ught tarpon and red snappers, come from the Gulf states; two
hundred and seventeen million are caught in the Pacific states,
including the great salmon catches; ninety-six millions are taken from
the Mississippi River and its tributaries, and one hundred and sixty-six
millions, largely salmon, from Alaska. The Great Lakes, with their
pickerel, and other fine fresh-water fish furnish one hundred and
thirteen millions and the small inland waters at least five millions
more.

When they are taken from the waters the 2,169,000,000 pounds of fish
caught in the United States are worth $58,000,000, but by canning,
salting, and other processes of preserving, the value is greatly
increased.

Fortunately, there is a method of conserving our supply of fish and not
only preventing it from growing less, but of greatly increasing the
number and improving the quality. The United States government has a
thoroughly well organized fish commission, and many states and counties
and even private clubs carry on the same work, which is a general
supervision of the fish supply.

The government maintains stations which are regularly engaged in
hatching fish, keeping them until the greatest danger of their being
destroyed is past, and then placing them in various streams all over the
country. These fish are always of good food varieties, and are carefully
selected to insure the kind best suited to the stream, as to whether it
is warm or cold, deep or shallow, clear or muddy, fresh or salt, slow
and placid, or swift and turbulent, for each kind of stream has certain
varieties of fish that are especially adapted to it.

With all these things taken into account, stocking only with the best
food varieties, if a state has laws which require that a stream be kept
free from sewage and refuse, that no tiny fish be taken from the water,
and that only a stated number can be taken in a day by a single person,
hundreds of small streams, ponds and reservoirs all over the country may
be made to yield food supplies for the entire community near by.

Governor Deneen, of Illinois, in urging that streams be improved for
navigation, says, "No estimate of the benefits to flow from stream
development would be complete without allusion to the fisheries which
have been established on the Illinois River, largely by restocking with
fish from hatcheries. The fisheries located on that stream are second in
value only to those of the Columbia River.

"Our experience t