American Fisheries Society. 51 



ing. Then these too began to ask. Why ! and How ! To answer 

 these two questioning factions, this and kindred societies have 

 been formed, and through the entliusiasm and wisdom of those 

 who from time to time have thus assembled, some of the problems 

 have been solved, and year Ijy year the How ! has l)een pushed 

 nearer to an answer. To reiterate the story of what has been 

 done, would be to you but an idle tale. You all know what man 

 has taken in that rehabilitation of the waters, from which he has 

 so nearly exterminated their in]ia])itants. Many mistakes liave 

 been made in these efforts, but on the whole, there is I think a 

 perceptible gain, especially in dealing with those waters, over 

 which he can have nearly absolute control, like the inland 

 streams. These he coidd stock with trout and in them could 

 verify his work. It is the unverified portion of his efforts that is 

 still in abeyance. From the first he has taken so many things 

 for granted that it is no wonder there have been so many failures. 

 If our work is to be recorded as scientific, not empirical, then 

 there should be nothing taken for granted. Science is only an 

 orderly arrangement of facts one fitting into the other like the 

 link of a chain, and to study these from the genesis of life to the 

 revelation of completeness is today the task that is set before the 

 ■disciples of scientific pisciculture. Our work in the past to which 

 we brought the best that was in us, has been largely empirical, 

 and our reasoning of the a priori order. 



When the fact was demonstrated that the ova of certain kinds 

 of fish could be artificially fecundated and hatched, it was then 

 assumed, that if the fry were planted in the waters almost any- 

 where then the problem of the future supply of the fish was prac- 

 tically settled. So we proceeded to hatch them out by the hun- 

 dred of millions and dump them into the waters, usually those 

 from which the parent fish had been taken, it being assumed 

 that a large proportion ought to survive to maturity. But some- 

 how there seems to be a hitch either in Nature's plans or our own 

 for after a score of years' trial and a large expenditure of money, 

 we liave no assurance that there has been any marked success. 

 In fact we are not f^ure that any one of these hundred of mil- 

 lions has reached maturity. We are not even sure that there has 

 been any particular gain in any one locality. True from time 

 to time our hearts have been gladdened with the reports tliat the 



