283 



after being informed of the results of the New York meeting, that it was a mat- 

 ter in which all States and Provinces bordering on the Great Lakes were inter- 

 ested, and that will stand as an excuse for our representation here to-day. 



It has been justly said, that " He is a benefactor of his race who makes two 

 blades of grass to grow where only one grew before," and how doubly true must 

 this be of him that makes thousands of fish to grow where but one grew before ! 

 The restocking of these vast inland seas of ours is a matter of no small concern 

 to those who live upon their borders. Their magnitude can be better compre- 

 hended, perhaps, by considering that if we should take and put the lakes of 

 Ontario, Erie, St. Clair, Michigan, Huron and Superior end to end we should 

 have an immense inland sea more than fifteen hundred miles in length, and with 

 a varying width of from seventy-five to two hundred and fifty miles. Looking 

 at the matter from this standpoint you can better understand the extent of these 

 great lakes. One of our fleet lake steamers, sailing at the rate of from twelve to 

 sixteen miles an hour, would occupy from thirty-six to forty hours in circum- 

 navigating the lower peninsula of Michigan alone, and the same vessel leaving 

 the port of Bufialo would consume from four to four and a half da3^s in making 

 the trip to Duluth, about one-half of the time that is occupied in crossing the 

 Atlantic. 



Of the fact that these waters at one time teemed with all the varieties of 

 our valuable fresh water fishes there is abundant proof. Eeference is frequently 

 made in the accounts given of these waters by the early French voyageurs of 

 the plentifulness of the fish that abounded in these lakes. La Hontan says that 

 he found Indians at the Straits of Macinac fishing with nets made from the bark 

 of trees, and that they easily succeeded in obtaining all the fish they desired by 

 this means. He further says that " the supply is so abundant that it must fur- 

 nish an important supply of food to the people who shall hereafter settle upon 

 the borders of these lakes." Another voyageur, passing from the waters of the 

 Detroit river into the upper end of Lake Erie in company of a military escort, 

 says " the sturgeon upon their spawning beds are so thick that the soldiers killed 

 them with their swords." What was said by La Hontan respecting these fish as 

 an important element of food to the subsequent dwellers upon the lake borders 

 was unquestionably true, but neither La Hontan nor any other man of his time 

 could anticipate that this country would be so densely settled as it now is. The 

 demand for these fish has not been confined to the people who live upon their 

 immediate borders. But even granting it were so, it is easy to imagine what a 

 great demand would have been made upon these waters by the people within 

 those limits when we take into consideration that the returns of the eleventh 

 census show that one-sixth of the population of the United States is centered in 

 the five great States bordering the great lakes, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, 

 Indiana and Michigan. But this is not the only demand that is made upon these 

 waters. No hotel or restaurant east of the Kocky Mountains would consider its 

 bill o£ fare complete if it did not include whitefish or trout. So great has the 

 demand become, that there is no lake port of any importance which has not from 

 one to a half dozen freezers in which are stored these valuable fish, which are 

 thus held throughout the year to be sold as fresh tish in all the markets of the 

 important towns of the Western, Southern and Eastern States. 



The fishing industry, which was once prosecuted with the aid of sail boats, 

 which fished only for a portion of the season, has grown to such importance 

 that for the last ten or fifteen years — because of the refrigerators furnishing a 

 market for fresh fish during the entire year — it has been prosecuted with steam 

 tucjs and vessels until the demand has grown to be enormous. Add to -this the 



