enough inland to give practical protection to a gang of fishermen who 

 wish to work them at night with small meshed seines and the difficulty 

 for those enforcing the law to get any evidence of such violation. 

 What we need is force enough to i>roi>f'rly police the whole State. 

 The commissioners are very severely criticised for not obtaining bet- 

 ter service, and one would almost be led to believe that the public 

 opinion of the duties of the commissioners are to lie out in the woods 

 at night and undertake to apjjrehend violators of the law. 



Th(! commissioners, serving without salary, have at best a large 

 contract on their hands to take care- of the ordinary routine of work 

 which falls to their lot, and should be given assistance enough to 

 properly police the waters. We have suggested that the warden force 

 be at least doubled, and that a proper man be placed at their head 

 under salary, subject to the control of the Board of Fish Commis- 

 sioners. 



For local reasons it is very difficult to obtain conviction at various 

 Ijoints along the rivers, there being a marked prejudice against the 

 enforcement of the law which would tend to curtail the business of 

 the fishermen, whether lawful or not, and the greatest difficulty has 

 been encountered in successfully prosecuting offenders. 



Mr. Cohen, who has charge of the enforcement of the law, has 

 given his time to the work at a great detriment to his business and 

 feels as if now that the work has been practically organized, that he 

 should have help enough to successfully carry it on without claiming 

 so much of his time and personal attention. 



The use of the steamer Illinois in patroling the Illinois river has 

 been of material assistance during the close season. Excepting in 

 the season of 1894, constant supervision of the Illinois river has been 

 exercised. The seines used in the river are of such length and size 

 that it is dangerous to use them with the boat in the river. 



The use of the seines, however, has not been frequent, and the law 

 has been better observed than in former seasons. This, however, is 

 not true of inland lakes and streams where the small seines and 

 trammel nets are used princiiDally at night, and while not nearly all 

 such violations have been detected, yet a large number have been. 

 Warden Sites, of Homer. 111., has made an enviable record in his 

 work, haying obtained more convictions than any other one man. and 

 has done more to e«iforce the provisions of the fish law than any 

 other warden in the State, outside of Cook county. He is a fearless 

 officer, perfectly honest and loyal to his superiors and the interests of 

 the State. His report, which will be found under the proper head- 

 ing, will show the results obtained. The other wardens have done 

 good service, and although handicapped by local conditions, have, as 

 a rule, used good judgment and discrimiuateil fairly between pro- 

 secution and persecution. While all have done tlieirdiity. yet the 

 number is inadequate to anything like a perfect enforcement of the 

 law. In many places we have had to rely on local dejiuties. who, 

 serving without fixed pay, and depending on fines alone for compen- 

 sation, frequently find that their time and work have been given for 

 nothing, owing to the difficulty in recovering the fines, which have 

 been assessed and collected, from the State's attornevs, who seem to 



