FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 49 



was brought to the ground, lumber, timber and iron, but high water came on and he 

 was obliged to cease work. It is still believed that during low water, in the coming 

 summer, the four fishways can be completed within the appropriation. 



During the summer the Commission made an exhibit of fish at the State Fair, 

 for which the sum of $150 was set aside, and it was so instructive and entertaining 

 to the vast number of visitors that I believe it would be most desirable to enlarge 

 the exhibit another year, provided space can be obtained for the purpose. 



Early in the summer it was reported that acid factories in Sullivan county were 

 running acids into the trout streams in quantities injurious to the fish. The fore- 

 man at Beaver Kill Hatchery was sent to Spring Brook, the point complained of, 

 and investigated. He dipped out some of the water, placed in it a six-inch trout, 

 and the fish died in four minutes. He found four men prepared to testify that they 

 had found dead fish in Spring Brook every week for a month. A sample of the 

 water was sent to this office. The proprietor of the acid works learned that an 

 investigation was afoot and immediately removed the poisonous acids from the 

 stream, by erecting vats sufficiently distant from the shore of the brook to prevent 

 its contamination by seepage. 



The foreman was directed to make an investigation of other factories of this kind 

 and to make a report, which Avas submitted to the Commission in September, and 

 which may be summed up as follows : 



Nine acid or chemical works were visited. One of them was found to be running 

 acids into a trout brook, and the refuse was very promptly removed. Another one 

 wished a little time in order to arrange for running the acid into tanks on the shore, 

 and in the meantime closed the works. The others were found not to be injuring 

 the fish. One of them had been fined the previous year. There has been no further 

 complaint, and from the foreman's reports I believe that none of the acid factories 

 visited have renewed the methods so destructive of fish life. 



A number of applications have been received asking for permits to take fish with 

 nets for scientific purposes. None of these requests has been granted. I would 

 recommend that the Board urge upon the Legislature the necessity of enacting a 

 law that would give the Commission power to grant such permits, when the request 

 comes from a scientific body or from an individual endorsed by a scientific body. 



In my monthly report of August, I said : 



" A bill was introduced in the Legislature to give this Commission power to close 

 streams for a term of years not exceeding five, when such streams were planted with 

 fish, for the purpose of stocking or re-stocking them. This is a provision in the laws 

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