That there has been a marked increase in our supply of food 

 fishes can best be illustrated by the testimony of those inter- 

 ested, and we have had some flattering repoits. In the proper 

 place in this report we have given the correspondence bearing 

 upon this subject. In the Quincy Bay, this season, the number 

 of black bass has been unprecedented, and a fair estimate of 

 the number taken with hook and line would place it in the 

 hundreds of thousands. Most of them were too small to use on 

 the table, yet were as voracious as larger ones and fell an easy 

 prey to the angler, whether he of the rod and reel or the small 

 boy with a willow switch and a^tow line, all caught bass. One 

 man, who called himself a sportsman, boasted of having caught 

 800 of them in one day with hook and line, all too small to 

 eat, but he carried them away and threw them on the ash heap. 

 From my office window I saw 225 taken by two little boys in 

 one day, all of them Avasted. Now, when it is considered that 

 2,000 of these bass will make a carload for distribution, one 

 can easily see how great has been the destruction from this 

 cause. More harm was done to the bass supply of our waters 

 this season by the taking these thousands of small fish with 

 hook and line than by the fishermen in illegal use of seine and 

 net, and yet there was no chance of stopping the waste. Now, 

 what is true of Quincy Bay has been, in a measure, true of al- 

 most all our inland waters as well. This has been a bass year. 

 Of the other varieties a fair increase has been noted. The ring 

 perch have proven themselves easily adapted to all our waters, 

 and are reported as having greatly increased. The carp have 

 increased in such proportion that they seem to have taken their 

 place among our native fishes and become indigenous to the 

 waters, as they abound in ever^'^ lake and stream. While much 

 adverse criticism has followed the introduction of the carp, and 

 it has been pronounced by some a poor fish, yet we want to go 

 on record as holding the behef that the waters of Illinois have 

 never received an accession that has been as valuable as a food 

 producing supply as the carp. It is, unquestionably, the poor 

 man's fish, and the ease with which it has adapted itself to the 

 waters of every section of the State makes it of the greatest 

 economic value. It will take the hook better than any fish we 

 have, is gamey enough for sport, and grow so rapidly that 

 during the months of August and September the early spawned 

 fish are quite large enough for the table. This season, any one 

 who could get a piece of string, a fish hook and a can of ang- 

 ling worms was assured of his next meal. Thousands have been 

 taken from our rivers and inland waters this season by men 

 and women who were out of work and needed food. I noted in 

 one day, on the Quincy Bay, 115 men, women and children 

 fishing, using worms for bait, and I failed to find one of tli<Mn 

 who had not caught fish, mostly carp, weighing from three- 

 fourths to one and one-half pounds, of this seasons si^nvning. 

 Having a curiosity to know how they were regarded by the 

 jjeople who were taking them, I made inquiries of seveial. and. 



