6 -REPORT ON AN INVESTIGATION OF THE FISHERIES OF LAKE 
ONTARIO. 
BY HUGH M. SMITH, M. D. 
[Plates xxi to l.] 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
Tlie fisheries of Lake Ontario have recently received much attention, especially 
among citizens of that portion of northern New York bordering on the lake, and the 
past and present condition of the industry has been a fertile subject of local discus- 
sion and general interest. The scarcity of certain fish that formerly abounded in the 
lake and the possibility of a further decrease in those and other species have been the 
basis for an agitation which has become one of the most noteworthy movements of 
the kind in recent years. Fish and game clubs, anglers’ associations, and economic 
and trade organizations have given the matter consideration ; sporting and industrial 
publications have contained numerous and detailed accounts of the progress of the 
movement; the daily press has noticed the subject editorially and opened its columns 
to correspondence and news ; conferences have been held between representatives of 
the two countries immediately interested in the preservation of the lake fisheries; the 
New York legislature has provided for a new code of fishery laws with a view to secure 
better protection to the fish, and the national Congress has made provision for the 
establishment of a fish-hatching station on or near Lake Ontario. 
In 1891 the U. S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries undertook an investigation of 
the commercial fisheries of the Great Lakes, under the direction of Capt. J. W. Collins, 
the assistant in charge of the Division of Fisheries. The subjects embraced by the 
inquiry included, among others, the following points: (1) Complete statistics of the 
number of persons employed; the number and value of vessels, boats, and apparatus 
used ; the quantity and value of each species of fish taken ; the wholesale fish trade ; 
the extent of fisheries in Canadian waters operated, owned, or controlled by American 
citizens, and such other phases of the industry as can be expressed in figures. (2) A 
history of the changes in the methods and relations of the fisheries that have occurred 
since the last investigation in 1885, when a detailed report* was issued covering the 
lake fisheries. (3) A determination of the effects of artificial propagation in preserving 
and increasing the supply of food-fishes in the Great Lakes. 
The investigation of the fisheries of Lake Ontario was conducted by the writer dur- 
ing the months of August and September, 1891, the data obtained at that time serving 
as a basis for the accompanying remarks. 
*A Review of the Fisheries of the Great Lakes in 1885, compiled by Hugh M. Smith and Merwin- 
Marie Snell, with introduction and description of fishing vessels and boats, by J. W. Collins. 8°, pp. 
333, 44 plates and folding maps. Report of Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, 1887. 
F. C. B. 1890—12 
177 
