64 



information, by obtaining and improving railway 

 connections and transport facilities, and so forth. 



Cultural such as the establishment of hatcheries 

 marine — if necessary — and inland, the cultivation of the 

 pearl oyster and the artificial stimulation of pearl growth, 

 the cultivation of many classes of shell fish especially of 

 the edible oyster, mussels, clams, etc., in our shallow 

 backwaters if only for export, dried, to the Far East, the 

 propagation of the chank which, by the statistics, seems 

 to be falling off in numbers and size, the artificial growth 

 of sponges, and so forth, all of which, except the chank, 

 are actualities in other waters, chiefly Japanese, and all 

 are promising possibilities here. 



Scientific as in the observation of the bionomics of 

 fish, their habits, age and size at maturity, seasons and 

 places of spawning, food, conditions and seasons of their 

 approach to land, the reasons which determine such 

 approach whether food, temperature, winds, currents, 

 etc., the causes of their putting out to sea whether 

 natural or due to human action (such as the use of 

 clamorous methods of capture, the frequency of steamers 

 with noisy proi)ellers, etc.), and many other scientific 

 questions of practical utility. 



Statistical, for at present we know little of the amount 

 of catches, their respective values at the beach and in the 

 market, the resi)ective shares of the fisherman, middle- 

 man, money-lender, fishmonger, the distance at which 

 caught, and the amount caught per boat and man, facts 

 of immense importance in judging of the increase or 

 decrease of fish in our waters ; the number, size, cost, 

 etc., of the boats employed, and the conditions and wages 

 of employment, facts essential if we wish to gauge the 

 growth and modes of growth of a trade ; the quantities, 

 values and destinations of various kinds of cured fish, 

 etc. 



Industrial as in the development of those by-indus- 

 tries which tend to the profit and enlargement of the 

 trade, such as the improvement of the material, net- 

 making methods, the barking of nets, the making of 

 barrels and jars for pickling, the preparation of manures 

 and fish oils, the utilization of sea and fresh water shells, 

 and so forth. 



7. While it is not pretended that these functions 

 would be otherwise than of slow development we are 



