TEANSPLANTATION AS A REMEDY 47 

 The cost of the first year's operations he estimated as follows : 



£ 

 Cost of steamer .......... 5,000 



Six months' working expenses at £65 per week .... 1,560 



Gross expenses . . 6,560 



Less earnings by sale of marketable soles, turbot, and plaice caught 



incidentally during operations at £30 per week .... 720 



Nett expenses . . 5,840 



If the experiments were continued over a period of five years, 

 he argued, ' it would give us 5,400,000 fishes, and as we should 

 be putting in fish in the second year when only one-third had 

 been taken out, and when some had started to spawn, the 

 increase would be enormous. As 5,400,000 have been trans- 

 planted, we might well believe they would in this time have 

 increased to 10,000,000, and taking into consideration that 

 a great many would be full grown, then I believe wt may assume 

 that 100 of these will fill a box ; if so, that gives us 100,000 

 boxes, and at £1 per box shows a net return of £100,000.' 



Against this he sets : 



£ 



Cost of steamer ...... 5,000 



Five years' working expenses . . . 7,500 



12,500 

 Less 



By sale of marketable fish .... 3,750 

 By sale of steamer ..... 3,500 



7,250 



Nett expenses ...... 5,250 



For a return of £100,000. 



Mr. Douglas realized that Germany, Holland, Denmark, 

 Norway, Belgium, and France might well be invited to do their 

 part in the carrying out of his experiment. But he remarked 

 (sagely enough), ' it is probable that this would not be accom- 

 plished for the next ten years ', and concluded that as we owned 

 80 per cent, of the trawling power in the North Sea we might 

 get to work at once on our own account. 



Mr. Douglas also advocated the transplantation of large 

 Iceland and Faeroe and Irish Channel plaice to the North Sea 

 grounds to secure ' fresh blood ' ; the transplantation of small ^ 

 North Sea plaice to the Irish Channel feeding-grounds, and the 

 transplantation of small soles (4 to 6 inches long) and turbot to 

 the North Sea from the Bay of Biscay. 



' In 1908 Atkinson actually transplanted plaice from the Barents Sea to the 

 North Sea, and found that they grew more quickly there than in their native 

 waters. 



