74 AMKklCAN FISHKRIKS SOCIETY. 



I'here is not a bulrush or a lilly pad in it, and in every vvay is 

 [)articularly adapted to the salmcjn-trcnit, because it seemed in 

 all iis characteristics just like the small lakes of New York 

 State in which the salmon trout are indigeneous — Canandaigua 

 lake, Cayuga lake, and several of the lakes there. Not feeling 

 sure about it, I wrote to Mr. Seth Green, who was an old friend 

 of mine, to come out and spend a week with me, which he did, 

 because 1 wanted his judgment in the matter; and we S(junded 

 the lake and found the dei)th of the water and we dredged the 

 bottom. We caught all the small varieties of l]sh to see what 

 food there was for the salmon trout. Lake Geneva is somewhat 

 celebrated for abounding in the small fish known as the cisco. 

 There are in that lake and one or two other small lakes of Wis- 

 consin, and they are there in great abundance, living in deep 

 water. The cisco is the natural food of the lake trout, and we 

 therefore very naturally came to the conclusion that Lake Geneva 

 was particularly adapted, if any lake on the face of the earth 

 was, for planting and growing the Mackinaw trout, or lake 

 trout. So I built a hatching house and I employed one of Mr. 

 Green's men, Mr. Welchcr, who was afterward superintendent 

 of the Wisconsin fish hatching establishment, and went to work. 

 The first year I bought the eggs from the New York State Com- 

 mission, 200,000, and after that Mr. Welcher went every fall to 

 Lake Michigan and took the supply of eggs. I have laid in 

 about 590,000 each winter, and I pursued that faithfully and put 

 in about 500.000 good, healthy fry in the lake every spring for 

 five years ; but 1 have never seen, and no one else, as near as I 

 can find out, has ever seen the shadow or sign of a salmon trout 

 in Lake Geneva, large or small. 



A Member — H(jw deep is the water ? 



Mr. Fairbank. — About 150 feet or an average of 100ft. 



Question. — And what is the temperature ? 



Mr. Fairbank. — It is a cold lake. I don't know. 



The SECRErARY. — They ought to be there, Mr. P'airbank. 



Mr. Fairbank. — Well, they are not there. Mr. Crreen, said 

 " They are there, but you don't know how to fish for them. They 



