174 Thirty-Second Annual Meeting 



councils. You know that this laboratory, is his work, and thai 

 ho was the father of the Fish Commission, and that all its diver- 

 sified lines of activity were clearly and definitely outlined by 

 him and that they have become the accepted standard and model 

 for similar undertakings, the world over. 



I should have found it a pleasant task to have made some 

 one of these great achievements the subject of this address. I 

 should have found profit and instruction in discovering the ob- 

 stacles and difficulties which Professor Baird overcame, and in 

 studying the tact and wisdom with which he planned and exe- 

 cuted all his undertakings. It would have been a congenial occu- 

 pation to have seen and mastered all the ramifications of the 

 activity of one of these gTeat creations of his genius ; its growth 

 from the foundations which he laid, along the lines which he so 

 clearly foresaw and provided for; but I regret that it has not 

 been in my power to handle any of these topics todav , for the 

 high honor of the opportunity to speak of the work of this great 

 naturalist and many-sided man of science, came to me, only a 

 few days ago, far from books of reference, and means of inquiry, 

 at a little laboratory whicli I had set u)) at a remote point, in 

 order to complete, in a cool climate, a l)iological research for 

 which I had gathered the material, in the early part of the sum- 

 mer, at the new laboratory of the United States Fish Commis- 

 sion, at Beaufort, North Carolina. 



After the completion of the central station at Woods Hole, 

 it was Prof. Baird's plan, announced many years ago, to pro- 

 mote the study of marine^ Inology by the erection of laboratories 

 at points upon our sea coast selected for their natural advan- 

 tages; and I cannot too highly commend the wisdom which has 

 led his successors to select Beaufort for the first step in the 

 movement to give effect to his intention. 



The new laboratory, which was opened last summer, is a 

 carefully and skillfully planned and beautifully constructed 

 Ijuibling: and it is, in all things, a model and an object lesson, 

 for I have nevcT seen a more convenient and comfortal)le and 

 attractive laboratory. 



Tt stands alone u])on a little island close to the town of Beau- 

 fort, and il is within easy reach of the fauna of the North Caro- 

 lina sea-coast, in all its wonderful richness and variety and in- 



