RECENT REPORTS OF FISHERY AUTIIORITIaS. 207 



Nielsen, who conducts the hatching operations, that the idea that if the 

 fish were not artificially treated they would propagate in the natural 

 way, is a mistake. All the spawners are caught in the neighbourhood 

 of the hatchery, and if there was no artificial hatching just as many fish 

 would be taken, and no living fry would be returned to the sea from 

 them. We here come upon the same question which was indicated 

 above, in reference to the Dunbar Hatchery, namely, what proportion 

 exists between the number of spawners artificially treated, and that 

 of those which spawn naturally in the same district. Evidently Mr. 

 Nielsen's view is that the capture of adult fish is so great that very few 

 are left to shed their spawn, or, at any rate, such a small number that 

 the number of the fry derived from them is small in proportion to 

 the number of fry liberated from the hatchery. "We cannot deny that 

 the evidence given of the great increase in the number of adult cod, 

 following directly upon the liberation of millions of fry from the 

 hatchery, gives strong support to Mr. Nielsen's contention. But in 

 this, as in other cases, we ought to be supplied with other important 

 evidence, perhaps the most important being a direct determination of 

 the number of cod eggs actually present in Trinity Bay, during the 

 spawning season of the cod, in order that we may compare this with 

 the number of eggs treated artificially in the hatchery. In Newfound- 

 land, as in Norway, it has been observed that an increase in the supply 

 of cod has followed upon artificial hatching. But in regard to all such 

 evidence the vastness of the numbers put forward, and the absence 

 of accurately observed data for comparison, tempt one strongly to adapt 

 a well-known phrase and say, "c'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la 

 science." The operation which is stated to produce such successful 

 results, is that of placing so many million living fry in the sea at the 

 stage at which the yolk has just been all exhausted. Surely it is not 

 impossible, or even difficult, to ascertain how many such fry were 

 in the sea already, without the operation. Until this or similar facts 

 have been ascertained, it cannot be said that the process of artificial 

 propagation has been put on a practical basis. 



However, notwithstanding this criticism, it must be admitted that 

 local benefit from artificial propagation appears to have been produced. 

 This leads to some further interesting considerations. It is well-known 

 that the Scottish Fishery Board have closed certain inshore areas to 

 beam-trawling. In these areas there appears to be no kind of fishing 

 carried on which involves the destruction of young plaice or the young 

 of other flat fishes on a large scale. The abundance of the fiat fishes in 

 these closed areas has been examined annually since 188G, with 

 great statistical accuracy, by means of experimental trawlings carried 

 out by the Board's steamer Garland. Notwithstanding the protection, 



