BY WILLIAM MACLEAY, F.L.S. 1-7 



with a more bountiful natural supply than any, or all of these 

 countries, there is not a single exhibit of fish of any kind. It 

 is no doubt ovei'stepping the bounds of a Scientific Paper, entering 

 at any length into questions of an economic character, but if by 

 means of the publicity given to the papers read in this Societ} T , I 

 am enabled to call public attention to this all important subject, 

 I am sure the Society will not grudge me the opportunity. 



I do not propose, however, to do more than point out that the 

 development of our fisheries is of such vast importance in a 

 national point of view, that it might well, here, as has been the 

 case in nearly all other countries, form a subject for the serious 

 attention of the Government. I do not mean that the Government 

 should become fishermen or fishmongers, but that it should use 

 the means, readily at its disposal, to bring together all information, 

 which we are now so defective in, as to the haunts, habits, uses, 

 &c, of the fishes of our Coast. For this purpose, I think a 

 Commission should be appointed, whose duty it would be to 

 enquire into, and report upon everything connected with our fish 

 supply, on fish culture, on the methods to be emplo} T ed in catching 

 the various fishes, on the best modes of preparing them for the 

 market, and on the best means of protecting valuable kinds from 

 unprofitable destruction, either by their human or their natural 

 enemies. Such an enquiry properly conducted, would necessarily 

 be productive of much good in accumulating information of a 

 reliable character upon subjects admittedly of National importance 

 even though the results on the development of our fisheries might 

 not be immediately apparent. 



