PHOTOGRAPHS OF LEAPING SALMON. 
By Dr. Robt. T. Morris. 
"Have you any idea how it was cooked?" 
"They cut 4t into steaks and parboiled them to get rid 
o£ the strong oil, and then they treated it as they would 
treat a veal cutlet, and it makes a better cutlet than ever 
came out of a calf. Professor, if old Mary Cooney, who 
cooked for mother before I can remember, and kept on 
cooking for thirty years, was here she would serve up 
those sturgeon steaks so that they would wrap around 
your heart like a yard of new flannel." 
Then I turned to a fisherman and asked: "How do you 
cook sturgeon here?" 
The man gave me a withering look, or one that wa.s in- 
tended to wither, and replied in a tone of disgust: "I was 
never poor enough to eat a sturgeon." 
The Professor had sturgeon cooked after my prescrip- 
tion, and he also had at the time a big ioft. shark, and had 
cutlets of that served in the same way. Many ladies were 
at the table, and the verdict was: "The yellow sturgeon 
is good, but the white sturgeon is not fit to eat." And 
they were unanimous in this opinion. Our friend Piseco 
was there at the time, but I can't recall that he ever gave 
an opinion on the merits of Prof. Baird's two "stur- 
geons," and I doubt if the Professor ever told the ladies 
what sort of a fish a "white sturgeon" was. He was 
intent on knowing if shark was eatable, and found out 
in the only way open to a man who is not hide-bound by 
prejudice. Some time before or after this he received the 
carcass of a panther from the Adirondacks, and I read of 
a dinner where he had the great cat served in different 
ways to his guests. Dr. Theodore Gill was there, and 
I think Dr. Coues partook of more or less of the beas't, 
but one trial seemed satisfactory, and there has been no 
demand for panther meat m Washington from that dav 
to this. I have lost the account of that feast, and wish 
that some one who was there would give us the menu in 
Forest and Stream, with his personal views on the 
panther as an edible proposition. 
As anlOrmthologist. 
Here is a story that gives a view of the Professor in 
his true character of an unassuming man who knows 
more than he looks to know. He was very plain in dress 
and but — here's the yarn. A Boston taxidermist whose" 
name is unfortunately forgotten, as well as the names of 
the birds, said to me: "One day an old farmer-looking 
chap with a Derby hat on the back of his head, resting 
on his ears, came into my shop and looked around. He 
stopped in front of a bird and said : 'That's a fine speci- 
men of , and exceedingly well mounted.' " 
'"" 'You are mistaken about that bird,' said I, 'that's the 
I doubt if you ever saw one of the , they are. 
v«ry rare.' T know what I am talking about, for I've 
studied birds all my life,' and the old farmer nodded and 
went on looking over the collection with his hands behind 
his back, and I began to wonder if he would know the 
difference between a hummingbird and a crow, when he 
said: 'I sent you some specimens from the Smithsonian 
Institution a few days ago, I hope they came in good. .order.' 
<f Well. sir, my heart was in my throat when Tasked: 
Is this Prof. Baird?' and he said it was. And, there I had 
been, like a. chump, disputing one of our first ornitholo- 
gists. You could have carried me out on a chip. Then 
I asked him if the specimen first referred to was the very 
rare bird, and he said it was. He did not take offense at 
my manner, for he sent me specimens afterward, but I 
never was so taken down. He did not dispute my de- 
cision about the bird, nor offer to argue the point; he 
named 'the specimen and let it go at that. He is the 
most wonderful man I ever met." 
As an Angler. 
But as it was as a fishing companion that started me to 
write of the great scientist, I must touch on our only fish- 
ing trip, but in all my sketches I aim to picture the man 
and not to tell fishing stories, so I have tried to place 
this man in the light as I saw him. 
The early October days at Wood's Holl, Mass., were 
giving warning that winter was on its way down the 
coast, and Prof. Baird had sent for me to talk about the 
culture of lobsters, cod and other winter fishes, and there 
came a bright, still day, when I remarked: "Professor, 
this is an ideal day for fishing, and Martha's Vineyard is 
an ideal place for sea fishing, and I have arranged, for a 
supply of bait, and will ask you to let me off for half a 
day in order to get a bit of fishing, which does not often 
come my way." 
"Have you engaged your boat?" 
"No, they are plenty, the tide will be right from 9 to 
12, and as there was no pressing work I thought it best to 
go, especially as you devote the most of that time to your 
stenographer, and would not need me." 
In his quiet way he asked: "May I go along?" And 
then his steam launch was ordered, the stenographer took 
a -rest, and with all the bait and tackle necessary we went 
out into "Quick's Hole" ; for, by a curious sort of nomen- 
clature, in Martha's Vineyard each bit of water between 
the islands is called a "hole." In these tideways there is 
a fierce gurrent, as the Atlantic ebbs and flows, so that the 
angler must change his sinker to suit the flow, unless he 
is willing to use a heavy one at slack water and so lose 
the "fight" of his fish. 
His line had scarcely reached bottom before the Profes- 
sor had a bite and pulled up a tautog, the "blackfish" of 
New York and south, a fair-sized fish of about 2lbs., and 
he remarked: "It reminds me of boyhood days, when I 
used to fish in the Schuylkill River, and of the same feel- 
ing of the fish, giving jerks which are almost electrical. 
I can easily see how men like to fish, but since I became 
a student I have never .found .time to waste in that 
way." - , , * * " 
"Fishing has never been a waste of time with me, it is 
a change of occupation, which is rest, and to business metr 
a week or two spent in fishing braces them up and' they 
return to work brighter and stronger. However," I make 
no such excuse in my own case, for my outdoor life is 
sufficient, and I fish because I like the sport." 
"These toadfish," said the Professor as he dropped 
one in the boat, "seem to be* most all mouth and digestive 
apparatus ; they have powerful jaws and are very ten- . 
acious of life; do you know of any fishes which: eat 
them ?" 
"Yes, I saw one taken from the stomach of a cod, and 
have been told by fishermen that dogfish eat the smaller 
ones. ' 
"Ever eat one yourself?" 
"Yes, tried them once for curiosity. They areH5etter 
than your white sturgeon at Noank, but not as good as 
skate or sculpin, sea robin and some other fishes not usu- 
ally eaten. I remember the toadfish as soft and mushy as 
we fried it, yet when skinned the flesh seemed firm." 
"What do you think the mission of the toadfish mav 
be?" 
"Like that of sharks and scavengers; to keep down 
other forms; to absorb food, but to yield little in return." 
"Doubtless," said he, "that is the mission of our birds 
of prey also, and of the dogs and cats." Here he evidently 
fell into a train of thought which lasted while I took in 
half a dozen fish, when he pulled in his line and said, half 
aloud: "They've taken off my bait." As I was aware 
that his bait had been off fof half an hour, and that he 
had lost interest in the fishing, I said : "Now we've had 
fishing enough. I think we had best go back and be in 
time for dinner." 
While there is nothing of particular interest in the fore- 
going conversation, it illustrates the trend of thought 
and the habit of asking questions which were characteristic 
of Prof. Baird. He was no doubt better informed on the 
questions which he asked me while we were fishing than 
I was, but he realized the fact that every man has had op- 
portunities for observation, which came to him by some ac- 
cidental capture or the opening of a fish, which might 
never occur to the student who set out to investigate along 
that line. He had a quiet way of finding out all a man 
knew on any zoological subject without making him feel 
that he was on the witness stand, and he was ever absorb- 
ing knowledge in this way. 
Senator Edmunds, of Vermont, drew the bill creating 
the office of Fish Commissioner, and with Prof. Baird in 
view he provided that no salary was to go with the office 
in order to place it beyond the reach of party politics. 
The commissioner was not subordinate to any of the ex- 
ecutive departments of the Government, its reports were 
to be made directly to Congress, and his work was not 
even nominally under the direction of the President or of 
any cabinet officer. This was great power to give a com- 
missioner, but Senator Edmunds was wise in doing it, for 
he realized that in that day fishculture was an established 
fact, and should be undertaken by the Government, but 
that any hampering of the commissioner by men who 
had to be educated to the needs of the work would be 
fatal to it. and so this bill went through. 
While fishculture was contemplated, and has since be- 
come the main object of the commission, it was not men- 
tioned- in the original bill which passed Congress under 
joint resolution on Feb. 9, 1871, authorizing 'the appoint- 
ment of a Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, whose 
duties-were: "To prosecute investigations on the subject 
of. the .diminution- of valuable fishes with the view of as- 
certaining whether any and what diminution in the goast 
