68 TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING 



edge of the anatomy, development or relationship of an animal 

 is very likely to be of use in the discussion of fisheries prob- 

 lems, but it is equally true that so long as a science makes 

 such knowledge its cliief aim, largely to the exclusion of other 

 knowledge of animals, it fails to give to the fisheries the aid 

 of which it is callable. I doubt if it can be shown that the fish- 

 eries have ever been directly benefited by either anatomical 

 or systematic studies. 



Naturalists are now becoming conyinced. since evolution is 

 taking place under their eyes, just as it took place in the past, 

 and since the same forces that have in the past been at work 

 modifying animals are still at work, that these forces must be 

 studied. Although these forces lie largely in the environment 

 of animals, the most important thing is neither the animal 

 nor its environment but the relation between the two. For an 

 intelligent understanding of the subject of evolution natural- 

 ists want to know all about the conditions under which ani- 

 mals live — about their habitats, their food, their enemies, their 

 parasites, their rate of growth, their daily habits, their length 

 of life, their rate of increase, their breeding habits and many 

 other things. 



The things that are thus again coming to interest zoolo- 

 gists are precisely those that are important to the fisheries. 

 When a few years ago the regular scientific work of naturalists 

 was, as it still is^ largely anatomical, developmental and syste- 

 matic, it was of only secondary interest to the fisheries. Now 

 that such work is changing in character it is likely to furnish 

 the very materials that are most needed for a full understand- 

 ing of the fisheries. 



I thus find two principal reasons why, as it seems to me, a 

 broad investigation of the biology of the Great Lakes, under- 

 taken from the point of view of pure science, is likely to prove 

 of more value to the fisheries than a series of minor investiga- 

 tions undertaken for the purpose of solving isolated practical 

 problems. The first of these reasons is to be found in the 

 complexity of the conditions existing in the lakes, making 

 the investigation of isolated problems from a purely practical 

 standpoint unusually difficult and likely to result in failure. 

 The second reason lies in the present trend of natural history 

 studies, so that the facts of interest to the man devoted to pure 

 sciences are the very facts which have value for the fisheries. 

 Other reasons might be cited for investigations along purely 

 scientific lines, but I shall confine myself to these two. 



If, as I believe, it is best for the fisheries that an investiga- 

 tion of the lakes be undertaken from the point of view of pure 

 science, it remains to ask how such investigation may best be 

 carried on. 



