96 Tiucuty-sez'cnfh Animal Meeting 



point of the Government. America within the past few years has 

 done more scientific work, to find out the secret of nature's work- 

 ings and to bottle Spanish mackerel, than in any year of its his- 

 tory. Limited as may seem the work of the American Fisheries 

 Society, the people owe to the individual members of his 

 Society a debt of gratitude for the ef^cient work, the complete 

 and thorough knowledge of how to supply the increasing demand 

 of our pec>ple for more fish food, the solution of the secret of fish 

 propagation, the adaptation of waters to the various species of 

 tislies transported from one country to another, and so complete 

 will be the work that our inland streams will be stocked with fish 

 from the Philippines and other countries now becoming more 

 familiar to the American people. 



It has been said often that fish is the poor man's food, for, un- 

 like any other food product, it may be had for the taking. A fish 

 swimming in the water costs no man labor. In the cold waters 

 of the North there float a hundred barrels of whale oil ; covering 

 the ocean's surface olT Labrador's rugged coast, dart millions of 

 mackerel. Along the coast of Maine, with its hundreds of invit- 

 ing inlets and estuaries, waiting the pleasure of the fishermen, 

 float the Atlantic's great variety of food fishes known the world 

 ever for their exquisite delicacy and' richness of flavor. Farther 

 south lie bushels of oysters, and Ihe Southern waters teem with 

 savory and nutritious food fishes. The fresh water lakes abound 

 in whitefish, pickerel, herrings and other valuable commercial 

 fishes, many of them now the results of the fish culturist. 



To the earnest fish culturist it is not always hard work. There 

 are titnes when he enjoys the fruits of his labor. There are times 

 when the fish culturist feels sad and disheartened because those 

 members of the finny tribe, those who owe to him their existence, 

 fight him. When they passed the fingerling age, the age that 

 always arouses a long discussion, they seem to forget their best 

 friends. In that clear and beautiful Michigan stream there darts 

 a three-pound trout, planted there years ago by the Secretary of 

 this Society, but alas! this unkind trout has brought many a drop 

 of sensible perspiration to the placid features of Hon. Herschel 

 Whitaker, and continues to fan himself as the years roll on, with- 

 out a sign of recognition. 



LTnder that cluster of western lily leaves, resting after a gorge 

 of a two-pound Missouri sucker, lies in perfect contentment a six- 

 teen-pound Mississippi pike, who has broken many a rod in the 

 hands of Hon. W. L. May. 



In the shadows of Put-in-Bay's rocky shores, still playing at 



