56 REPORT OF ONTARIO GAME No. 52 



young or immature of the more valuable commercial fishes be carefully 

 ascertained, and closed to all commercial gill or pound net fishing foi- 

 a term of at least five years. 



(18) That the whole fisheries be divided into a number of fishing 

 areas for the purpose of carefully studying and determining the lengths 

 of gill nets and the number of pound nets which can safely and advan- 

 tageously be used in the same, 



(19) That the value of each license be based on the value of the 

 catch of the preceding year, the charge being fixed at the rate of |2.00 

 per 1,000 pounds of whitefish, herring, lake trout and pickerel, and fl.OO 

 per 1,000 pounds of other fishes, and that the estimated value of each 

 license be paid in advance, the balance in favor of or against the Gov- 

 ernment being adjusted at the end of the year from the sworn returns 

 of the net fishermen attested to by the local fishery overseer. 



(20) That, subsequent to the establishment of Provincial fish agen- 

 cies and the introduction of a more effective system of administration 

 of the fisheries, the experiment be made of placing the licenses in certain 

 selected areas up to tender, power as usual being reserved to select such 

 tenders as may be deemed the most advantageous. 



Commercial Fishing in the Lesser Lakes of the Province. 



The Province of Ontario is most liberally furnished with lakes of 

 every size and description, most of them abounding, or at least once 

 abounding, with fish of many varieties. In many of these lesser stretches 

 of water there occur varieties of the commercial whitefish and trout, as 

 well as the pickerel, ciscoes and other fish in more or less demand at the 

 different fish markets of the States and Provinces, and as the decrease 

 in the product of the great lake fisheries became marked, while the de- 

 mand continued to increase, thus materially raising the market value of 

 all classes of fish, it was but natural that the idea should be conceived 

 of making use of the fish to be caught in the smaller bodies of water 

 where such waters were reasonably accessible to adequate transporta- 

 tion facilities. 



Experience in a short while proved that which was only to be ex- 

 pected, namely, that the smaller a body of water the less resisting power 

 has it to the drain of vigorous commercial fishing, and, consequently, 

 many of the inland lakes in which commercial fishing was carried on 

 were soon absolutely depleted of all the finer forms of fish life, to the 

 great detriment of the dwellers in the surrounding country. 



There can be no doubt but that the logical economic function of the 

 lesser lakes scattered throughout the Province is to supply wholesome 

 fish food in the first instance to the poor settlers who open up the coun- 

 try and have at best a precarious existence, and subsequently as the 

 country becomes more settled to the increasing population of the sur- 

 rounding territory at cheap rates. In view of this fact it would seem 



