38 American Fisheries Society 



REMARKS OF PRESIDENT-ELECT 



Dr. Townsend : Fellow members, I had the misfortune 

 yesterday to lose part of my voice; I wish I had it all, so 

 that I could express my appreciation of the privilege of 

 being made President of this Society. It is a Society with 

 an ancient and honorable record. I have only been a mem- 

 ber of it for a dozen years; there are men still living who 

 have been members three times as long. The Society has 

 done a good work, and the history of the Society will be 

 practically a history of fish culture in this county, and to 

 a large extent the development of fishery industries in this 

 country. 



The Society has published very creditable proceedings 

 for many years. I should only place these documents sec- 

 ond to the voluminous reports and bulletins of the United 

 States Bureau of Fisheries. But even in the publications 

 of the Government I claim credit for this Society, because 

 many of the most important contributions to Government 

 publications have been made by members of this Society, 

 while they were in Government service, and some of them 

 have been in Government service for many years. 



I was very glad to hear the Publication Committee dis- 

 cussing the matter of doing even more with our publica- 

 tions. I was greatly pleased last year when I learned that 

 Mr. Fearing was having a full index of our publications 

 made. This will be of great value. 



Now, as the head of a very large museum devoted to 

 aquatic life which has a laboratory, I have a great deal to 

 do in pointing out to people who are looking for informa- 

 tion, the sources of information on fish culture, fisheries, 

 and ichthyology. I use the publications of the Government 

 a great deal; I use to some extent the publications of the 

 states, though not generally voluminous, and I use the publi- 

 cations of the American Fisheries Society a great deal. 



I hope that we will succeed in getting our publications 

 in the public libraries, where people can have access to them 



