ing of the bull pout alone should be consummated, there would be no 

 serious objection to such procedure, but men who will use unlawful 

 appliances to catch fish, will not hesitate, of course, to keep every- 

 thing that comes to their seines. There is, no doubt, a great deal 

 that could be argued in favor of the smaller mesh, say, one inch and 

 one-half to replace the present two inch mesh now in use. The bull 

 pouts thrive everywhere, and as adults rarely ever reach the size per- 

 mitted by law to be offered for sale, and there is no doubt that a two 

 inch mesh is too large to successfully take them. 



We are inclined to believe from such experience as we have had, 

 after carefully noting the workings of the two-inch mesh all along 

 the Illinois river, that an inch and one-half mesh should be allowed 

 to be used during the season when it is lawful to use anything, and 

 a vigorous prosecution made, or rather a vigorous enforcement of the 

 law relative to size of fish which shall be offered for sale. The waters 

 would be better for a greater reduction in the quantity of these fish, 

 they are marketable and found everywhere in the State of Illinois. 

 We believe there would be less illegal fishing with seines if the 

 meshes were reduced to the size sufficient to take the bull pouts. 

 The size limit of fish that can be legally offered for sale, has had a 

 thorough test and has proven to be one of the most successful and 

 practicable laws so far enacted. We have had a very large number 

 of violators of this law all over the State, particularly in Chicago. 

 The general impression gaining ground among the commission men 

 there, that any fish shipped from outside of the State to the Chicago 

 market, whether of under size or not, could be legally handled. As 

 a result, that point has been hotly contested by the Chicago fish deal- 

 ers, and the abuse has extended of course to fish shipped in from all 

 portions of our State, and it could not be accurately determined 

 whether they were fish from Illinois, or from states where it has been 

 found consistent with the law to have permitted the sale of fish from 

 other states. The ruling of the commission has been backed by good 

 legal advice that the State of Illinois through its Legislature had the 

 right to say what should be legally offered for sale within her own 

 borders. Whenever under size fish have been found in the posses- 

 sion of the dealer, when not offered for sale, they were confiscated 

 and turned over to the Chicago charitable institutions. This met 

 with some opposition at first, but we are pleased to say that the bet- 

 ter classes of dealers in Chicago have become convinced of the cor- 

 rectness of <he opposition, and as a rule now refuse to receive con- 

 signments of fish smaller than allowed by law, and if such consign- 

 ments are received and found to be mixed with larger fish and not 

 detected until after receipt, were voluntarily turned over to our war- 

 dens for disposition named. While all parts of the State were well 

 supplied with shipments of fish from various markets, they are, 

 many of them, too small to be legally offered for sale, and it has re- 

 quired a great deal of time and patience to enforce the law in these 

 instances, and yet not work hardships. Our wardens have been in- 

 structed, when such fish are found in the possession of dealers, to 

 notify them that they are too small, obtain the name of the shipper 

 and notify him also of the infraction of the law. This for the first 



