PREFACE. 



T 



HE Third Annual Report 

 of the Fisheries, Game 

 and Forest Commission 

 is of the same general character 

 as the two reports which have 

 preceded it, and doubtless there 

 will be the same demand for it as 

 was created by the appearance of 

 the reports for the years 1895 

 and 1896. 



The number of copies of each 

 report is limited by law, and an- 

 nually the applicants exceed by 

 several thousand the number of 

 copies provided _for distribution. So 

 far as it is possible to do so, copies 

 of the report are placed with public 

 libraries, commissions, schools, 

 etc., that it may be more accessible 

 to the general public than when 

 it is distributed to individual appli- 

 cants only. Apparently no public 

 document has ever met with greater 

 favor from the people than the 

 annual reports of this Commission; 

 and, in consequence of the very 

 complimentary notices it has received 

 from the press at home and abroad, requests for the volume have been sent to 

 us from nearly every civilized country on the globe, in addition to the great 

 number which have come from our own people and the people of every State in 

 the Union. Flattering as this is to the Commission, it is with regret that many 

 applicants have been denied in the past, as undoubtedly they will have to be denied in 

 the future, because of the limit to the annual edition. It is the aim of the Commis- 

 sioners to make these reports not only accurate statistically, but educational as well, 



"SWEETS TO THE SWEET.' 



