APPENDIX XIII. 333 



yournal^ a newspaper published in the fishing town of 

 Wici<, that a fish-curer there contracted some years ago 

 with the boats for haddock at 3 j- 6d. per hundred, and 

 that at that low price the fishing yielded the men from 

 ;^2o to ^40 each season ; but that now, although he has 

 offered the fishermen 12 i-. a hundred, he cannot procure 

 anything like an adequate supply. 



As the British sea fisheries afford remunerative employ- 

 ment to a large body of the population, and offer a favorable 

 investment for capital, it is surely time that we should know 

 authoritatively whether or not there be truth in the falling 

 off in our supplies of herring and other whitefish. At one 

 of the Glasgow fish merchants' annual soirees, held a year 

 or two ago, it was distinctly stated that all kinds of fish 

 were less abundant now than in former years, and that in 

 proportion to the means of capture the result was less. 

 Mr. Methuen reiterated such opinions again and again. 

 *' I reckon our fisheries," said this enterprising fish mer- 

 chant, on one occasion, '' if fostered and properly fished, a 

 national source of wealth of more importance and value 

 than the gold mines of Australia, because the gold mines 

 are exhaustible, but the living, propagating, self-cultivating 

 gift of God is inexhaustible, if rightly fished by man, to 

 whom they are given for food. It is evident anything 

 God gives is ripe and fit for food. 'Have dominion,' not 

 destruction, was the command. Any farmer cutting his 

 ripe clover grass would not only be reckoned mad, but 

 would in fact be so, were he to tear up the roots along 

 with the clover, under the idea that he was thus obtaining 

 more food for his cattle, and then wondering why he had 

 no second crop to cut. His cattle would starve, himself 

 and family be beggared, and turned out of their farm as 

 improvident and destructive, who not only beggared them- 

 selves, but to the extent of their power impoverislied the 

 people by destroying the resources of their country. The 



