30 



anybody else, entirely out of this Society, should draft 

 a bill which is to govern the action of states in which 

 they had no part whatever. It is impracticable, and 

 that is all there is to it. I would move this as a sub- 

 stitute, if the gentlemen who introduced the other 

 resolutions — Messrs. Dickerson and Thompson — will 

 permit it : 



Rfsoheci, That it is the sense of the American 

 Fisheries Society that laws regulating the commercial 

 fisheries of the seaboard and of the Great Lakes should 

 be drawn in the interest of the people and for the pro- 

 tection of the fisheries. 



If this resolution is adopted, I think the President 

 should be authorized to call a meeting of the repre- 

 sentatives interested. 



Dr. James: It is not that they shall draw a law to 

 be enforced, but to draw up the features of a law which 

 will embody all the points connected with this matter, 

 and submit it to the commissions, and then get their 

 approval, and next year we will have the basis by 

 which some general law can be suggested by the 

 Society. 



Mr. Whitaker: If we are going to do anything, 

 we have got to do it this fall, because many of our 

 Western states have biennial sessions of the Legis- 

 latui-e, and the first of January the matter must be 

 presented. It would be a work of supererogation, and 

 something we had no business to do, to make a law of 

 that kind. Let us go to some of the gentlemen inter- 

 ested and then make that draft, and ask each state to 

 bring it before the Legislature and get it passed. 



I, therefore, renew m\' motion that the sense of the 

 American Fisheries Society is that the commercial 

 fisheries should be protectee! by proper laws ; and that 

 the President be authorized to call a meeting of the 



