SYMPOSIUM OX C0X5ERVATI0X 4I 



great measure as automatic and unreflecting, in respect to the 

 motives behind them, as they ever were. Most men still act 

 towards the wild life of the State precisely as if they were wild 

 animals themselves, and seem to think no more of its future than 

 does the hawk or the hungr\- wolf : but the State, as such, has 

 recognized, of late, its responsibility to future generations, and 

 is beginning to shape the course of events with forethought and 

 intelligence in the permanent interests of its people. It is for 

 this Academy to assist this movement, both by helping to popu- 

 larize it and by contributing to its direction. 



To give you an outline sketch of present conditions and tend- 

 encies over the whole field of zoology' would take more time than 

 I have been allotted, and I can only summarize the facts and 

 make brief suggestions of policy concerning our fishes, game 

 animals and insectivorous birds. 



The waters of the State have been much longer unaftected, 

 and remain much less affected still, by human activities than any 

 other parts of our area, tach of our rivers or lakes is yet, 

 indeed, a piece of the primitive wilderness, which no one pretends 

 to cultivate or to hold as such with a view to cultivation. It may 

 have been greatly affected indirectly, in respect to its fitness as 

 a home for plants and animals, by our various operations on its 

 banks or in its neighborhood : but the picture of life presented 

 by its w-aters, its bottom and its shores is still in its main fea- 

 tures that of the days before the white man in America. In 

 respect to the natural resources offered us by its plants and 

 animals, we are lingering in the pioneer or squatter stage of 

 progress, and we may still see belated illustrations of methods of 

 appropriation in operation there, much too crude to be tolerated 

 in any other field. 



Almost nothing aquatic has been wholly exterminated, even 

 the larger mammals and birds — the beaver, the otter, the swan, 

 wild geese, pelicans and cranes — still remaining in small num- 

 bers in sufficiently favorable situations. Fishes, turtles, minks, 

 muskrats. frogs and river mussels or clams remain as almost the 

 only immediately valuable animal products of the waters of the 

 State, and these are. on the whole, quite as valuable as they ever 

 were. 



Xo native fish has completely disappeared from our territory, 

 although several useful species have been greatly reduced in 

 numbers within recent years. The only comprehensive statistical 

 reports upon the interior fisheries of the countr\- have been made 



