204 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
But the curious feature is, that in all the arguments—all the nego- 
tiations,—all the appeals—made to the Government of the day, in respect 
to these stations, Canada is spoken of as though she possessed but one 
coast. It was a Canada bounded on the east by the Atlantic Ocean— 
en the west by vacancy. 
There is not in any of the papers I have quoted any mention of the 
Pacific Ocean or of the British Columbian Coast. 
Now at that time—up to 1898 say—such omission was not, perhaps, 
much to be wondered at. The only way to persuade a Government to 
spend money on science was to point out economic advantage, and 
the fisheries of Canada at that time were on the Atlantic almost 
entirely. The seats of learning from which investigators were to be 
drawn were also in the east. 
But now all this is changed. 
British Columbia, so far as the fisheries are concerned, is recognized 
as the premier province. The value of its fisheries amounted last year 
to one-third of the value of the whole Canadian fisheries. It produced 
one and one-half millions of dollars more than the fisheries of Nova 
Scotia, double those of New Brunswick. 
Last year the value of the British Columbian fisheries (according to 
the last report of the Department of Fisheries) was over $9,000,000; and 
as yet but one branch, the salmon fishery, has been at all adequately 
developed. Until quite recently when British Columbian fisheries were 
spoken of, it was the salmon industry, and that alone that was meant. 
But the fishery possibilities of British Columbia are boundless: only the 
uttermost fringe, as it were, has yet been touched. The halibut and her- 
ting fisheries are at present in their infancy ; the oyster industry is hardly 
begun. All other branches have been almost wholly overlooked. If 
scientific investigations can at any time be of service, in a practical way, 
to the fisheries of any country, now is the time for science to step in 
and to help and to stimulate the British Columbian fisheries. Of course 
we have to put the practical side first, as it is the practical side that 
appeals to the politician and it is to the politicians one has to look for 
the means to carry on the work which I desire to advocate. 
But the scientific side is that which will appeal most to members of 
the Royal Society. 
It is deplorable, to my mind, that for so many years we have left so 
fruitful a field as the Pacific Coast Marine Fauna practically unculti- 
vated. I am not exaggerating when I say, that for each marine species 
occurring in the North Atlantic there are two in the North Pacific. For 
each individual specimen in the one ocean there are ten in the other. 
