1912 AND FISHEKIES COMMISSION. 261 



were so plentiful that in hauling the seines they could not pull them in 

 on shore; they had simply to dip out what they wanted of the fish with 

 small nets, and let the rest go. The fisih were miraculously numerous, 

 but when I left Lake Ontario some fifteen years ago (1878) whitefish 

 were almost exterminated. Four thousand whitefish were many times 

 taken in a haul in one night ; salmon trout and whitefish in Lake Ontario 

 were vastly more numerous than they ever have been in the Georgian 

 Bay." 



The Royal Commission appointed by Your Honour's predecessor in 

 office in 1892, reported in no uncertain terms on the depletion of the 

 fisheries, as the following quotation will sliow : 



P. 194. " The extent to which netting is carried on is also incon- 

 ceivable, and the spawning groumis are stripped year after year, until 

 in many places where fish abounded formerly in large numbers there is 

 no yield now at all." 



With these figures and evidence it is unnecessary to seek further 

 for pi'oof that the whitefish in Lakes Erie and Ontario existed, within 

 the memory of men still living, in numbers so immense as to be hardly 

 credible to the younger generations of to-day, and that the present 

 deplorable condition, as compared with the past, of the fisheries of 

 the Great Lakes has not been brought about by the unpreventable causes. 

 What these causes were, how it Avould be possible to change or ameli- 

 orate them, and w'hat steps should be taken to make the fisheries of the 

 Great Lakes once again produce a splendid cheap food for the masses 

 of the people, will be taken up in your Commissioner's final report, 

 after the promulgation of the regulations governing international 

 waters, under the treaty between Great Britain and the United States. 



Besides the quotation already mentioned, from the Royal Commis- 

 sion's Report of 1892 (Ontario), calling attention to the depletion of 

 the waters, your Commissioner would also draw to Your Honour's 

 attention a recommendation of that Commission as to restrictions in 

 the use of nets, wiiich reads as follows: 



"Your Commissdoners are of the opinion that pound nets should 

 be entirely abolished in the waters of the Province, and that no gill net- 

 ting should be allowed except by special permission from the Game and 

 Fisih Commissioners." 



The quantities of fish can hardly be said to have increased since 

 1892, and your Commissioner is of the opinion that greater need of 

 restriction exists now than when the recommendations of the Royal 

 Commission referred to were made and ignored. 



The action of your Government in not allowing netting in Tvake 

 Nipissing and the Thames River has resulted in much good, and your 

 Commissioner would strongly urge the policy being contimied, and that 

 netting in inland waters be still further restricted. 



