of violations, even when clothed with full power as an officer, and 

 particularly when whatever of pecuniary compensation he obtains 

 for his work and expense depends upon conviction and fines. Then, 

 few care to appear as witnesses. The instances are not rare where 

 men have stood on the bank, watching a seine haul and commenting 

 on its illegality, yet when approached by an officer asking the names 

 of the violators, they refused utterly to give them, although they 

 freely criticised the officials for not better enforcing the law. The 

 laws for the protection of fish in this State are not of the beat, being 

 for the greater part mere matters of compromise, and not dealing as 

 directly as they should with the violators, but such as we have could 

 be made to serve the purpose much better if the machinery for en- 

 forcing them could be handled. 



We have found that our laws are not only faulty, but that, in some 

 respects they have worked hardship to unwitting offenders. This is, 

 particularly true where applied to the size limit, and we shall recom- 

 mend some changes in the list. The ring or yellow perch, for in- 

 stance, was limited to 8 inches as the legal size, but that is too large, 

 for this reason, when the law was passed covering the legal size for 

 market fish, the sizes were agreed upon by the Illinois Fishermen's 

 Association, but the perch brought to the Chicago market from Wis- 

 consin and Michigan, from which states the bulk of the perch are 

 brought, were found to be quite mature at 6 inches in length, and 

 this size largely predominated in the supply. The result has been 

 that innumerable violations of the law have been noted, and the 

 larger part of them without any such intent We shall recommend 

 a change in this respect in the present law, making 6 inches the size 

 of perch legal to be offered for sale. Under the head of Warden 

 Seivice we will note more fully our reasons for this change. 



The great fish market of this country is Chicago, and, drawing as 

 it does from almost every State in the Union for its supply, many of 

 which have no laws regulating the size of marketable fish, it is only 

 natural that a large amount of small fish, under the legal size, should 

 find their way there. Such fish when in market and offered for sale, 

 no matter where caught, are unlawful merchandise, and for several 

 years we have had great difficulty in properly regulating the sale of 

 such fish without working hardship to a great industry. As will 

 readily be seen, a commission merchant may receive a large ship 

 ment of fish in barrels from Baltimore, for example, and among the 

 number a good many undersized black bass. Without opening them 

 up, he may sell to small dealers throughout the city or State, and 

 they, in turn, expose for sale without noting the small fish. If com- 

 plaint is made against any one of them there is no help for it, he 

 will be found guilty of a violation of the law and probably fined, 

 even though innocent of unlawful intent. Our plan has been to in- 

 struct our officers not to prosecute for such offenses, but to point out 

 the necessity of separating the illegal fish from those of proper size, 

 and not offering the former for sale, or returning them to the whole- 

 sale dealer who could refuse to pay the shipper for them. We hoped 



