Part 35 (1/2)

”That's all right,” his friend said heartily, ”I've enjoyed having you, and so has Paul, I know I shall hear from you occasionally, I hope, and maybe the _Golden Falcon_ will have you on board for some other trip”

”Thank you ever so e steadily until next su vacation”

But Colin was mistaken in his idea that alain with Fisheries work, for shortly before the end of his first terestion was made that the boy should spend a week on the Great Lakes during the Christet an idea of inter as like Colin smiled as he read the letter, for he kneell that he was 'in for it,' since his father would

Accordingly, one cold day, he found himself aboard the steamer _Mary N

Lewis_, which had been chartered by the Bureau for a couple of weeks'

trawling in Lake Michigan A bitter as blowing and lumps of ice floated near the shores The whitefish were not plentiful that winter, and when the nets came up and Colin had to pick fish out, b-r-r-r, but it was cold! A greatand had to be thrown back again, which delayed reatly and kept the party on the water for several days

Frequently Colin's lips were blue and his fingers nuh they were being sliced off gradually by the blasts blowing down from icy Canada, but he knew that, to a certain extent, he was on trial, and he laughed and joked and h his teeth chattered There was no great a the spawn for development in the hatchery, but it was a test of endurance, and incidentally the boy learned much about the fishes of the Great Lakes

”There's one thing I don't quite see, though,” he said one day to the govern; ”and that is, e need to do this”

”How do yousal up the river before they spawn, and they die, anyway; but here they have all the roo, and I should think Nature would look after it”

”You don't want to forget,” the fish culturist replied, ”that Nature is very exact Everything has to balance The whitefish born are ten times as many as those that h to keep the supply going”

”I see that, all right,” the boy answered

”Well, then, if you disturb this balance by extensive fishi+ng, isn't it easy to see that you've got toup the supply of catfish, for exa left alone, and she has worked the proble catfish ht, because, in spite of popular opinion, catfish is good eating--and if thousands of theht, it would be necessary to find so up the supply

”Now, the whitefish,” he continued, ”isn't like the salmon, which spawns carefully The lake fish does that in a sort of hit-or-e of the eggs get a fair start It is not difficult for us to put hundreds offish into the lakes every year, and the proportion of these that survive will not merely keep the supply constant, but will even increase it”

”Then that will disturb the balance in another way?”

”Yes,” was the reply, ”but it will be at the expense of other species which are of no use to man Nature is like the proverbial Irishhty easy to lead When you return to the university, get hold of so creatures in the world are kept on an even balance, how they all get their food, and how every tiny speck fits into the whole world scherip to it than any novel--except, perhaps, those of a few of the really great writers, of whoe”

[Illustration: WINTER ON THE GREAT LAKES, STRIPPING LAKE-TROUT

_Courtesy of the U S Bureau of Fisheries_]

[Illustration: WINTER WORK ON INLAND STREAMS, PLANTING TROUT FRY IN ICE-COVERED RIVERS

_Courtesy of the U S Bureau of Fisheries_]

”I found that out,” answered Colin, ”when I orking with Mr

Collier He was always saying that things were 'so much worth while,'

and when he started to explain them, they certainly were! It's just like this, I've only seen a little bit of this inland water work, but you handle other species beside whitefish in this work on the Great Lakes, don't you?”

”Yes,” was the culturist's reply; ”lake trout and pike perch a others One station alone has handled seventy-one s in a season But the pike perch is a h nearly half a ave Canada six y in the Bureau of Fisheries, it's practical all the way through, and you're learning to see it fro the results”

It was this personal contact with the fish-culture work, this direct demonstration of the e, which becae-mates outdistanced him in many studies, for the boy was not at heart of a scholarly type, but in his scientific work he was far in advance of the his interest and his perseverance, several of the professors and instructors in the scientific depart to Colin, and the lad was sure to be found on every kind of field expedition for which he was eligible He was quite an athlete, too, but he settled down to swi as his share in the athletic work of the university Already quite at ho his stroke with such energy, and was in the tank soodds the best swie With his devotion to fish and his prowess in the water, it was a coe paper took to calling him ”Fins,”