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WHITEFISH AND TROUT IN LAKE MICHIGAN. 
BY Capt. R. SMITH. 
WAUKEGAN, IuL., Nov. 11, 1908. 
Reproduction in the natural way is not sufficient ie keep up the supply 
of fish in our great fresh water lakes. : 
Why have our fish decreased at such an alarming rate within the last 
fifty years? Fishermen are asked this question every day. The answer 
invariably is, “Caught away,” but why are they being caught away at 
such an alarming rate? Anyone familar with the fishing industries 
will say, “Too many small fish have been and are still being caught.” 
Still, the decrease would not have been so noticeably fast had only a 
reasonable amount of their eggs hatched and the fish thereof grown to 
maturity. Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ilhnois have had a closed season 
on white fish and trout for a number of years, still there was the same 
decrease in these fish. 
The government and states have been artificially hatching and jae 
ing these fish, for more than twenty years, but for a number of years 
the planting was done in a very careless manner, regardless of their 
natural spawning grounds, or these fish were dumped from high boats, 
where the shock killed the most of them. They were also planted in 
waters that were teeming with herring and perch, which made good food 
for these and none of them could escape. ‘Then more care was given 
to the planting, men studied their nature, found rocky reefs where in- 
stinct told the fish to deposit their eggs, and where there are protection 
and food. for the young, and we can ‘reasonably say, the increase of 
white fish we have had in the last few years is the result of these plant- 
ings. 
Scientists, fish culturists, and some fishermen have come to the con- 
clusion that the reproduction of the white fish in the natural way is so 
limited that it overcomes but little more than the natural mortality. 
One of our greatest fish culturists, who studied the nature, the habits 
and reproducting powers of these fish for over twenty years, counted the 
eggs and found that the average sized female had about twenty-eight 
thousand eges, the largest number found. A fish weighing thirteen 
pounds had one hundred thirty thousand (130,000) eggs. We would 
naturally figure on about one-tenth of these eggs hatching, and one- 
fourth of the fish thereof growing to’ maturity. If this should have 
