I.— INTRODUCTION. 



1. THE OBJECTS OF THE INVESTIGATION AND REPORT. 



The inquiry the results of which are embodied in this review was 

 instituted by Prof. Spencer F. Baird, then U. S. Commissioner of Fish 

 and Fisheries. His object was the obtainment of as full and definite 

 information concerning the fisheries of the Great Lakes as it was prac- 

 ticable to secure. The expiration of the fishery clauses of the Treaty 

 of Washington in 1885 made it important that the actual condition of 

 the fisheries on our northern border should be well understood, in 

 order that the Government might be in possession of such facts as 

 would be needed in shaping legislation or conducting negotiations 

 relative to the international questions connected with the fisheries 

 prosecuted adjacent to Canadian territory. 



The lake fisheries have attained a development in recent years which 

 has materially increased their importance. There is also an intimate 

 connection between the fisheries prosecuted by the Americans and Ca- 

 nadians on the lakes, and legislation or negotiation bearing on the 

 matter of fishery relations between the United States and Canada 

 might be influenced considerably by the conditions existing in the lake 

 region. 



The rapid increase in the population of the west was known to have 

 exercised a marked influence on the development of the fishery inter- 

 ests on the lakes, and it was believed that the changes which had taken 

 place since the census year of 1880 were so important as to make the 

 figures and facts obtained at that time no longer a safe basis for im- 

 portant action. 



It is also a fact that no such exhaustive investigation into the condi- 

 tion of the lake fisheries and their geographical and industrial rela- 

 tions had previously been prosecuted, and there was a lack of detailed 

 information that was necessary to place the Government in full posses- 

 sion of all the questions involved. 



The artificial propagation of fish in the region under consideration, 

 by the National and State commissions, is a matter of much conse- 

 quence and one which has engaged the active interest of the U. S. 

 Fish Commission. This inquiry had, therefore, an additionally impor- 

 tant object, since it is only by such investigations that the full effects 



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