BULLETIN OF THE UNITJED STATES FISH COMMTSSIOK. 459 



tJie fishermen, and a stronfj appeal is made for still further enconrage- 

 nieut. Kopljing to the question as to the possible exhaustion of the 

 fisheries by their greater development, the writer states that fresli-Wiiter 

 fisheries, such as salmon, trout, whitefish, &c., and the sea shell-fish- 

 eries, such as oysters and lobsters, may be with time exhausted by indis- 

 criminate fishing, and he points out that these fisheries should be 

 l)rotected by severe and thoroughly enforced regulations. These regula- 

 tions are in force in Canada, and are producing good results. He 

 claims, however, without saying that protective regulations are unnec- 

 essary in th<^, case of the sea fisheries, those of cod, mackerel, herring, 

 &c.,that it is impossible to exhaust them, or ev-en to appreciably lessen 

 their numbers by the means of fishing now in use, especially if protecting 

 them during the spawning season, we are content to fish them from their 

 feeding-grounds; and in proof of this he cites the fact that for 300 years 

 fishing in the Gulf of the Saint Lawrence has been going on without 

 diminishing the supply of fish ; on the contrary, every year " millions 

 are added to the millions caught before." It is admitted that in certain 

 localities there may be an apparent decrease at certain seasons, but 

 this is due to accidental causes. "The changes in the migration of fish 

 may be due to the temperature; to the currents or to the disappear- 

 ance from certain places of those myriads of small fish which serve as 

 food to the cod and other fish. It must also be remembered that fish 

 are erratic in their habits, and that they are plentiful today in locali- 

 ties where they had not been seen for many years." The fecundity of 

 cod, herring, and mackerel negatives the idea of exhaustion, and refer- 

 ence is made to the report of the royal commission, presided over by 

 Professor Huxley, as establishing the same fact. The law of compen- 

 sation in nature, by which portions of the world more favored for agri- 

 culture by climatic conditions, are compensated for in our northern 

 climes by immense fish preserves, the great fishing interests being, as 

 stated by Hervey, "dependent on the Arctic current as the farming 

 interest is on the rain and sunshine which ripen the crops." The Arctic 

 seas and the great rivers which they send forth are swarming with 

 minute forms of life, constituting, in the words of Professor Hind, in 

 many ])laces a living mass, a vast ocean of living slime; and the all- 

 pervading life which exists there afitbrds the true solution of the 

 problem which has so often presented itself to those engaged in the sea 

 fisheries, where the food comes from which gives sustenance to the 

 countless millions of fish which swarm in the waters of Labrador and 

 Newfoundland and in the Dominion and United States waters. It is 

 computed that while the cold water area subtending the coast of the 

 United States is about 45,000 square miles, that subtending the British 

 American shores is 200,000 square miles, a proof of the superior value 

 of the British North American fisheries. Only one-half of our 5,000 

 miles of sea-coast has been properly worked. The most impottantof 

 the deep-sea fishing grounds are the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia 



