Roundjish 



and very seldom even in seines. They w^ere too small and slipped 

 through the meshes. And that w^as as it should be. For the fisher- 

 men did not vs^ant to catch these small fish. They vs^anted them to 

 stay in the sea. They w^ere much more useful in the water than 

 out of it. 



It w^as only after he himself had turned to biology that Jan began 

 to be able to recognise them. Even then, how^ever, he learned 

 very little. The scientists knew^ more than the fishermen, but not 

 much more. Their ignorance vs^as really the logical outcome of 

 the ignorance of the fishermen. Jan understood this better than 

 most, much better than most scientists. For science depends upon 

 the commonest of know^ledge. To a much greater degree than is 

 generally supposed, it is just a w^ay of ordering w^hat everybody al- 

 ready know^s. This ordering leads to the discovery of minutiae 

 and the minutiae sometimes become so significant that they dw^arf 

 the original fund of common know^ledge. But even w^hen that 

 happens, as it has happened in physics, the common fund remains 

 important. And, unless there is a common fund, there can be no 

 ordering, no refinements, no minutiae, no science. And, as far as 

 these little fishes of the north w^ere concerned, there had been 

 hardly any traditional basis to w^ork on. The scientist had to find 

 out everything on his own, create, as it w^ere, a fund of general 

 know^ledge, before he could get down to his proper business of 

 refining it. The result was that there was virtually no science con- 

 cerned with these small fish. The study of them was seen in terms 

 of their predators. They were known in general as factors in the 

 internal economy of the sea. They were not known as species, 

 still less as individuals. 



Typical of them, and typical of their importance, was the Nor- 

 wegian Pout, Gadus esmarkii. It was silvery, a blond fish really, and 

 never exceeded ten inches in length. And yet its numbers were 

 so great that there were times when Jan thought that the whole 

 North Sea must be covered by a perpetual shoal of them. And the 

 shoal would have been a snowfall, a continual snowfall of life sus- 

 pended in the living waters. They were so white, and sliding 



8i 



