AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 39 



nation as anytliinji- in the world. We niusl have protccliou 

 for their food, which is beinj? destroyed all the time, in the 

 lake and rivers and everywhere. By what? By the sewage 

 of the cities for one thing. I think the time will come when 

 our scientists will recognize that fact, and I do not know but 

 they have already. Mr. Whitaker made some statement in 

 regard to Lake Michigan being dei)leted of whitefish, and Lake 

 Iliuon and Lake Erie being on the increase. 



Mr. Whitaker: No, I did not say Lake Erie, or Huron or 

 Superior were on the increase, or even holding their own. I 

 said they were better than Lake Michigan because they had 

 the protection afforded by good protective laws on the Cana- 

 dian side of the boundary. 



Mr. Clark: The closed season? 



Mr. Whitaker: Yes, the closed season, and not only that, 

 but the regulation of the distance the nets should be set apart, 

 the number that should be set in a string and the size of the 

 meshes. 



Mr. Clark : In those lakes, beyond Lake Erie, we have some- 

 thing else that has not been taken into consideration, showing 

 why the fishing is better in Lake Erie, and it is conceded, I 

 think, that the fishing is better in Lake Erie than in any of 

 the other lakes, for whitefish especially. As Mr. Whitaker 

 says, during the years since the organization of the Michigan 

 Fish Commission and tlie Ignited States Commission the total 

 j)lant is represented by a thousand million, or something like 

 that. The actual figures are one and a half billion, and of that 

 number five hundred and fourteen million went into Lake 

 F]rie and the balance into the other lakes. One third of all 

 the fish that have been hatched by the Michigan Fish Commis- 

 sion and by the Ignited States Commission have gone into Lake 

 Erie waters. 



Mr. Whitaker: But the balance has gone into the other 

 lakes. 



Mr. Clark : Have been scattered in Lakes Michigan, Huron, 

 St. Clair and Superior; Huron getting the most of those fish, 

 Michigan next, and Superior next. That is one of the reasons, 

 in my judgment, why Lake Erie is so much better than the 

 other lakes; from that and not from the closed season. Again, 

 we have another thing ^Nlr. Whitaker brought up; he rather 

 criticised the figures I gave in regard to the increase in fish. 

 Now, W'here I say "it has been possible to assist nature to such 

 an extent," etc., Mr. Whitaker rather questioned that data. 

 Allow me to state that I took it right from your statistical 

 agent's report. 



Mr. Whitaker: I do not criticise the correctness of your 

 figures. I criticise the conditions under which they were taken 



