660 THEODORE LYMAN. 



service for seventeen years without compensation. The story of his 

 disinterested labor in this field is told in the Commissioners' Annual 

 Reports, many of which are from his own pen,, and are characterized by 

 a brightness of style which pleasantly relieves the gravity of an official 

 document. 



In 1884, as President of the American Fish Cultural Association, at 

 the thirteenth annual meeting held in Washington on May 13, he deliv- 

 ered an address which is printed in the 19th Annual Report of the Com- 

 missioners of Inland Fisheries of Massachusetts. Here he sketches in 

 the most charming manner the history of the fish industries of New 

 England from the time when the inhabitants were wont to " dunge their 

 grounds with codd." He shows that fifty years after the settlement of 

 the country a diminution in the number of fish in the New England 

 rivers had already been noted, and describes the various laws enacted for 

 their protection, culminating in 1864-65 in modern fish culture under 

 the auspices of several State governments, and finally in the appointment 

 in 1871 of the United States Fish Commission under the leadership of 

 Professor Spencer F. Baird. 



The various fishery commissions of the country have, to use Theodore 

 Lyman's own words, " accumulated a vast amount of accurate information 

 concerning the numbers and variety of our fishes, their food, manner of 

 breeding, condition of life, migration, and stages of growth." Piscicul- 

 ture has become a State and national industry, while many private fish 

 preserves have been established in various parts of the country. Several 

 species of Salmonidre are raised regularly for the market, and it is highly 

 probable that nearly all the shad now taken in our Atlantic streams have 

 originated in State or national hatching establishments. These results, 

 though important, merely serve to indicate what great additions to the 

 wealth of the country may be effected when water culture is " practised 

 as universally and methodically as is agriculture." When Americans 

 shall have learned to cultivate the water thus methodically, and shall 

 desire to honor the men who in their day and generation have labored to 

 re-establish the fisheries of the country, no name will stand higher on the 

 list than that of Theodore Lyman. 



In politics Theodore Lyman was distinguished for independence and 

 an earnest advocacy of civil service reform, a cause which, as founder and 

 Vice President of the Massachusetts Reform Club, he sought in every 

 way to promote. He was elected to Congress from the Ninth District in 

 1882, and, though handicapped by increasing infirmities, nobly repre- 

 sented the State " as long as patriotism was more prized in his district 



