82 Tzi'citty-iiiiith Annual Meeting 



and a loss to the community at large of thousands of pounds of 

 good food. This improvidence continued, and up to 1880 the out- 

 put had constantly decreased, until, from the best information we 

 could obtain, only about one million pounds of bufifalo were 

 taken on the Illinois river in the season. They were simply 

 "killing the goose that laid the golden egg,^^ taking the bufifalo 

 at spawning time they destroyed not only the stock, but the in- 

 crease as well, until the waters were practically depleted. This 

 being the condition of things at the time of the introduction of 

 the carp, it but remains to show how- they improved their oppor- 

 tunity and became a valuable auxiliary to the supply of coarse 

 fishes. For several years the carp were caught, but, having a bad 

 name, the fishermen would have none of them, and they were 

 thrown back into the water. This, as it proved, was fortunate, 

 for they grew and multiplied and the fishermen finally awoke to 

 the fact that there was a practically unlimited market for them 

 in the east at good-paying prices, and begam to utilize them. Year 

 after year the catch of carp has increased, until careful estimates 

 show that six hundred carloads of them were shipped east last 

 season from different points on the Illinois river alone. The 

 prejudice against the fish as food had gradually disappeared in 

 this state, until now it is found in the fish markets of every town 

 and village, and on the tables of almost every hotel and restaurant 

 in the surrounding country. 



For years, and seemingly to my misfortune, I was held re- 

 sponsible for the introduction and defense of this much maligned 

 fish, and I have had plenty of newspaper notoriety as its advocate, 

 but I have emerged from it triumphant, as it is to-day the uni- 

 versal opinion of every responsible fish dealer on the Illinois 

 River that the carp was the best gift ever made by the United 

 States Fish Commission to the people of the State. 



There are natural reasons why the carp should be plentiful 

 an the waters of our State. Not to talke too much time, I will 

 briefly say that the Illinois River, with its bottom lands frequently 

 covering fifteen miles from blufT to blufT, abounds in low, flat 

 lakes, into which the fish go with the overflows of the river, which 



