American Fisheries Society. 57 
protect the pike-perch. Do you wish to protect only the common 
elass-eye, wall-eye, or do you mean to protect its allies, many of 
which are just as good as the common pike-perch? Clearly the 
intent of the law in New York was to protect the whole genus. 
Whatever we can do to introduce in to the laws such explana- 
tions of the term pike-perch as will lead to the protection 
of all the fishes of the genus, would be a great gain for the 
cause. 
Mr. Meehan: I fully agree with what Dr. Bean has said. 
We have had great difficulty in our own state in several particu- 
lars—not in reference to the pike-perch, because it happens that 
in our law we did that—we say pike-perch, wall-eyed pike, com- 
monly known as jack salmon, wall-eyed pike, and blue pike— 
they are all mentioned separately—but it often happens that in 
our laws mention is made of a particular species of fish by 
some common or local name, and there are perhaps two, three or 
four species, and it makes it a little difficult to understand 
whether they can be enforced or not. We had one forcible illus- 
tration of that in the question of terrapin, in our state, which 
caused a good deal of laughter and cussing besides. Some gentle- 
man from Pennsylvania introduced a bill into the legislature 
for the protection of terrapin, a couple of years ago, and before 
very long the query arose all over the state: Is the snapping 
turtle to be protected, is the mud turtle to be protected? Be- 
cause strictly speaking the whole class of terrapin would in- 
clude those two. Finally we had to go to the attorney-general 
to get a contorted opinion, so that the snapping turtle should 
not be protected by the act. Dr. Bean’s proposition seems to be 
sensible and timely. 
Mr. Titcomb: I want to concur in what Dr. Bean and Mr. 
Meehan have said. When I was commissioner in Vermont for 
twelve years, we had the whitefish protected; but the whitefish 
in our lakes differed. In Lake Memphramagog as I remember, 
we had the menominee whitefish, and in another lake we had 
the labradoricus; and in Lake Champlain we had the true white- 
fish to some extent. But it was understood that the whitefish 
was protected as a whitefish. It seems now that we have got 
to fix our laws so that all these whitefish can be embraced prop- 
