American Fisheries Society. ' 7 



forget business, for I am the Chairman of the FontanaHs Club, 

 and I come before you to-day hoping that all my business delin- 

 quencies will be forgotten. 



You come to the Land of Lakes, as the name of Michigan 

 implies. The inland lakes and streams are more numerous in 

 Michigan than in any other State in the Union. The State, as 

 you are aware, is composed of two peninsulas, surrounded by 

 lakes which are seas in their extent. Every variety of fresh 

 water fish constitute the denizens of these inland waters, and it 

 is a curious thing, not only in the experience of boyhood, but 

 of manhood that every boy in Michigan all through the interior 

 of the State grows up with a knowledge of the habits and is 

 able to distinguish all the different sorts of fish. In this com- 

 munity, in Michigan, fish has been so important an article of 

 food, and there has been so much of a tendency to turn to fish- 

 ing as a sport that the people in our community, far more than 

 those of any other place, are able to know all the varieties and 

 the habits and character of our fish, our black bass and whitefish 

 and trout, and we have here what distinguishes us above other 

 places, the rare and gentle grayling. 



( )ur State in the past has not been unmindful of the 

 value of this, and both from the point of sport, and from the 

 commercial point of view the state has fostered these fertile 

 waters. It is true our state conmiission has, like all the rest of 

 the industries, had a contest, but notwithstanding this they are 

 "still in tile ring." But we know this, that in the state of Mich- 

 igan with the results of the work of our commission before us 

 and the feeling of the state of Michigan towards both the culti- 

 vation and propagation of fish for sport and for food, there will 

 be only a temporary abatement in the prosecution of the work 

 of the distribution of fish and the development of our fisheries. 

 They have done so much and the work has been so well done 

 thai we have no fear of the future. The greed of the destroying 

 fishermen will overreach itself and I believe I speak with a 

 knowledge of state afifairs in stating that while a false economy 

 may for a time restrain the work of the Fish Commission, there 

 will be a change of sentiment pretty soon, and there will be a 

 sowing upon the waters of this state which will be sure to brino- 

 forth a good harvest. 



Now, gentlemen, that you are here we want you, as I have 

 already intimated, to lay aside business as much as possible, 

 we will endeavor to persuade you to do that, and we only ask 



