FOURTH INTERNATIONAL FISHERY CONGRESS. 57 
of the luncheon this noon. We hopethat thesecommittees’ announcements may 
be made at that time—at the conclusion of the luncheon in the banquet hall. 
The next paper is one that has been prepared by Professor Reighard, and 
Doctor Ward has consented to give it to us in abstract. Is Doctor Ward 
here? If Doctor Ward is not here, I shall ask for the paper by Mr. Seal. Is 
Mr. Seal here? [No response. ‘This paper is printed on pages 831-838.] 
[At this point Professor Vinciguerra was invited to the chair. ] 
Vice-President VINCIGUERRA. We will, then, now hear the paper by Dr. 
S. E. Meek, of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, entitled ‘‘A 
Study of Lakes Amatitlan and Atitlan, Guatemala, with Especial Reference to 
Fish Culture.” 
[Dr. Meek’s paper was then read.] 
Vice-President VINCIGUERRA. I now have pleasure in introducing Hon. 
Gifford Pinchot, Chief Forester of the United States Department of Agriculture. 
[Applause. ] 
Mr. Girrorp Prncuor. Mr. President, ladies, and gentlemen, it is a real 
pleasure for me to foregather with a body of people interested in fishing. I 
should like to assure you that the old proverbial question, ‘‘ What would you 
rather do or go fishing’”’ has but one answer with me: I would always rather 
fish; and I have accumulated in the course of my life a certain number of 
fish stories, which I shall not inflict upon yeu here. I know that this is an 
economic congress, and in what I have to say I want mainly to take the economic 
point of view. 
The Forest Service is fortunate in having a very direct relation to the 
fisheries question. It has charge of the area which includes the headwaters of 
the streams which water about two-thirds of the United States; and through 
the 2,500 or 2,600 men who compose its force the opportunity is afforded of 
helping in the preservation of food and game fishes, an opportunity, I should 
like to add, its officers very greatly prize. 
You are well aware that questions of game and fish are reserved to the 
states, and national officers have little to do with them, outside the national 
game reserves and national parks, except as they may be also state officers. A 
majority of the rangers in the national forests have in fact become state officers, 
for the purpose of protecting the fish and game, and we are doing what we can 
to enforce state laws and prevent the indiscriminate slaughter of both fish and 
game; and, I think I may venture to say, with some success. 
I suppose there are few questions which more completely show the inter- 
relation of the different natural resources of a country than does the fisheries 
question; and that in its relation not to the forests, but to other resources as 
well. I suppose the majority of the types of fresh-water fish depend directly 
on the conservation of the forests, if not for the very existence of the species, 
at least for its plentiful distribution. That is why the Forest Service has so 
direct a relation to the fisheries question; and in various parts of the country, 
