64 CALIFOKNIA FISH AND GAME. 



Another method of advancing our purpose is to have our members 

 give talks before school children. Many, if not all, of the school 

 superintendents Avill welcome the chance of having some well-informed 

 man or woman give one or more talks — we need not dignify them by 

 calling them lectures — before the children on this subject, and by so 

 doing the interast of the coming generation will be aroused. The 

 recent Boy Scout movement offers another opportunity. Teach these 

 boys how the black bass or the brook trout spawn; if possible show 

 them some of the eggs during their development, and the boys will 

 become ardent protectors of the spawning fish and not destroyers of 

 them. They will see that the despised city sportsman is a pretty 

 decent kind of fellow after all, and they will teach their parents 

 and their neighbors the value of fish conservation. 



Finally, what can we do as a society to arouse greater interest in 

 our avowed objects? We can take a hint from one of our sister 

 societies, the National Geographic Society. We should remember that 

 there is nothing in which any intelligent man is interested that may 

 not be made an object of interest to any other intelligent man if it be 

 properly put. We are far too prone to discuss technical matters that 

 are of great interest to us as . biologists and fish culturists. and to 

 forget that these topics, although of great value, are of no interest to 

 the masses unless Ave try to make them such. At first glance it would 

 seem that there are few subjects less interesting than the cold, bare 

 facts of geography, but by putting these facts attractively, the National 

 Geographic Society has built up one of the most entertaining magazines 

 in the country, and has enrolled a membership of thousands. We 

 raight do something of the same sort. We might try to issue a maga- 

 zine of popular ichthyology that would cover the scientific, the com- 

 mercial and the sporting sides of our subject, and by having the 

 articles written simply, clearly and accurately, spread the influence 

 of our society throughout the land. We would replace the ignorance 

 and misinformation that now prevail by clear, concise and accurate 

 knowledge, before which the obstinacies and prejudices that now 

 oppose us would disappear. We would enlist thousands of eager 

 students of all ages and sexes to battle for fish conservation, and we 

 would make our society a power in the land. Many of our members 

 are easy and graceful writers, and I feel certain that enough of them 

 would be willing to contribute articles to such a journal that would 

 make it authoritative and valuable as well as interesting and entertain- 

 ing, and, should the experiment succeed, we would have the conscious- 

 ness of having performed a valuable service to our country. 



