.Imcncaii I-'is/icrics Sociclx. 



THE RELATION OF THE FISH AND GAME WARDEN IN THE 

 WORK OF FISH PROPAGATION. 



BY C. K. l!RK\\Sli:U, (IR.WI) 1^\I'I1)S, .MICH. 



The r;i])icl depletion of our water.s of it.s food fislics l)y rea.son 

 of the vast increase l)oth in the numlier of men enjjfaged in fishing 

 and the number of nets used, has made it necessary for the enact- 

 ment of laws for the artificial propagation of the desirable kinds 

 of fishes to re-stock our lakes and streams. 



This work has usually been placed in the hands of State 

 Boards of l""ish Commissioners. Their duties are the taking of 

 spawn, the hatching of the eggs, the apportioning of the fry to 

 the various waters, and superintending the de])ositing of same. 



In my own State of Michigan, with her more than two thou- 

 sand miles of coast line bordering the "Great Unsalted Seas." with 

 her thousands of inland lakes and streams all teeming with fish, 

 the question of either protection or perpetuation did not present 

 itself to the earlier citizen. Whitefish and trout were abundant 

 in the Great Lakes, and every settlement near enough to the coast 

 to do so had a few nets, usuallv owned in common, and used for 

 the purpose of taking fish for their own use only. 



In the coast towns a few men had nets and made fishing their 

 business. The nets were of large mesh, and the fi>li taken were 

 necessarily so. Sail boats onl\- were used, and three men could 

 handle two gangs oi gill-nets, possibly three miles lo'.ig, — one 

 gang only being in the water at a time. 



But with the rapid increase in pnpulation, conditions changed. 

 Factories and manufacturing jjlants were built to utilize the ])ro- 

 duct of our forests. Sawdust and slabs were dum[)e(l into the 

 waters without protest. This oflfal, as it became saturated, sank 

 and shifted around on the Ijottcni, drixing out the \vhiteti>b.. 

 Fishermen cleaned their fish on bnard their boats, dumping their 

 ofifal into the lake. 



