THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. TO5_ 
ee Se ee 
Massachusetts, where the oyster and other mollusks abound; 
about the keys of Florida, where the red snapper is caught in 
abundance; from the fur-seal fishery of Alaska to the North Pa- 
cific, which our\whalers penetrate; from the waters where rolls 
the Oregon that once heard no sound save its own dashing, but 
now hears the hum of men engaged ina great industry, to the 
great lakes, where white-fish play around the isles made memo- 
rable by Perry’s victory; from one end of our land to the other, 
over one hundred thousand of hardy men pursue this interesting 
and adventurous industry. A million souls depend upon the 
pursuit. Their fleet is nearly 7,000 vessels and 45,000 boats. 
We may signal from this Capitol and District to these toilers of 
the sea our interest in their avocation, and elevate and protect 
it without detracting from or burdening other interests. Here 
there can be no “ over-production.” 
POPULAR AND SCIENTIFIC NOMENCLATURE. 
I sometimes wonder whether we would not popularize the in- 
terest in this industry more, if we could only interpret to the 
people the remarkable names of the fishes we catch and con- 
sume. The dead Latinity of their nomenclature is more terrific 
than some of the monsters of the deep of which poetry and fable 
are full. I hold in my hand a treatise by Professor Goode and 
Mr. Bean. It is a part of the proceedings of the United States 
National Museum. It says that in a paper on the fishes of Nova 
Scotia and Labrador, Mr. R. H. Storer described a species under 
the name of P/atessa rostrata. ‘This species,” it is said, “has 
been a puzzle to ichthyologists.” Dr. Gunther, in 1862, ven- 
tured to remark that it appears to be allied to the Pleuronectes 
rostrata. Professor Gill, in 1861, referred it to his nominal genus 
Myzopsetia, and in 1864 to Limanda. All of which is quite puz- 
zling to those who are not ichthyologists; but the classification 
appears clear when we find out that the fish thus clad in this 
bewildering Latinity is-—a flounder! But it is none the less a 
delight to know that when one is tasting the luscious shad at 
this, its season, that it is of the Anadromous kind, of the herring 
family, known as Clupea sapidississima; or that we may alternate 
