greater effect due to the introduction of the European carp, 

 are examples of the fact that the original condition of the 

 stream may be largely changed for the better, and give us 

 reason to believe that it may be made a still more important 

 asset than now, both for the people of the state and for the 

 general public who are the chief consumers of its product. 

 Evidently this is one of the natural resources of the state 

 and country which should be carefully safeguarded. A 

 thoroughgoing, practical investigation of this stream is now 



