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to supervise generally the fishing interests and secure the 
enforcement of all the laws relating to the protection of 
fish and fisheries in the State. The fact that the whitefish 
was the only one specifically named in the organic act in- 
dicates the regard the people of the State had for this fish, 
and it has been often since cited as an argument against 
any neglect of that branch of the work. 
The Governor at the time this legislation was enacted 
was Hon. John J. Bagley, of Detroit, whose interest and 
appreciation of the work had much to do with the passage 
of the law, as well as with the public interest in the sub- 
ject and the early success of the Commission. His asso- 
ciates on the first Board were Andrew J. Kellogg and 
George Clark, the latter of whom had an experience of al- 
most half a century in catching whitefish in the waters of 
the State. 
The first Board was singularly fortunate in securing as 
Superintendent the enthusiastic and untiring George H. 
Jerome, whose spicy and vigorous contributions to the 
literature of the subject contained in the early reports of 
the Commission have won the admiration of each succeed- 
ing Board and of every appreciative reader. 
The salary of the Superintendent was limited by the act 
to twelve hundred dollars, but the meagreness of the com- 
pensation did not hinder this enthusiast from giving to 
the work all the energy and ability he possessed. He was 
the life and spirit of the Board so long as he retained his 
place. 
The following words from the First Report of the Com- 
mission are deemed worthy of quotation: ‘‘The water 
world, subject year by year to new discovery and to a 
larger development, may be implicitly relied upon in the 
years to come to contribute a much larger quota of food 
than at any pre-existing period. This. as viewed from the 
fishculturist’s stand point, is believed to be not merely pos- 
sible, but highly probable. Indeed, this is the fish prob- 
