.■Iiiicrican Flslicrics Society. 35 



the benefit derived from the former to our commercial fisheries, 

 placed where it belongs. 



The experience and opinions of men wlio have fished the 

 waters of our Great Lakes for the j);\st forty years should be of 

 some value, especially so from a practical standpoint. By follow- 

 ing this industry year after year, they learn the habits of the 

 various kinds of fish taken from these waters, and know upon 

 what grounds to go to catch them. They become experts in the 

 business. They can tell you where the spawning grounds of the 

 lake trout are and the season of the year the parent fish visit them, 

 also their feeding grounds at other seasons of the year. Of the 

 whitefish they will tell you that they go about the lakes upon their 

 uonted feeding grounds and spawning beds in schools; hence are 

 more easily trailed and more susceptible of capture than are the 

 lake trout. 



Those of intelligence and long experience say, too, that the 

 schools of whitefish make about the same tours through the 

 waters each year; therefore they conclude that they are not mi- 

 gratory to any great extent. This theory they sustain in saying 

 that it is a fact that the whitefish are more abundant in portions 

 of the lake where the fry have been more generously distributed. 



In the minds of the more intelligent fishermen there is no 

 longer any doubt about the good results of planting. When com- 

 pared with natural propagation, they will tell you of three very 

 destructive causes that surround the conditions of ova cast in 

 open waters. First, loss by lack of impregnation, which carried 

 on in open water must be very great; second, loss from the horde 

 of spawn eaters that are always found upon the grounds during 

 the spawning season; third, loss from the elements, which means 

 a great deal to the whitefish, as they go upon clean shoal 

 ground to spawn during the rough, stormy season of November. 

 The hatcheries eliminate entirely the last two causes, and prac- 

 tically so the first; therefore the conclusion arrived at is, make 

 the annual output of our hatcheries as large as possible, if the 

 improvement and perpetuation of our fisheries are desired. 



The good efifect of this work is shown in the improved take 

 of whitefish in 96 and '97 from the Straits of Mackinaw to the 

 Beaver Islands, covering that portion of Lake Michigan where 

 plants of the young fish have been made with more regularity 

 each year than elsewhere. The catch of whitefish upon these 

 grounds for the past three years is as follows : 



