320 Fortieth Annual Meeting 



question about it. In regard to the incident, Mr. Nevim 

 speaks of in his paper, of taking whitefish eggs on the 

 Detroit River, he did not mention the fact, but the proba- 

 bilities are that it was just a year previous to the same 

 season that Mr. Wihnot, Seth Green, and my father sat 

 down to a fisherman's table on Grassy Island and had their 

 dinner — Grassy Island, by the way, is one of our biggest 

 egg-collecting stations today on the Detroit River. One 

 year previous to the time referred to by Mr. Nevin my 

 father was there and took a few whitefish eggs (I think 

 about 500,000), and we succeeded in hatching out a fair 

 percentage, though nothing like what we do now. 



I pass along down until 1874, when I commenced my 

 active fish-cultural life. Since that time I have done noth- 

 ing but fish-cultural work, and, in fact, ever since that time 

 the most of my work has been for the United States fish- 

 eries service. In the winter of 1874 I began my connectioH 

 with the United States Fish Commission. 



I do not know, Mr. President, that I could do better 

 than speak of some of the men that I met during those 

 days. One, a name that we all honor, is that of Professor 

 Baird. I well remember my first trip to Washington in 

 1874, when I first met Professor Baird. I was, of course, 

 associated with him personally on many subsequent occa- 

 sions and also by correspondence. I have letters in my files 

 written by a clerk with a pen as dictated by Professor 

 Baird, and I now enjoy reading over these official letters. 

 They were not the same as those we receive today. Now, 

 when we get an official letter from Washington, written per- 

 haps by some one at the head of a division who is a per- 

 sonal friend of ours, it is the coldest thing a man ever got 

 — it is "Sir" every time. I can show you hundreds and 

 hundreds of letters from Professor Baird — official letters 

 that did not have any stamp on the envelope — and they 

 are addressed "Dear Mr. Clark." I tell you, gentlemen, 

 when you look over those letters of the men that you have 

 associated with it makes you think. 



