19-2 THE SMALL GAME OF THE SEA 



same composition as the warmer water of the Atlantic, enclosing 

 an area covered by more stagnant and on the whole colder 

 water, having a famia of its own.' x\nd he adds (cautiously) 

 ' repeated investigations will be necessary to ascertain whether 

 this faunal dissimilarity observed in 1904 is permanent or not.' 

 Had British fishermen known by 1905 that Norse investi- 

 gators were carrying on work which thus throws so much light 

 upon one of the subjects more discussed than any other in 

 trawling circles — the distribution of fish-shoals and the effect of 

 temperature upon it — it is quite certain that Business and 

 Science would have understood one another many years ago. 



The ' Small Game ' as Baby Food 



In the chapters which have been written an attempt has been 

 made to emphasize the vital need for an accurate knowledge 

 of the diet of young fishes at the stage when they first begin 

 to take food other than that w^hich is contained in their yolk- 

 sacs. A very great deal of knowledge has been accumulated 

 on this subject — and the honour is due to Dr. Marie V. Lebour, 

 of the Plymouth Laboratory. Her work has, of course, accord- 

 ing to the splendid tradition of the Marine Biological Associa- 

 tion, been reported step by step as it proceeded, but these 

 reports are printed for the information of her scientific colleagues, 

 and are not always to be understood by the layman. She will 

 therefore forgive any shortcomings which may occur in the 

 attempt at a popular sketch of her work which the writer now 

 essays for the information of his brother laymen. Her method 

 is as follows. Tlie young fish are caught, by the research vessel 

 Oithona, either in the tow-nets, or in one of the young-fish trawls 

 — the latter being most ingenious otter trawls with a mesh as 

 small as one-twelfth of an inch. On their arrival at the labora- 

 tory Dr. Lebour dissects out the alimentary canals and examines 

 the food which is in them. The smallest turbot thus dissected 

 was 6 miUimetres long. That is to say : 



That is what is meant by the statement in Chapter I, p. 15, 

 that the world of these little fishes was a world which could be 

 explained only with the aid of a microscope. 



Dr. Lebour tells us that few fish are vegetarians ; and as 

 a rule only the very youngest fish eat diatoms. Very young 

 herring and plaice and other fish, however, do undoubtedly eat 

 them, and we have seen in Chapter XVII that their absence 

 or presence in the sea at the right time projjably makes all the 



