4 i6 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY . 
when all the water is fished, and gill-nets are used, and the spawn¬ 
ing grounds become the greatest scenes of slaughter, the number 
of spawners must decrease very fast. 
A little bit of personal experience will give a better idea of the 
above facts. In the year 1837, I went to Port Hope, Canada 
West (on lake Ontario), to fish for salmon-trout with set-lines.* 
This was the first fishing for salmon-trout with set-lines ever done 
in any of the lakes. I used to fish out and in, not further than 
six miles from shore, sometimes using nine miles of set-line. The 
average catch the first year was one hundred fish on one hundred 
and fifty hooks, and the fish averaged eight pounds in weight. 
The second year the average was about sixty-six fish to one hun¬ 
dred and fifty hooks ; average weight being about the same. The 
third year the catch was thirty-three fish to one hundred and fifty 
hooks, and the weight began to decrease. The fourth year the 
average catch was about fifteen fish to one hundred and fifty 
hooks, and the average weight only four pounds. This showed 
that the fish had been thinned out in that locality. 
In the fifth year I moved fourteen miles to another ground ; and 
there the fishing for the first year was of the same average catch 
and weight as at Port Hope, and in succeeding years showed the 
same rate of decrease. If I had been the only fisherman on the 
lake, this moving might have been repeated indefinitely, with the 
same result; as the local schools would have had time to grow 
before I got round to them again. But fishermen began to mul¬ 
tiply, and when all places were fished at once, no one place had 
any chance. These set-lines ran about ten years, and then the 
highest average to be obtained anywhere was fifteen fish to one 
hundred and fifty hooks; the fish averaging four pounds in weight. 
As this would not pay, in 1847 gill-nets came into use, and since 
then the catch has annually decreased. 
In a natural state the salmon-trout spawn on rocky reefs in from 
three to fifty feet of water. They will spawn in any place where 
they can find such reefs; often twenty miles from shore. They 
yield about one thousand eggs to the pound of fish, being only 
*1 would here humbly oonfess that I have done perhaps as much toward the depletion of 
the lakes as any other fisherman; but would plead in extenuation that I was like all fisher¬ 
men, and wanted the last fish and would take it if I could. I am now, as a penance for my 
sins, trying to do all in my power to repair the injury. 
