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HEADQUARTERS ILLINOIS STATE FISH COMMISSION. 



Our office and headquarters of State Fish Commission has been 

 located at Spring Lake. Our reasons for doing so are that the 

 water comprising the lake is perfectly clear, fed by thousands 

 of springs that line the edge of the bluffs, offering one of the 

 best fields for collecting in the State, and we were promised the 

 free use of all the grounds needed to buihl ponds, iu fact the 

 ponds complete were assured if we located there. The only objec- 

 tion to present location lies in the fact that at low water access to 

 the ponds from the river by boat is next to impossible, owing to filling 

 up of channel dragged out for that purpose by the State several years 

 ago, an appropriation of several thousands of dollars having been 

 made by the legislature and turned over to the Canal Commissioners 

 to make a channel for steamboats from Illinois river to the blutfs, 

 which amount was only partly expended, the amount unused still 

 on hand unexpended. We were promised that in case our ponds for 

 breediug and rearing native food fishes were located there, that a 

 channel sufficient to allow our State boat to get in and out would 

 be made. Without such cliannel, it would be impossible to make 

 practical use of our ponds, the product of which must be trans- 

 ported to some railroad point to be moved on passenger trains in 

 order that best results may be obtained, and entire product not 

 liberated at one point, but an enuitable distribution to public waters 

 throughout the State made instead. 



The expense in making such channel is slight, and, in our opiu- 

 ion, should be made, if necessary, by the State itself, particularly 

 as only about one-half the appropriation for that having been used, 

 and less than one-hilf the remaining amount would be needed to 

 complete it. 



Spring Lake is unquestionably the best point for breeding ponds 

 in the State, and the field for collecting both breeders and small 

 fish larger here than at any other point in the State, 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



The illustrations used in this report were in the main loaned to 

 us by Prof. S. A. Forbes, having been used in his biennial report 

 as director of Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History, which 

 we republish in part in this report by his permission, that part of 

 it, at least, that treats of the work at or near Havana on Illinois 

 river. 



The frontispiece is a representation of our display of live fishes 

 in Illinois Building at World's Fair. We insert, also, two illus- 

 trations of our office at Spring Like, where headquarters of the 

 Commission is located. 



