Address. 



Gentlemen : — 



I am here to-night, by your direction, to lay before 

 you something of the facts which we, the Commissioners 

 of Fisheries, have gathered in regard to the fisheries of 

 Vermont, as well as those facts which bear some relation 

 to the usual and necessary regulations of fisheries. 



The following is a succinct statement of the nature of 

 your fisheries at the present time, and of the prospective 

 changes and modifications entertained by your Commis- 

 sioners. We have no data sufficient for any reliable 

 computation of the amount or value of the production 

 of your fisheries, except what will appear in the progress 

 of what I shall have to say to you to-night. 



From Lake Champlain we send to market white fish in 

 six varieties, catfish, ling, bull-heads, buffalo, pike-perch, 

 pike, muskalonge, black bass, yellow perch, sunfish, silver 

 eel, mullet, smelt and an occasional salmon trout. Our 

 smaller lakes yield speckled or brook trout, salmon trout, 

 pike, pickerel, bull-heads, yellow perch, rock bass, suckers 

 and blarck bass. Our large streams yield a few brook trout, 

 pickerel, yellow perch and suckers. Our smaller streams 

 yield trout, if anything worth the catching. 



We have in our waters only one sea going fish, the 

 smelt in Lake Champlain. The only other sea going 



