262 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



than a legalized regulation of the fishing season or of the numbers taken; nor will 

 returning unsalable fish to the water quite answer the purpose. Wise protective laws 

 should also be made and enforced by neighboring nations against the pollution of 

 bays, rivers, inlets, ponds, or streams by offal, garbage, chemicals, oil, or any kind of 

 rubbish. Mills in which dye is used should not be allowed to discharge the refuse 

 water into rivers or even small tributary streams containing food-fish, nor should any 

 manufacturing enterprise use the waterways as waste-receivers. I note that the laws 

 make mention of the northern logging season, when millions of logs float on fishing 

 waters in Canada and in our own extreme Northeast and Northwest. This seems to be 

 requisite, but it will not do to toss slabs of bark, decaying logs, or broken lumber, or 

 sulphur-charged coal dust on neighboring shores to accumulate as rubbish until storms 

 sweep them again into the streams with augmented power to annoy and sometimes 

 destroy the fish, otter, beaver, or whatever may inhabit the waterways. 



Nearly all safeguards for the inhabitants of the sea or river will be found to 

 conduce to the general public good as well. Decomposing refuse, whether of animal 

 or vegetable growth, is usually poisonous, working with subtle force upon humanity 

 and breeding pestilential fevers. Dyes are often composed of poisonous material, and 

 they may injure the water used for drinking without marring its transparency. Thus 

 the thoughtful observer readily sees that the requirements of the Fish Commission 

 and the boards of health conjoin, although one protects human health and the other 

 the production of edible or otherwise useful animal life. As for interfering with 

 manufacturers by legislating against dams, they could in every case be so constructed 

 as to allow of a broad waterway for the fish when they enter the inland streams; but 

 this needs vigilant watching. There can be no doubt that the plentiful supply of 

 salmon and other wandering species is largely due to perfect freedom of action in their 

 native haunts. They have spawned when they would, they have roamed at their will, 

 and with little destruction except that resorted to by man. No nets, no weirs, no 

 dams, no vast heaps of polluted debris have prevailed against their freedom in the 

 northwest streams. Time was when Canadian and northeastern waters were equally 

 prolific. The contrast shows plainly how carefully British Columbia, the United States, 

 and South America should join in the preservation of a most valuable product of every 

 nation with rivers and a seacoast. 



To-day I would suggest legislation that would preclude the possibility of the 

 beautiful and prolific waterways of our territory, no matter where, from being clogged 

 with rubbish, poisoned with refuse, or blocked by dams and traps. A short time 

 spent in selecting sites for manufacturing towns would secure the proper requirements 

 without wholesale destruction to inferior life. If the effect of perfect protection can 

 not be obtained, the next best thing would be to forbid the use of water polluted by 

 factories as well as the fish therein. But the disastrous drawback to that would be a 

 neighborhood poisoned with effete matter accumulating for years. There will always 

 be fishermen, and there will also be people to consume the fish found by the sports- 

 man; therefore the best way is to keep the waters pure and continue the hatcheries. 

 Legislation will be of no avail, so far as a great part of the United States is concerned, 

 if not agreed to by all States and contiguous countries. In fact the fishing, fur, ivory, 

 whalebone, and oil interests of the whole continent demand international cooperation 

 for the successful protection of the denizens of the sea and other waters extending 

 into it from the shores. With this continental agreement and an American alliance 



