At Gladstone, the Crystal Lake Chib has located a beautiful 

 club house, taken in about -ijOOO acres of land and water, and has 

 effected a systematic organization for protection of game and fish. 

 At Springfield, the Springfield Fishing Club, numbering 100 mem- 

 bers, is working towards the same end. They have secured Clear 

 Lake, six miles east of the city, built a club house and beautified 

 the grounds and are affording protection, as far as possible, against 

 illegal fishing in the lake and river. 



At Waterloo a similar association controls and protects a series 

 of beautiful lakes, as does, also, the Murdock Lake Club, in the 

 same locality. 



At Charleston, on the Embarras river, the Charleston Protec- 

 tive Association is doing good and effective work, and to such an 

 extent has this been done, that illegal fishing is almost unknown 

 in that locality. Mr. Otto Weiss, secretary, reports an unusual 

 increase of fish resulting from the care of natural supply, and 

 such i)lanting as has been done by the commission. So at 

 Danville. With a beautiful lake at the junction of the three 

 branches of the Vermilion river, controlled by a strong club, 

 efforts are being made to protect the fish as fully as may be. 



At Carlinville, Beaver Dam Lake, owned and controlled by a 

 club of same name, but few violations occur. At Rockford, Win- 

 nebago county fish club has a strong organization. 



So, all over the State, an increased interest is shown. And if 

 our laws can be constructed so as to admit of proof being made, 

 and with a gradual but encouraging growth of piiblic sentiment 

 in favor of fish protection, good results can be obtained, and a 

 work which every one admits to be a good one in theory, may 

 prove, in practice, a profitable one to the people of our State. 



OFFICE BOAT. 



The appropriation of one thousand dollars for building an office 

 and storage boat, by the last General Assembly, gave us what had 

 been so long a necessity, an office large enough to transact the 

 business of the Commission, a place for our books, papers and 

 blanks, and storage room for boats, live boxes, tools, etc. We 

 built a boat forty-eight feet long, over all, by thirty-one feet wide, 

 with a house, or cabin, forty feet long by twenty-five feet wide, 

 giving us two office rooms, one 12x15 feet, the other 10x12, with 

 a storage room 25x25 feet; height of eaves 10 1 feet, in center 

 11^ feet; roof rounding; the whole surmounted by a small cupola 

 and flag-staff. 



The house stands on three hulls, each 25 feet long by eight 

 feet wide, and three feet deep. The floor, two inches thick, is 

 laid on heavy timbers, running across hulls, and leaving a space 

 between hulls, of eight feet. The hulls are constructed of 4x6 

 timbers, laid flatwise on each other, drift-bolted through, for gun- 

 wales. Bottom and rake of two inch stuff. The office rooms are 



