11 



shall be allowed the same fee as constables for like service, and shall have 

 power to arrest, without warrant, any person for violating any of the pro- 

 visions of this act; but such wardens shall receive no fees, except on cases 

 where convictions are obtained. Such fish wardens may be removed at any 

 time by the Governor, 



POLLUTION OF STREAMS. 



Sometime in the future the people of the State of Illinois will 

 awaken to the fact that a prominent cause of disease exists in the 

 pollution of the water supply of the State. In some special instances 

 this seems to be unavoidable, but a very large percentage of the 

 causes could be eliminated. We are frequently in receipt of com- 

 plaints of fish being killed by the introduction of refuse from differ- 

 ent manufacturing or other establishments, which is being turned 

 into the rivers and streams, and while we have, in every instance, 

 given the matter personal investigation, we have found also that, no 

 matter how flagrant the case appeared, our powers in the premises 

 are limited to the investigation, we, as fish commissioners, having no 

 authority further than that of any other citizen, and we could only 

 point out the sole means of relief, a suit for damage by nuisance. 

 But it has ever been a matter of surprise to us that water used for 

 drinking purposes should be allowed to become so foul that it would 

 kill fish and still be used for all purposes in the family. We have 

 found some streams that at one time during our connection with the 

 fish commission were ideal ones, with water almost crystal clear, and 

 hard and sandy bottom, now always foul and with a deposit on bot- 

 tom in places that is two or three feet deep, of such a character that 

 no one seeing or smelling it could doubt for a moment its probabil- 

 ities for disease, lying dormant and only kept in abeyance by the 

 rapid current of the stream and the washings of the usual spring 

 rises. This is a growing evil, and to us it presents the feature of 

 destroying more fish, both mature and in embryo, than all the 

 methods used by fishermen and anglers, and our only wonder is that 

 these streams, the natural homes for the best of our fishes, have not 

 become entirely depleted. 



If no means of preventing the escape of such refuse into the waters 

 could be found and the life of the various enterprises depended upon 

 the use of our rivers as sewers, as we are often informed by the par- 

 ties interested in the case, it would be another thing, but as a remedy 

 can be had, and a sure one, it would seem to be incumbent on the 

 people interested to demand such protection as the law can give, not 

 alone for the future of the fish, but what is of vastly more import- 

 ance, the health of the people themselves. 



We have on file a large number of complaints and the findings re- 

 sulting from our investigations, but deem it hardly proper to give 

 them a place here, as it does not legally enter into our work, but we 

 can always produce them should such showing become desirable. 



