326 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
attain a high standard of progress. It is this exercise of endeavor to a constant 
betterment of conditions in all branches of human activity that characterizes 
this nation essentially, and it is this characteristic that most strikes the atten- 
tion of foreigners when viewing the economic and social conditions of this 
country. It is this spirit which pervades the national life, the factor, quite as 
important as the natural wealth, that has brought the United States to the front 
in all lines of activity, and that makes it the object of admiration of all civilized 
countries. 
To this well-directed and successful effort through the Government, associa- 
tions, and private individuals, and to the splendid work of the American fisheries 
bureau and of the many stations, scientific laboratories, and aquariums, is due 
the fact that this country derives from the fisheries greater profit than any other, 
although it is only about half a century since the pursuit of fishing has been able 
to avail itself of the advantages of scientific research and discoveries—this itself a 
line of work in which American talent and ingenuity have probably many fol- 
lowers, but none surpassing them. Owing to these conditions we come to this 
congress as to a school from which we are certain we shall go away greatly 
enlightened. 
The country which I have the honor to represent has since time immemorial 
occupied itself with the pursuit of fishing. The lacustral inhabitants of northern 
Italy who had built their homes on the lakes in order to attain the conditions 
of safety that were essential to their social life must unquestionably have been 
fishermen. We learn from ancient historians of people living on the shores of 
the Mediterranean who were great consumers of fish. Sea food figured promi- 
nently in the fare of the ancient Romans, especially in the great dinners with 
which Lucullus, Hortensius, and other Roman amphitryons used to delight 
Roman society during the golden period of Latin history. We have all read 
about the ‘‘murena,’’ a favored dish with the Romans, and which, according 
to an ancient writer, had to swim three times——in water, in sauce, and in wine—a 
habit of swimming which fish still preserve to-day. That the Romans favored 
fishing, notwithstanding the primitive methods by which it must have been 
carried on at that time, there is no doubt, for we know that sea food entered 
largely into the diet not only of the rich but also of the plebeian classes. More- 
over, we can not peruse the Georgics of Virgil or the Metamorphoses of Ovid 
without meeting frequently with references to the inhabitants of the deep. The 
advice of Ovid, ‘‘Semper tibi pendeat hamus quo minime credas gurgite, piscis 
erit’’ (Let thy hook be always ready, as a fish will often be in waters where 
thou least thinkest of it), is in both fishing and common life still of up-to-date 
application. 
During the middle ages and the troublous times which characterized that 
period of Italian history, the Church, which had built on the ruins of the Roman 
Empire a new order of things based on Christian teachings, became the patron 
