316 Fortieth Annual Meeting 



On August 16, 1882, I was appointed superintendent of 

 fisheries by the State of Wisconsin and assumed the duties 

 on September 1st. Our department met with many reverses 

 before success finally crowned our efforts. The commission 

 was organized six years previous to the time of my appoint- 

 ment. During that time it experienced the advent and 

 passing of three superintendents, suffered the ridicule and 

 abuse of the press, and indications pointed toward the abol- 

 ishment of the department by the next Legislature. At the 

 first meeting of the commission after I had taken charge, 

 President Philo Dunning stated his intention to resign. 

 The other members immediately said that if he resigned 

 they would all follow his lead, as none of them wanted to 

 be in at the death of the commission, as they expected the 

 department would be wiped out by the coming Legislature. 

 Everything was in a state of chaos, but the final outcome was 

 that, sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, we would 

 combine our efforts and fight to the last ditch. After killing 

 a bill to abolish the commission and quieting antagonism to 

 appropriations, we passed from the depths of despair into 

 the light of assured success. 



Many hardships must be endured in connection with our 

 work of collecting eggs in the fall of the year on the Great 

 Lakes. During the same storm in the fall of 1884 in which 

 my friend Oren M. Chase, of Michigan, was drowned, I was 

 collecting whitefish eggs on Green Bay off Fayette, Mich. 

 The wind had been blowing hard for several days and 

 it was almost impossible to get the fishermen to go out 

 and lift their nets. One day the wind calmed down con- 

 siderably. I was on the anxious seat about procuring eggs 

 and as an inducement I offered one William Winter ten 

 dollars to go out and lift. He replied that if I was not 

 afraid he would go out with me. He had a sail boat and 

 with it a small pound-net boat in tow to raise the nets. We 

 lifted several nets and I was in the pound boat spawning 

 fish when a gale sprang up and with it came snow. The 

 tow-line parted, Winter could not come about to pick me up, 



