36 AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY, 



mollusk. They surround a little oyster, perhaps the size of a 

 half dollar, more or less. The starfish puts its fingers round the 

 oyster and it is supposed by some, smothers it, so that it has to 

 open its shell ; by others it is supposed that the starfish emits a 

 peculiar acid, which obliges the oyster to open its shell and 

 then the starfish protrudes one of its fingers into the shell and 

 devours the stomach of the oyster. 



FISH-CULTURE— A PRACTICAL ART. 



BY JOHN H. BISSELL. 



I do not forget, gentlemen of the American Fisheries Society, 

 that I am but a student in the craft which we profess, and for 

 the encouragement of which this Society exists ; nor that many 

 of you have grown gray in this honorable, nay, may I not also 

 say, patriotic, service ; and so I should ba* sitting at the feet of 

 some piscicultural Gamaliel, instead of standing before you as 

 an essayist, but for the summons of your committee which left 

 me no room for excuses or i-efusal. 



A younger generation is coming upon the field to take its part 

 in carrying forward fish-culture, to apply the precious stores of, 

 knowledge, which have been laid up by the practical observation 

 and scientific research of the past twenty-five years, to the 

 practical solution of some very important economic questions 

 that are beginning to clamor loudly for solution. 



The question most urgent just now is not, can fishes be arti- 

 ficially hatched and reared, and acclimated in alien waters, but 

 can the fisheries of this country now be saved ? That the men 

 of whom this question is being asked are tlie members of this 

 Society, once called " Fish-cultural," may not improperly be 

 regarded as evidence of the ability with whirh the elder genera- 

 tion, the pioneers of fish-culture, have done there work, as well 

 as of the value of their work and the appreciation in which it is 

 justly held by the people of this country. 



