FOURTH INTERNATIONAL FISHERY CONGRESS. 29 
These very beautiful bouquets that decorate our desks have been pre- 
sented by the exceedingly efficient chairman of our local entertainment com- 
mittee, and are sent to this meeting with the compliments of the White House, 
with the further request that they be given to the ladies in attendance when 
we adjourn. [Applause.] 
I have great pleasure in reading this cablegram from Prof. Dr. Franz 
Steindachner, the president of the Third International Fishery Congress, dated 
Vienna, September 22: 
“An old lover of fishes regrets his absence and sends best wishes.”’ [Ap- 
plause.] 
[The congress took a recess of five minutes, after which the discussion of 
Mr. Hathaway’s paper on the menhaden was resumed, and Mr. Cooper and 
Mr. George P. Squires spoke. Their remarks appear on page 278.] 
The PresIpEN?. Is Doctor Coker here? [No response.] ‘Then is Dr. I. A. 
Field here? [No response.] Then Dr. George W. Field, of the Massachusetts 
Commission, who has spent a great deal of time on the various problems con- 
nected with the lobster. 
[Doctor Field spoke on “Lobsters and the Lobster Problemin Massachu- 
setts.’’ His remarks are given in full on pages 209-212. The discussion which 
followed (see p. 213-217) was participated in by the president, Mr. H. T. Root, 
Mr. W. H. Boardman, Mr. James Donahue, Mr. Fryer, and Dr. George W. Field.] 
The PRESIDENT (at the conclusion of the discussion on lobsters). Are there 
other contributions? If not, I will read a communication that has been 
received by the Rhode Island Commission of Fisheries from Robert Aldrich & 
Co., fish trappers and trawlers, of Wickford, Rhode Island. The letter is dated 
September 18, 1908, and is as follows: 
It is our belief that the continual firing for a week of the heavy guns at Fort Greble 
has a serious effect on the squeteague fishing in West Bay. Last June the squeteague 
were entering the bay just before the militia went to the forts, and for some few days 
we had good fishing. As soon, however, as the firing commenced at Fort Greble the 
catches became very much smaller and by the end of the week we got very little. We 
can not prove, of course, that the firing was the cause of this, but we believe that it 
had a good deal to do with it. We do know that a school of menhaden in the vicinity 
of Dutch Island will ‘“‘shower’’ every time a big gun is fired. Squeteague enter the 
bay in large schools and they must pass close to Dutch Island. The militia go to the 
forts every year just as the squeteague are at the height of their run, and we think 
the steady firing has a tendency to drive them back and out of the bay. After the 
fish have got by the forts and are well distributed in the bay the firing would probably 
have little effect—that is, about August 1. We have it on pretty good authority that 
in one of the large bays in Ireland the fishing has been very poor for a number of years 
since the battle ships have had their target practice there, while in the other bays the 
fishing has been normal. We write this hoping that perhaps the question may be 
discussed and more facts discovered at the coming fishery congress. 
The PRESIDENT. Perhaps some of the members present have information 
in regard to the effect of heavy firing upon fish. 
