264 Lake Maxmkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 



quantities as the condition of the larder in their cabins de- 

 manded. It was purely a matter of food supply with them. 

 Forunately for us, as well as for them, fish were abundant and 

 the supply was not easily exhausted. Little or no thought was 

 given to methods of fishing except as related to immediate, 

 tangible results. There was no apparent danger of depleting the 

 supply; fish were abundant and, it seemed, would always remain 

 so. That a time would ever come when the fish would need pro- 

 tection probably never occurred to any one; the fish protection 

 idea was of later birth. 



According to Mr. McDonald, spearing fish at night very early 

 became a favorite method of fishing and "if the occupants of a 

 boat got less than a hundred pounds of fish during a night they 

 considered themselves in bad luck." 



A little later, between 1850 and 1860, the use of seines be- 

 came common and great quantities of fish of various kinds were 

 caught each year in this way. 



The sentiment favoring the protection of the fish of the lake 

 has developed slowly, but it has developed. It has developed not 

 only in the minds of the regular summer cottagers, but it has grown 

 also in the minds of the casual visitors, the farmers roundabout 

 and the local villagers. There are some exceptions to be found in 

 each of these classes, perhaps as numerous in one as in another, 

 while willful law breakers are rare; those who do all the destruc- 

 tion they can under a liberal interpretation of the law, are more 

 numerous. On the whole, however, the law is well respected and 

 the attitude of the people toward fish protection is wholesome. 



ANGLING 



According to Mr. McDonald, "it was not until in the '60's 

 that the sporting fraternity — the fishermen with rod, reel and 

 line — began to visit Lake Maxincuckee. By that time a few 

 fairly comfortable row boats had been put on the lake and a small 

 visiting party could find accommodation for a day or two with 

 some of the farmers near by, and the fame of the lake as a fisher- 

 man's paradise began to spread abroad. The completion of the 

 I. P. & C. Railroad (now the Lake Erie & Western) brought the 

 cities along its line within eight miles of the lake, and parties from 

 Rochester, Peru and Logansport began to camp upon its shores, 

 and their white tents could be seen all through the fishing sea- 

 sons beneath the shady groves of Long Point, Edwards' Landing 

 and Peebles's Point. And after the completion of the Vandalia 



