20G RECENT REPOIiTS OF FISHERY AUTHORITIES. 



iufluence of a hatchery is confined for the most part to a comparatively 

 limited neighbourhood, and it ought to be possible, if the necessary data 

 are accurately observed, to ascertain the magnitude of its inlluence 

 within these limits. Comparisons should be made between the natural 

 propagation of the fish, and the artificial propagation within the limits 

 thus set by natural conditions. Hitherto they have not been made, and 

 the necessary observations have not been carried out. The results 

 would doubtless be more favourable than those of the comparison above 

 made between the operations of one hatchery and the Grimsby fishery. 



In the Newfoundland lleport for 1894 it is stated that the number of 

 cod eggs treated at the hatchery, on Dildo Island, Trinity l>ay, in that 

 year, was 346 millions, from which 221i million fry were obtained and 

 liberated. This is a survival of 64 per cent., or a loss of 36 per 

 cent. The number of cod fry liberated was, therefore, nearly six times 

 as great as that of the plaice-fry produced at Dunbar. But it must be 

 remembered that the cod normally produces a much larger number 

 of eggs than the plaice. According to Dr. Fulton's calculations, the 

 number in the cod varies roughly between three and six millions. If 

 we take four millions as a moderate average, the above number of eggs 

 is the produce of only eighty-six female cod, so that from this point 

 of view the work of the Dunbar Hatchery on the plaice was really 

 of greater magnitude than that of the Newfoundland Hatchery on the 

 cod. The efficiency of the treatment was considerably greater at 

 Dunbar, that is to say, the loss or mortality during the treatment was 

 much less in the Scottish establishment. But at Dildo Island the 

 number of eggs collected was so large that there was not room for 

 all of them in the hatching apparatus, and the excess was utilised by 

 being placed in linen bags, suspended in wells, in the wharves outside 

 the hatchery. This may to some extent account for the greater 

 percentage of loss. 



As evidence of the successful results of the hatching operations in 

 Newfoundland, it is stated that in the beginnins of the summer of 1894 

 there was a great abundance of cod of various sizes and ages in Trinity 

 Bay, and none in the neighbouring Bonavista and Conception Bays, 

 where the season's fishery turned out very poorly. The liberation of 

 fry has been carried out annually since 1890 in Trinity Bay only, and it 

 is maintained that the cod found in large numbers in that bay in 1894 

 were derived from the fry deposited. It is stated that the cod one year 

 old were most abundant, next to these in numbers were cod of two 

 years, and then the three-year-old fish, with a fair proportion of still 

 older and larger fish. This is in accordance with the continual increase 

 in the number of fry liberated each season since 1890. 



In the Newfoundland Ileport for 1892 it is pointed out by Mr. 



