THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 107 
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grotesque repartee, “shapely shanks,” and dulcet voices are at a 
premium. We know how the humorous sally of Daniel O’Con- 
nell silenced the furious fish-hawker of Dublin. He called her 
a “ parallelopipedon,” a regular solid, a prism, whose base was a 
parallelogram! She succumbed before his transcendent power 
of vituperation. Had he been compelled to go through the 
ordeal of a whole fish market as I have seen it in France, where 
al]— 
Were mad to speak, with none to hearken,— 
They set the very dogs to barking, 
he would have prayed for the extension and advancement of a 
scientific nomenclature, rather than endure a jargon of Babel 
and Bedlam combined. 
-A NEW CLASSIFICATION. 
It would seem a safe remark for a layman in this fishing busi- 
ness, to say that fish live in water. But when I meet with the 
fact that a species is found in Ceylon that lives in the earth or 
exists in mud, not to mention others that fly in the air and perch 
on trees, it will be confessed that a classification under the head 
of water-animals is less scientific and certain than under that of 
vertebrate. Perhaps I may say that fish are the only animals, 
except the rhetorical man, whose breathing apparatus requires 
to be kept moist by fluid saturation! 
REASONS FOR LEGISLATION. 
We find in Bertram’s *‘ Harvest of the Sea” this very pertin- 
nent question: “Why should not an acre of water become as 
productive as an acre of land?” If this is suggestive for Europe, 
how much more suggestive as applicable to our own country ! 
The answer given on this point with reference to France, Ger- 
many, and England is—that fish-culture in those countries is es- 
sentially practical, hence, it is not much wonder that in France 
it has been taken under the protecting wing of the State. 
But I forgot that I am speaking on a mere motion of thanks. 
Besides, I yesterday had occasion to speak at length in Con- 
gress in favor of Professor Baird’s bill for the preservation of 
