NATIONAL FISHERY CONGRESS. 263 



with Russia, Great Britain, Japan, and China for the protection of the great animals 

 of the Pacific, on the west and north, with a like agreement with the owners of Green- 

 land and its island borders and Newfoundland and its neighborhood on the northeast, 

 it would yet be possible to have abundance of all valuable products from the oceans 

 and their tributaries which sparkle in a beautiful, silver network throughout the 

 length and breadth of the lands adjacent. 



Many wise individuals to day deplore the dilatory attention to national interest 

 that has resulted in comparative extinction of many really valuable creatures, whose 

 abundance seemed but a few years ago to be inexhaustible. Should not everyone 

 energetically lend his voice and influence to prevent further loss to both individual 

 and Government? A war of extermination of the human inhabitants of remote 

 corners of the country would justly be considered a heathenish, cruel outrage; but is 

 not the destruction of lower animal life in vast multitudes equally cruel? If mankind 

 has its sources of life necessities cut off, they pine and die. Thus we, as a congress, 

 should urge full legal protection, through both home and international laws, for the 

 food-fish upon which a vast number of human beings depend for all that makes life 

 comfortable ; while in some places, neglect to pass such laws actually results in suffer- 

 ing and death. We do not deem it right to propose the protection only, but should 

 follow the proposition up by active, earnest work for the desired and needed results. 

 PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA. 



