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after being informed of the results of the New York meeting, that it was a mat- 
_ ter in which all States and Provinces bordering on the Great Lakes were inter- 
ested, and that will stand as an excuse for our representation here to-day. 
. It has been justly said, that “ He is a benefactor of his race who makes two 
_ .blades of grass to grow where only one grew before,” and how doubly true must 
this be of him that makes thousands of fish to grow where but one grew before ! 
The restocking of these vast inland seas of ours is a matter of no small concern 
to those who live upon their borders. Their magnitude can be better compre- 
hended, perhaps, by considering that if we should take and put the lakes of 
Ontario, Erie, St. Clair, Michigan, Huron and Superior end to end we should 
have an immense inland sea more than fifteen hundred miles in length, and with 
a varying width of from seventy-five to two hundred and fifty miles. Looking 
at the matter from this standpoint you can better understand the extent of these 
great lakes. One of our fleet lake steamers, sailing at the rate of from twelve to 
sixteen miles an hour, would occupy from thirty-six to forty hours in cireum- 
navigating the lower peninsula of Michigan alone, and the same vessel leaving 
the port of Buffalo would consume from four to four and a half days in making 
the trip to Duluth, about one-half of the time that is occupied in crossing the 
Atlantic. 
Of the fact that these waters at one time teemed with all the varieties of 
our valuable fresh water fishes there is abundant proof. Reference is frequently 
made in the accounts given of these waters by the early French voyageurs of 
the plentifulness of the fish that abounded in these lakes. La Hontan says that 
he found Indians at the Straits of Macinac fishing with nets made from the bark 
of trees, and that they easily succeeded in obtaining all the fish they desired by 
this means. He further says that “the supply is so abundant that it must fur- 
nish an important supply of food to the people who shall hereafter settle upon 
the borders of these lakes.” Another voyageur, passing from the waters of the 
Detroit river into the upper end of Lake Erie in company of a military escort, 
says “the sturgeon upon their spawning beds are so thick that the soldiers killed 
them with their swords.” What was said by La Hontan respecting these fish as 
an important element of food to the subsequent dwellers upon the lake borders 
was unquestionably true, but neither La Hontan nor any other man of his time 
could anticipate that this country would be so densely settled as it now is. The 
demand for these fish has not been confined to the people who live upon their 
immediate borders. But even granting it were so, it is easy to imagine what a 
great demand would have been made upon these waters by the people within 
those limits when we take into consideration that the returns of the eleventh 
census show that one-sixth of the population of the Unite States is centered in 
the five great States bordering the great lakes, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, 
Indiana and Michigan. But this is not the only demand that is made upon these 
waters. No hotel or restaurant east of the Rocky Mountains would consider its 
bill of fare complete if it did not include whitefish or trout. So great has the 
demand become, that there is no lake port of any importance which has not from 
one to a half dozen freezers in which are stored these valuable fish, which are 
thus held throughout the year to be sold as fresh fish in all the markets of the 
important towns of the Western, Southern and Eastern States. 
The fishing industry, which was once prosecuted with the aid of sail boats, 
which fished only for a portion of the season, has grown to such importance 
that for the last ten or fifteen years—because of the refrigerators furnishing a 
market for fresh fish during the entire year—it has been prosecuted with steam 
tugs and vessels until the demand has grown to be enormous. Add to this the 
