22 



take them to their own private ponds. Hut all through the west there are 

 waters that can be made very useful by the introduction of the carp, and 

 which otherwise are practically unpi-oductive. I think I have told this .story 

 once before the society, but I will tell it ag-ain. When I was president of a 

 fish and g;vme association, all of the members sportsmen, some of them com- 

 missioners from the New Eng-land states, others commissioners of fisheries 

 from Canada. 334 in number, we sat down to a table on one occasion and ate 

 carp under the name of baked red snapper: most of them knew they ^vere 

 not eating- baked red snapper: some of the old lake fishermen told me they 

 thoug-ht they were eating- white fish: another oiie said pike perch; all de- 

 clared them delicious. ' As yoia know, a^ rose would .smell as sweet bj' any 

 other name.' '" 



It is true carp are vegetable feeders and in small, clear lakes are 

 destructive to vegetation, and for such places or for small rivers, may 

 be, in some sense, objectionable, but the question with us is and has 

 been, are not the benefits derived greater than the damages V In the 

 natural adjustment of the fishes of our waters the percentage of 

 coarse fishes to the game varieties is largely in excess, but from 

 various causes this balance has been largely decreased, and to replace 

 this deficit is undoubtedly the proper work of the commission, and 

 the carp has been the means by which we have done it. 



For many years the buffalo fish was the principal coarse fish of 

 our markets, and the most common one produced by Illinois waters. 

 The time was when every blade of grass in the overflows from the 

 river was covered with their spaw^l. and the fish themselves were 

 seen in these shallow waters in thousands during the spawning or 

 "rolling" season. Then the people took them in thousands and with 

 almost every device available, and they were shipjjed to markets 

 mostly outside of the State, on commission, and as a rule only a 

 small proportion were realized on, the rest, owing to glutted markets, 

 were thrown away, an immense quantity of good food being thus lost 

 to the peoi^le of the State. This practice contin\ied for years, until 

 the waters of the State were nearly depleted of this variety of fish, 

 and even after protective laws, preventing such wholesale destruction 

 were obtained, the increase was so slow that the output showed but 

 little gain. This loss to the market was made good by the introduc- 

 tion of the carp, which grows and increases rapidly, hardy, tenacious 

 of life, and defying unfavorable seasons, it has restored to the waters 

 the natural balance of the proportions of coarse fish to fine, so 

 rigidly held as a prime necessity to successful fish culture by the 

 scientific culturists. Now we have them in large quantities. They 

 are good food, good producers. They have some faults but more 

 good qualities, and as a money producer they are uneqtialled by any 

 or all of the other fishes of the Illinois inland water. If we, as 

 commissioners, are to deal with sentiment only and consider it our 

 duty to propagate and protect only such fishes as are of interest to 

 the anglers, eliminating the question of food siipply from our work, 

 then perhaps the carp is a "mistake." but if the hnv creating a fish 

 commission was made with a view to the interests of the people as a 

 whole, and the duty of tluit commission was to endeavor to make the 

 waters of the State produce their full share of food for the [leople. 

 then one of the wisest moves of the l^. S. fish commission was in 

 introducing the carp, which is here to stay, and this fact will 

 ultinuitely be appreciated by the whole people. 



