42 TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING 



their habits and the diseases that annihihite them and doing 

 all that can be done towards keeping the waters stocked. 

 Then, if the people want to catch them let them go ahead and 

 do it. 



Mr, Dickerson: Mr. Chairman^ I am not going to discuss 

 this question, but I want to say, that until the Fish Commis- 

 sion was organized, A. Booth & Company fought against a 

 closed season. There are many letters on file in which they 

 agitated that question. They were not converted until they 

 had organized a trust and got control of the fisheries on Lake 

 Winnepeg. During the agitation in the Legislature this 

 winter a Canadian who has been in the fishing business all his 

 life, reading the papers and taking an interest in the subject, 

 sent a long communication to us in which he goes on to show, 

 that notwithstanding the protection which has been given in 

 every way in Canadian waters, that the supply of fish had de- 

 creased by a much greater percentage in those waters than in 

 our own. I think it a very wise thing to agitate this question, 

 to bring up all the points we can in reference to it, and to make 

 it a special study and subject of discussion at our next ses- 

 sion. I desire to offer this paper in order that it may be 

 printed among our papers. I am sorry I haven't it here that 

 I might read it at this time. It is something that will be in- 

 structive and will give us the facts and statistics as he has 

 compiled them. It shows conclusively that the decrease is 

 much greater in the Canadian waters, notwithstanding their 

 so-called protection, than in our own. The paper will be of 

 interest to every man who has made a study of these questions 

 and for that reason I desire to ask permission that it be printed 

 in our report. 



President Peabody: I would like to ask if that depletion 

 might not be largely due to the continuous exhaustion upon 

 the other side? 



Mr. Dickerson: Do 3^ou mean by our waters being depleted? 



President Peabody : Yes. 



Mr. Dickerson: No, theirs are depleted faster than ours. 

 This goes back for twenty years, and shows a much greater 

 percentage of decrease in Canadian waters than our own. I 

 think it would be a valuable thing to have the paper printed 

 in the report, and I offer it for that purpose. 



Mr. Whitaker: Mr. Chairman, I have vsome statistics I 

 would like to introduce in connection with that very question, 

 and in connection with my remarks here, and I would ask 

 leave to do so, because I do not want to tamper with the record 

 after it has been made. 



Mr. Stranahan: I would like to ask Mr. Whitaker how he 

 would supply hatcheries with whiteflsh eggs or cisco ego-s, or 



