THE LITTLE AUK VISITATION OF 1911-12 77 



This waste of Invertebrates makes no impression on the 

 resources of Nature in the sea, either as regards the species 

 themselves or those which feed on them and their larvae. 

 As pointed out many years ago, these comparatively sedentary 

 inhabitants at the bottom of the sea have as a rule pelagic 

 larvae which rise near the surface, undergo various changes, 

 and by and by pass downward to the bottom to rejoin their 

 parents or people new sites. Thus the smaller fishes seize 

 them as they go upward, whilst those more advanced prey 

 on them as they sink downward, the constant interchange 

 especially proving beneficial to the young food-fishes. Just 

 as the great losses of Invertebrates caused by storms are in- 

 significant in the economy of Nature in the sea, so the 

 inroads of man and his varied apparatus for the capture of 

 the food-fishes do not lead to the extinction of any species — 

 carried on, as his operations have been, from time imme- 

 morial. The larger forms may be thinned here and there 

 and rendered wary by constant interference, but the count- 

 less swarms of young give no evidence of diminution,, and 

 by their growth fill the depleted ranks on a given area or 

 spread the species to new sites. It is the closely interwoven 

 chain between the diatom and the fish which enables even 

 those species most eagerly sought to maintain their existence 

 after centuries of pursuit by man ; and such is fortunate, 

 since there is as yet no reliable evidence that artificial hatch- 

 ing of marine fishes on British shores will produce results 

 commensurate with the expenditure involved. 



THE LITTLE AUK VISITATION OF 1911-12. 



ONCE more we have had a Little Auk winter — that is, one 

 in which great numbers of this Arctic sea-bird have been 

 tempest-driven to our shores, there to die in thousands 

 from exhaustion and hunger. Not since the memorable 

 visitation of 1894-95 nave Little Auks occurred in this 

 country in anything like such numbers, or over so wide 



