Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-04-23
THE FISH QUESTION.

- NAAA0 ~ NAL O4A ORC4~A1A0A-
gent parent. Nature has furnished
US a soil to match the world in pro-
d~uctiveness, and we force a few
years of spontaneous f~ruitfulness
from its surface, returning nothing
to it to replace the chemical princi-
pies we abstract from it, making no
provision against washing, and in a
few years abandon it, a sterile
waste, torn into ravines and
stripped of its productive surface,
while we seek new areas to devas-
tate. Nature has given us ilIimita-
Die forests, or at least what might
be called illimitable, if managed
with economy and science; but as
soon as we get possession we treat
the timber as If it were simply an
enemy to be extirpated we hew it
and burn it or leave it to rot, and be-
fore a generation has passed away
there Is no provision left for fences,
for building or for fire wood. Our
woods abound with game sufficient
to furnish palatable food and
healthy recreation for centuries, if
captured under rational regulations,
but we pursue u game as if our
purpose we're determination rather
than profit or enjoyment; times and
seasons are disregarded /; the parent
birds are destroyed when their de-
struction means the loss of the
whole brood, or the fatal net de-
stroys at one fell swoop ''all the
little ones and their DAM"
The rich produce of our streams,
which is the main subject of this
article, has been treated with a
wanton wastefulness equally de-
structive. We have ample testimo-
ny that, forty years ago, a better
haul cOnld be made ON Red river
with Il single trout line, than can
now be done with net or fish trap.
Game fish of the best varieties was
abundant, and could be had for the
trouble of dropping ones bait with
in their reach. Now what is the
cause of the falling off? Evidently
the nets and the fish traps but es-
peciaIly the nets at the mouth of
Red river. At this season of the
year the fish go up the stream to
spawn and the young fish take their
way down stream in the fall the
nets at the mouth do double dam
age in regard to the replenishment
of the river; they catch the breed
ing fish as they go up stream, and,
with every fish they take, destroy
millions of their progeny, and again
they catch the young fry before
they are of an age to be worth TAX
ing. Thus the whole capacity of
the river for becoming a good fish
ing ground is sacrificed to the inter-
ests of two or three fishermen, who
could be more probably employed
at almost any other occupation, but
who make a wretched subsistence
by furnishing to u market a few
watery, bony catfish and drum, and
the fry of better fish which should
be growing to maturity in the
water. We have now Il good fish
law, which only needs the personal
attention of men interested in fish
ing to effect the desired reform, for
this purpose the association has
been formed whose proceedings
have been given in another column.
Its members propose to furnish, at
their own expense, a system of
police and supervision for Red
river and Cumberland river. By
the vigilance of this society
county streams can nc doubt be
re-stocked in a very few years, ever
by the natural increase of its fish
but this is not all. Col. Akers, L.
s. Commissioner of fisheries for this
state, holds himself ready to furnish
spawn and young fish of the best
game varieties for all streams where
due protection is secured for the
stock supplied. None, however,
will be furnished where this securi-
ty does not exist, nor would it
otherwise be available if supplied.
The question then arises, whether
Red river, with its tributaries, shall
again become a first-rate fishing
range, or whether it shall be al
lowed to produce nothing but the
worthless trash now brought TO this
market. This is u question which
interests every c~itizenin the county,
but especially those whose property
is on the banks OF the streams to be
protected, every one of whom ought
to become an active member of the
association. ID. +. w.