FOURTEtNTH ANNUAL MEETING. 



The supply of fish from the State was liberal, and in each of 

 the springs of 1878, 1879 and 1880 many thousand small fry of 

 trout were distributed, those streams which had been noted trout 

 streams in the past being especially favored. 



In one of these year? thirty-five streams were restocked. The 

 fish were deposited under careful instructions, and considerable 

 effort was made to protect the streams, aud yet after the most 

 careful inquiry, the committee has failed to hear of any practi- 

 cal benefit resulting from its efforts. 



Many of these streams already abounded to some extent in 

 trout, and it was hoped that the protection afforded after re- 

 stocking would result in a marked increase of the fish ; but that 

 hope was not in any single instance realized, and the committee 

 has been irresistibly forced to the conclusion that some force 

 otlier than excessive fishing had led to the universal depletion -of 

 these streams, and that the same cause still existed to prevent 

 their restoration. 



After the fullest investigation and examination of these and 

 other streams, I have become satisfied that the destruction of the 

 trees bordering on these streams and the changed condition of 

 the banks produced thereby, has resulted in the destruction of 

 the natural harbors or hiding places of the trout, that this is the 

 main cause of the depletion, and that until these harbors are 

 restored, it will be useless to hope for any practical benefit from 

 restocking them. 



By giving a few of the facts which have led me to this con- 

 clusion, its correctness will, I think, be made apparent : 



I. In the heart of the Catskills there is a natural trout lake 

 of about twenty-five acres. Being too remote for successful 

 protection, which has only been attempted within the last ten 

 or twelve years, it has been for many years the resort of anglers 

 the year round. Trout have been taken in enormous numbers 

 through the ice, which usually lasts until May, and it has been 

 the very paradise of poachers by day and by night. And yet 

 the fish in this lake are substantially as abundant to-day as they 

 have been for the past twenty years, and during all this time 

 there has been no marked diminution of the trout. 



This lake is fed by a stream which runs through a quarter of 



