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of the world, but from those Foreign States which have 

 contributed so largely to the success of this Exhibition, 

 where they have taught many of us so many things that 

 we never knew before, and whose representatives have been 

 so ready to furnish information to every one wishing to learn 

 anything about their important and Interesting fisheries. 

 Speaking personally, I have never yet failed to receive the 

 most courteous consideration at the hands of every one to 

 whom I have applied, officially or privately, for information 

 on any subject connected with fish and fishing in other 

 countries ; and I feel sure that I may promise, should the 

 Society, the germ of which I venture to bring to your notice 

 to-day, ever become the important body into which I 

 should like to see it develop, that it will always be ready 

 to reciprocate, to the best of its power, the good-will with 

 which its friends in other countries would, I venture to 

 anticipate, welcome its birth, and watch and assist its 

 growth. 



A more intimate acquaintance with the natural history 

 of fish, and a thorough study of the extensive array of 

 natural phenomena aft"ecting the fisheries, are a necessary 

 precedent, not only to the full development of the practical 

 fisherman's art, but to the adoption of beneficial legisla- 

 tion. Laws based on incomplete information are pretty 

 certain to be ineffectual and inconvenient, if not positively 

 injurious to the fisheries and to those concerned in them. 

 No one in his senses would propose to make the close time 

 for salmon, for instance, begin at this period of the year. 

 Yet this is precisely what was done by two very well- 

 intentioned Acts of Parliament passed, the one in the 

 reign of good Queen Anne, and the other in the reign of 

 George I. The former of these laws forbade the taking 

 of salmon in the Hampshire rivers from June 30 to 



