274 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



Baird's views on the economic value of animals, and the necessity 

 of having laws to conserve animal life in the interest of humanity 

 of to-day and to-morrow. The appointment of Baird to this 

 unremunerative position marked an epoch in the development of 

 economic science in America, and the growth and evolution of 

 the United States Fish Commission alone shows better than any- 

 thing else the comprehensive views of its chief and his remarkable 

 grasp upon questions requiring the highest powers of a systema- 

 tist. His work showed that he was an organizer and administra- 

 tor of the highest rank. For twelve years he devoted his energies 

 to the arduous labors of the United States Fish Commission. He 

 constructed the entire framework of the new department, and or- 

 'ganized it under the following general plan: "To prosecute investi- 

 gations on the subject of the diminution of valuable fishes with 

 the view of ascertaining whether any and what diminution in the 

 number of food-fishes of the coast and lakes of the United States 

 has taken place, and, if so, to what cause the same is due and also 

 whether any and what productive, prohibitory or precautionary 

 measures should be adopted in the premises and to report the 

 same to Congress. It is impossible to more than hint at the 

 work of Professor Baird in this direction in this limited paper, 

 but it was of far-reaching importance, and comprised a compre- 

 hensive plan to prevent the depletion of fishes, either in sea or 

 river. 



Experts were sent all over the country, hatching stations were 

 established, and available fish were carried from one part of the 

 country to another, and the interests of humanity conserved in 

 many ways. As an illustration, the striped bass, which has been 

 gradually disappearing on the Atlantic coast or at least assuming 

 lesser proportions, were introduced into the Sacramento River and 

 to-day it is the highest priced fish and the best in quality on the 

 Pacific coast, being caught in large quantities and an economic 

 factor of great value to the people of the coast. The bass have 

 wandered five hundred miles to the south, having been caught at 

 Redondo, and Terminal, opposite the island of Santa Catalina 

 in Southern California. The famous rainbow trout of California 



