6 



On motion of Mr. Clark, of Michigan, the report was 

 received and ordered referred to an auditing committee of 

 three. 



The Chair appointed Mr. Cary, Mr. Mather, and Mr. Rath- 

 burn as such committee. 



The Chair addressed the meeting in relation to the an- 

 nual dues : 



" The low sum of three dollars paid annually by the mem- 

 bers of this Society is tixed solely for the purpose of cover- 

 ing the cost of the publication and the expenses incidental 

 to our annual meeting. These reports of the papers read, 

 and the discussions arising from them, are distributed only 

 to the members of our Society. If you examine the report, 

 you will find that we have between two hundred and three 

 hundred members, and that at our annual meeting we 

 hardly ever have over twenty per cent, of that member- 

 ship present, but the interest of the absentees in our Society 

 is not to be gauged by their want of attendance at our 

 meetings. I know, personally, that a large proportion of 

 them keep up an active interest in fish culture and fishery 

 matters, and in Justice to them, we decline to furnish our 

 reports to any person not a member of our Society. I speak 

 of this because we have a great many applications for the 

 report of the Association, and so that our members may 

 indicate to their friends that the only way in which they 

 can receive a rex^ort of our meeting is by joining the Society. 

 Three dollars annual dues should not deter any one from 

 joining. Colonel McDonald suggested in conversation this 

 morning, that in connection with the idea of broadening 

 the scope of our Association, it might be well if the Society 

 concurred with his views in the matter to appoint a com- 

 mittee to take into consideration the proper means to 

 pursue for increasing the interest and membership of our 

 Society. He thought that all the clubs and societies 

 organized for the protection of game and fish, including 

 Natural History Clubs, that pay particular attention to 



