XIV NOTES ON THE PKOGBESS OF SCIENCE. 



decreases the quantity of Crustacea and sand-eels must exercise great 

 influence on herring-shoals ; but these are even more acted upon by 

 their great destroyers. The latter may be ranged under the heads of 

 fish, birds, marine animals, and man. Of these, by far the greatest de- 

 stroyers are fish and marine animals, as porpoises and other cetacea. 

 It is estimated that the total annual take of herrings by British fisher- 

 men is 900,000,000 ; a prodigious number ; but great as this is, it sinks 

 into comparative insignificance when compared with the destruction 

 effected by other agencies. Cod alone destroy ten times as great a 

 number as are captured by all our fishermen. It is a very common 

 thing to find a cod-fish with six or seven large herrings in his stomach. 

 When it is further considered that the conger and dog-fish do as much 

 mischief as the cod and ling, that the gulls and gannets slay their mil- 

 lions, and that porpoises and grampuses destroy additional countless 

 multitudes, it will be evident that fishing operations, extensive as they 

 are, do not destroy five per cent, of the total number of full herrings 

 that are destroyed every year by other causes. These facts, which 

 cannot be controverted, prepare us for the conclusions arrived at by 

 the commissioners with reference to the legislative enactments relating 

 to the herring fishery. 



They recommend that all prohibitory or restrictive laws bearing on 

 the herring fishery be repealed, and that the fishermen be allowed to 

 follow their business in any manner they may think proper. In con- 

 clusion they add : "If legislation could regulate the appetites of cod, 

 conger, and porpoise, it might be useful to pass laws regarding them ; 

 but to prevent fishermen catching one or two per cent, of herring in 

 any way they please, seems, in the opinion of the Commissioners, a 

 wasteful employment of the force of law." 



We present to the readers of the Annual of Scientific Discovery for 

 1864, the portrait of Major-General Q. A. GILLMORE, U. S. A., best 

 known in science for his investigations and researches respecting 

 "limes, mortars, and cements," and for the brilliant military engineer- 

 ing displayed by him in the reduction of Forts Pulaski, Sumter, and 

 Wagner. 



