248 



And that when so amonded your committee recommend the passage of said 

 bill. 



The accompanying letter from the United States Commissioner of Fisheries, 

 communicated to the Senate, gives sufficient reasons for the establishment of the 

 fish hatchery proposed to be established by the bill, and the same is made a part 

 of this report :~ 



U. S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries, 



Washington, D.C, Jan. 26, 1891. 



Sir, — In obedience to Senate resolution of December 18, 1890, directing the 

 tJnited States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries to report to the Senate as to 

 the desirability of the establishment of a fish hatchery in northern New York, 

 near the St. Lawrence River, I have the honour to report as follows : — 



The basin of the St. Lawrence, including Lake Ontario and Lake Champlain, 

 and the innumerable smaller lakes and tributary streams which drain into these, 

 comprises fully one-half of the area of the State of New York, about one-fourth of 

 the State of Vermont, and on the Canadian side a more considerable drainage area. 



In Lake Ontario, whitefish were formerly very abundant. The value of this 

 fishery has declined year by year, and at present the pro iuction is relatively insig- 

 nificant compared with the whitefish fisheries of Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Lake 

 Michigan. 



In the Waters referred to, a like decline was in progress, but those who were 

 interested in those fisheries were prompt to redognise the necessity of legislation 

 to restrain and regulate the methods, and apparatus, and seasons of capture. 



Artificial propagation was also systematically resorted to, to supplement and 

 te-enforce natural reproduction, and whitefish hatcheries were established by the 

 States of Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, and by the Canadian Government. 

 Entering the field at a later date, the United States Commission has established 

 stations for the collection and hatching of whitefish at Alpena, Mich., Duluth, 

 Minn., and Put-in-Bay, Ohio. 



The result of this co-operative fish-culture work by the Canadian, State, and 

 United States Fish Commissions has been not only to arrest the alarming decline 

 that was in progress, but to determine a marked increase in the catch of whitefish 

 in those waters in which fish-cultural work has been carried on. ^ 



The marked contrast between the present conditions of the whitefish fisheries 

 of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, sharply defines and emphasises the necessity of 

 artificial propagation as a means of maintaining and improving our important 

 commercial fisheries, and of creating such in waters where they have not before 

 •existed. 



We cannot afford to neglect so important an economic resource, one which 

 ^ives such substantial and valuable returns for moderate expenditures. 



We cannot expect individual enterprise to undertake such work in public 

 waters in the expectation of private gain. Men, however public-spirited, will not 

 sow the seed of a harvest which all men may gather. Our lakes, and rivers, and 

 ■coast waters, must be farmed by the Government for the general use, and under 

 •such regulations as will establish and maintain the largest production. 



