2 INTRODUCTION. 



We may say with perfect justice that the fashing industry 

 has been conducted by man, until recent times, in a manner 

 which is at the same stage of evolution as that reached in 

 the adaptation of cattle to his use when the primitive man 

 hunted and slew in the chase just the few oxen he might from 

 time to time require, quite regardless of the laws governing 

 the existence and increase of the victims. Now however we 

 find that cattle and sheep are carefully bred, fed and tended 

 with one sole object in view, namely, the production of a maxi- 

 mum in quantity and quality of nourishing food, with a mini- 

 mum expenditure. 



To attain this end a large proportion of the human race 

 spend their ceaseless energies upon the breeding, rearing and 

 fattening of the animals which serve for the food of themselves 

 and of their fellow-creatures. 



The same remarks apply to the other large food industries, 

 always excepting that of marine fishes. In this case we have 

 only the mere capture, and neither time nor thought is ex- 

 pended upon the breeding or rearing of the finny tribe. There 

 are obvious reasons for this state of things when we come to 

 consider the vast extent of the watery area dealt with and also 

 the inaccessibility of the ocean-beds to the would-be investi- 

 gator; in fact so great have these impediments been to the 

 seekers after knowledge in all generations that the majority of 

 the common inhabitants of the sea have clinging round the 

 story of their birth and habits a long train of strange fables 

 and weird anecdotes. What more extraordinary and grotesque 

 inventions could one desire than the common but now historical 

 notions regarding the life-history of the barnacle, or the habits 

 of the pearly nautilus ? Similar remarks apply to the quaint 

 fables which are prevalent amongst those who are continually 

 in contact with, and derive their livelihood from the capture of, 

 the food-fishes surrounding our shores. 



So great have these obstacles been that only in the last few 

 decades have there been any really successful attempts to 

 elucidate the history of the egg of the fish after its deposition 

 by the female. 



It is evident that before attempting to bring the fishing 



