124 Tzventy-niiith Annual Meeting 



DISCUSSIOX OF PAPER OF MR. STONE. 



The President : I will say in connection with this that for 

 years it has been the custom of fishermen to spear the sturgeon 

 on the Missisquoi River at Swanton just below a bridge. They 

 have their spear attached to a cord and will throw it from the 

 bridge above, some 20 or 30 feet, striking a sturgeon and haul- 

 ing it in over the bridge, and the eggs coming from the sturgeon 

 so freely that they covered the l^ridge. The authorities were 

 compelled to stop the fishing in this way because the bridge 

 was smeared with sturgeon eggs. It was the main passageway 

 in the village and they actually stopped the sturgeon fishing be- 

 cartse they wanted to avoid the stench from the eggs. We have 

 never realized they were a valuable fish, and the fishermen using 

 seines on the lake for pike do not want to protect them because 

 the large fish weighing 150 pounds or so will break theii seines. 

 The last Legislature passed an act allowing them to take sturgeon 

 with gill nets. 



T received about the time this sturgeon work was being 

 carried on, a photograph from Mr. Green, who did this work, 

 and he had two sturgeon placed in one of their jackets for strip- 

 ping. The one cut open is merely to show the spawn; this wall 

 give you a view O'f the lake sturgeon. The fishermen sell the 

 spawn for about 75 cents a pound. 



Mr. Nevin : I would say, Mr. President, that at Lake 

 Winnebago the sturgeon came in a great big school last year 

 about the fore part of June, two or three thousand of them, and 

 deposited their eggs, making the water appear a milky white. 

 This year I laid for them about the loth of June at the same 

 point, but no fish showed up there. 



Mr. Dickerson : Isn't there a difference between the stur- 

 geon you spoke of as being caught on the rocks and our 

 sturgeon ? 



The President : I suppose there is ; yours are the lake 

 sturgeon. 



Mr. Dickerson : Xot more than twenty years ago the In- 

 dians used to come into Detroit with wagon loads of sturgeon, 



