American Fisheries Society. 175 



'oxliauf^tible aljundaiice. It is thoroughly equipped with every- 

 thing that the investigator can aslc, and with all the comforts 

 that he needs to make his life a pleasant one in the southern 

 .summer. 



I cannot describe to one who has not lived and worked in 

 this laboratory the care and thought and intelligent foresight 

 that have been shown by those who have had it in their charge 

 to put the plans of Professor Baird into practice, and to foresee 

 ^md provide for all the needs of the investigator. 



I lla^'e myself spent many summers at Beaufort with scanty 

 facilities, and under many hardships and privations, and I had 

 ^'ome to consider them the necessary incidents of summer work 

 in the waters of North Carolina, so that 1 was lost in amazement 

 to find myself surrounded with comforts and conveniences ac 

 the new laboratory, as 1 refleeted that the investigator who works 

 there in future years will have no thought of Beaufort, except 

 as a place where every advantage is to be enjoyed without any 

 discomfort. 



They will owe these good things, as I have myself owed many 

 •opportnnities to Professor Baird; so, relnctant as 1 was to lay 

 .aside my own work when my invitation came, I felt that it was 

 not only a privilege but a duty to leave my microscope and my 

 emljryos, and to come here today to bear witness to my own great 

 •debts to him and to remind the younger generation of natural- 

 ists how much they owe to him. 



As I have not been able to refer to the publications in which 

 the story of his great achievements is recorded I cannot enter 

 into a specific account of any of his great works, so I must try, 

 as well as I can, to look at them from a more general stand- 

 point. 



It is in all modesty that I undertake this task, for the lif.' 

 and works of a great man like Professor Baird teach many k's- 

 sons to many men, telling each one only that which lie is best 

 prepared to hear and to understand. I am wi'U aware tliat li" 

 who ventures to read to others the lesson of such a life may oiilv 

 succeed in laying bare, to some one of deeper penetration, his 

 own. inability to gras]) its truest and best meaning. 



Professor Baird's ])iib]ic life l)egan at a time wlu'n the scien- 

 tific l)ureaus of the government, which have grown and mnlti- 



