REPOET OF THE COMMISSIONERS. 



To His Excellency, Governor Joseph W. Fifer: 



We beg- leave to submit herewith our report as Board of State 

 Fish Commissioners, from October 1, 1890 to September 30, 

 1892. 



Since our last report practical results of the work have dem- 

 onstrated more fuilj than ever its economic value to the people 

 of the State. As heretofore, we have gathered and distributed, 

 to public waters, the fish from the drying pools, and our catches 

 in that way indicate an increase in those varieties to which we 

 have given special attention. 



The number of fish left to die in the shallow waters has been 

 beyond computation, and has seemed to be greater than ever 

 before, from the fact that the attention of the people generally 

 has been called to them and the tei-rible waste ensuing. How 

 to get them all and put them into deeper water might well be 

 considered a problem difficult to solve. Scattered along the 

 entire length of the rivers of our State, as are these drying 

 ponds and sloughs, some near to and others remote from the 

 rivers, the distance to be traversed in rescuing and distributing 

 the fish renders it difficult to care for all. Hundreds of thousands 

 have been put into the rivers, or nearest deep water, and yet 

 but a small proportion of them has been utilized. We called 

 the attention of the U. S. Fish Commission to the existing state 

 of affairs in this respect and they responded by aiding us in 

 the work to the full extent of their equipment. We have been, 

 using their three cars and crews each season, and by that means 

 have been enabled to transport and plant, by the carload, the 

 better varieties taken, and in turn have given them a fair pro- 

 poition for other waters. 



Too much credit can not be given Col. M. McDonald, the U. 

 S. Commissioner of Fisheries, for his ready assistance in this 

 matter, and it is quite probable that before another season he 

 will have arranged to extend the work and add largely to its 

 scope, making our rivers richer by thousands of fish. 



We have been severely criticised because so many fish are al- 

 lowed to perish, but when the fact is considei'ed that the Mis- 

 sissippi river has a meandering frontage of 450 miles in this 

 State, with bottoms varying in width from a few hundred yards 

 to several miles, and the Illinois and other rivers adding per- 

 haps as much more, it can readily be seen that, if the work were 

 carried on to a successful completion, it would require hundreds 

 of nien and thousands of dollars of expense; in other words, it 

 would be sim|)ly impracticable. 



