one to two hundred being carried away from the water, the largest 

 of which is scarcely more than a fioger long, too small for any 

 possible use. This is particularly true of the black bass, as they 

 will readily take a minnow when but a few months old, and are 

 voracious biters. 



FISH LAWS. 



While each successive session of the General Assembly has en- 

 deavored to improve the laws relative to the protection of fish, 

 and each has been, in a measure, .successful, as maybe seen by a 

 comparison of the laws now on the statutes with those in force in 

 1879, there yet remains much to be done before the laws cover 

 the demands for protection. 



One great obstacle which is frequently met in endeavoring to 

 enforce the law is the widely varying constructions put upon it, 

 which make it extremely difficult to secure conviction, even when 

 the evidence is such as would be sufficient, in any other phase of 

 criminal law, to convict. The law contemplates no merely circum- 

 stantial evidence, no matter how convincing, a fact that makes the 

 successful prosecution of a case doubly difficult. For instance, par- 

 ties may be arrested with a wagon or boat load of fish, with a wet 

 seine in full view, yet, unless the prosecution can show proof of 

 an eye witness to the taking and killing of the fish, the chances 

 are that the case will fail. 



Laws similar to those existing in many of our western states, 

 making the possession of unlawful nets or seines prima facie evi- 

 dence of violation, should take the place of the one now in force. 

 It is difficult, at all times, to catch a gang of men using the seine, 

 but when they must not only be detected using the seine, but 

 must be seen catching and killing fish with the seine, it adds 

 materially to the difficulty. 



The work of the average fisherman who uses his nets and seines 

 in an unlawful manner is mostly ddue either at night or in locali- 

 ties where the chances of being interrupt ed by any one liable 

 to inform or prosecute are very slight. It is no uncommon occur- 

 rence to find, along the shores of our principal rivers, seines hung 

 up in plain sight whose meshes are not on ly less than the legal 

 size, but even run down as low as ^ of an inch. No one doubts 

 the purpose for which the seine is used, and it cannot be used 

 anywhere without its being in violation of the law, yet its ownership 

 is not denied, and the owner, taking all chance, uses it with such 

 efPect that the lake into which it is introduced is literally depleted 

 of fish, as it takes not only those of marketable size, but with 

 them many too small to be fit for food, which, too often, are left 

 upon the bank to die. 



The law prescribes that "no seine or device used as a seine, 

 whose meshes are less than iico inches square, shall be used," and 

 anything less than that canuot be other than unlawful, and its 

 possession would indicate the intention of using it, to say the least. 



