139 
has already been brought over in pump logs, and it is con- 
templated doing the same with another. 
The whitefish plant of 1882 was upwards of eighteen 
millions. That spring, the experiment was first made with 
the wall-eyed pike, and a plant was made of eleven hun- 
dred and twenty thousand. 
The Board had some difficulty with Superintendent 
Portman, and in September, 1882, he was succeeded as 
Superintendent by Oren M. Chase. Mr. Chase served until 
November 11, 1883, when he was drowned in Little Tra- 
verse Bay, while in the performance of his duties, sacrifi- 
ing his life in his zeal for the work. Walter D. Marks 
was then made acting Superintendent until March 26, 
1884, when he was regularly appointed Superintendent; 
and continued to act in that capacity until the early part of 
1893, when he resigned. Mr. Marks was an early pupil 
of the veteran Seth Green, and was a man of large ex- 
perience in handling the breeding fish. He was full of re- 
sources and always found some way out of every difficulty 
that beset his work. 
January 1, 1883, Eli R. Miller retired as Commissioner 
at the expiration of his term, and John H. Bissell, of De- 
troit, was appointed his successor. The work had reached 
a somewhat low ebb at this period and needed just such an 
energetic, thoughtful and practical man as he proved to be, 
to give itanewimpulse. Itis no disparagement of any one 
else to say that Mr. Bissell is entitled to as large a degree 
of credit as any one for such success as the es Fish 
Commission has attained. 
The appropriation for 1881 was eight thousand dollars, 
and for 1882 seven thousand five hundred dollars.- In the 
fall of 1883, the work of obtaining accurate statistical in- 
formation as to the amount and value of the commercial 
fisheries of the State was commenced ina small way. The 
- whitefish plant of 1883 was twenty-three million seven 
hundred and thirty-five thousand, and that of 1884, thirty- 
