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Ontario, and if possible, increase in that lake the supply of whitefish and salmon 
trout. I believe on the northern shore of Lake Ontario there is a large amount 
of salmon caught and of whitefish. [I am not an expert fisherman, and perhaps 
not so familiar as I should be with the habits of the fish, but I know of no 
reason why whitefish should not now abound on this side the lake as well as 
forty years ago. Lake Ontario was recommended as a source of water supply for 
Rochester ; tests were made and it was found the water was pure. There is no 
reason why it should be impure; and I believe as good condition for the cultiva- 
tion of fish food exists in Lake Ontario to-day as: forty or fifty years ago. I 
think the attention of the Commissioners should be called to the importance 
of investigating that matter fully, to ascertain if this side of the lake can no 
longer be the home of the whitefish or salmon trout. I think also the cultiva- 
tion of shad in the Hudson, for the interest. of this State, should be pushed to 
its greatest possibilities. For the interest of New York and Brooklyn, and other 
cities in our State, with the railroad facilities in the State, I think nothing more 
useful could be done for the people than to increase the quantity of shad in the 
Hudson, and increase in Ontario the salmon and whitetish, and thus furnish a 
supply of fish food for the people, and not at present give so much attention to 
the stocking of lake streams in the Adirondacks. We could, in my judgment, 
very well get along without trout in the Adirondacks if there were in Lake 
Ontario and the St. Lawrence a full supply of food fish. I make these sugges- 
tions because I have taken pains to make inquiries of inhabitants in lake coun- 
ties, and their belief is that salmon trout and whitefish can be restored in Lake 
Ontario. It is possible that there are conditions that render it impossible to 
propagate to any great extent those fish now; I am not prepared to say that 
is not true; but I think the Fish Commissioners will do the state a service 
and reflect great credit on themselves if they push the experiments at points 
—say at Johnson’s Creek, Oak Orchard Creek, Sandy Creek, and _ points 
along the lake shore; establish hatcheries there; see if it is possible that 
by producing the small fish or fry in the streams at these points, the 
salmon will come back, or if the supply of whitefish can be increased. I 
believe that the intention of the legislature was not so much to furnish for sports- 
men sport in catching fish in the Adirondacks, which are almost inaccessible to 
the average person, as to supply to the inhabitants of this State a supply of fish | 
food at fair and even cheap rates. In my judgment that can be done ; and in my 
opinion the attention of the Commissioners should be directed that way. As I 
said before, I have no comment to make as to the expenditures of money in the 
past. I believe they have been judiciously expended—for to a very great extent 
this matter of fish cultivation has been an experiment. I think as early as 1865, 
Mr. Roosevelt was a Fish Commissioner, and published a book in which he said that 
there should be protection to fish ; that the supply of fish food could be increased 
in the large lakes to an unlimited extent, using, in fact the very best arguinents 
that could be used, and that, in the very line that I have suggested, and yet 
nothing—at least not very much, has come of that. I believe it does not require 
very much skill to frame bills relating to protection of fisheries, that will meet 
the approval of the law-making powers in the Provinces, and of the law-making 
powers of this state, and in Pennsylvania, which are directly interested in Lake 
Ontario and which can be enacted. I have no doubt but that my friend Judge 
Danforth could frame bills in a short time that would meet the approval of this 
state, Pennsylvania and the Provinces ; and I believe it would be infinitely better 
for the states bordering on the lakes that the management and control should be 
left to the commissioners of those states. They have in the past shown a great 
interest in that matter; I know that interest will be continued, and I believe they 
