90 AMERICAN FISHKRIKS SOCIETY. 



lias said about the advantages of Washington. Washington is a 

 central pi^int ; it is at the head of the National Government, as 

 some of yon may know, and there is a vast museum of fishculture 

 to be seen there. All the apparatus which has ever been devised 

 is in the Natic^nal Museum, and there are many advantages to be 

 gained by having the meeting there. We have had the most 

 successful meetings we have ever had in Washington, and while 

 these questions ccnne up about the East or West, I don't think 

 it is worth while entertaining them. The Society is a national 

 one in its scope and in its aim, and I do not hesitate to avow my- 

 self for Washington. 



Mr. May.— I will amend my motion, Mr. Chairman, by mov- 

 ing that the next annual meeting of the Society be held at Wash- 

 ington, on the 1 2th, 13th and 14th days of May, 1887. Which 

 motion, being duly seconded, was carried. 



Mr. Fairbank. — I w^ant to say a word or two more about the 

 liistory of the Illinois Fish Commission, which the modesty of 

 my associate, Mr. Bartlett, has prevented him from saying any- 

 thing about. He has done all the work, and it is a little different 

 work from what any other commission or State has done, and it 

 has been so successful that I feel it is important. to say something 

 about it here, and call your attention to it, especially to the Com- 

 missioners from the Western States. You, most of you, know 

 the character of the water we have here, and in my talks with 

 him in relation to planting and hatching fish, I said I didn't think 

 he could do much of anything in that work, and Mr. Bartlett 

 suggested that as there were millions of fish that were left every 

 year along the Mississippi river by the receding water, the 

 voung fish in the spring going to the shallow water near the 

 shores, and as the river went down they were left on the bottom 

 in the pools and ponds there, millions and millions of them to 

 die, the best work we could do would be to gather up those fish, 

 sort them out and distribute them, and that is the work we have 

 been on for the past few years. We have a boat and a gang of 

 men that go along tiie shores of the river and gather up these 

 fish; and we have all varieties, from the small-mouthed black 

 bass to the buffahj, and we take them up there b}' the bushel and 



