658 REPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [16] 



errnen, and I tliiuk I could prove to you (only it is unnecessary to go 

 into statistics) that the fish which these fishermen are drawing from the 

 North Sea is worth at least £25,000,000 every year. That sum, if I 

 may translate the figures again into an intelligible language, is more 

 than equal to the whole interest of the national debt of this country. 

 This evening I am not concerned with the fisheries of Europe, but with 

 the fish supply of London ; and what I wish to point out to you, and 

 what is very imperfectly understood, is the proportion of fish consumed 

 in London which is drawn from the North Sea. 1 have tried to analyze 

 the return as far as I am able to do so, and I find that, out of the 130,000 

 tons of fish which were received in London in 1880, in round numbers 

 100,000 tons came from the North Sea ; that is to say that, out of every 

 four fish which we eat in London, three came from the North Sea. Now, 

 if this is the case, it is really essential to the subject for us to consider, 

 however shortly, what is happening in the North Sea, because I know 

 there is a prevalent impression that the North Sea itself and the seas 

 of this kingdom generally are being overfished, and that they are in 

 consequence in danger of approaching exhaustion. I am bound to say 

 that you will hear this allegation supported on good authority in Bil- 

 lingsgate, and that you may also hear it in many fishing villages on the 

 coasts of England. Now I will give you my reasons for thinking that 

 the North Sea and the seas of this country generally are not in danger 

 of exhaustion. In the first place the prophecy of approaching exhaus- 

 tion is not a new one. It has influenced the legislature for centuries, 

 and it may be found in our literature since the days of the Tudors. I, 

 for one, think that when you find a series of predictions which have 

 uniformly proved false you may pretty well afford to disregard the same 

 predictions when they are made in our own time. You can hardly enter 

 into a drawing-room — you certainly cannot go into any company inter- 

 ested in fisheries — without hearing complaints of the scarcity of soles ; 

 and I do not deny that soles were exceptionally scarce last year. But 

 I recollect that I was told myself at Scarborough forty-five years ago, 

 in the year in which the Queen came to the throne, that a fisherman 

 landed at Scarborough with a pair of soles, which he placed on the pier 

 and said: 'There are the two last soles in the North Sea.' I do not 

 deny that scarcity may occur again, as it undoubtedly occurred last 

 year. But I regard such scarcities as temporarj^ accidents and not as 

 any permanent failure of the great source of fish supply." 



Mr. Walpolethen reminded his hearers that, likeall other animals, man 

 included, fish have a tendency to produce their numbers in greater ra- 

 tio than their food is generated, and consequently the natural waste 

 which is always going on in the sea is far more exhausting than any effect 

 that multitudes of fishermen produce upon the fish. In the same way 

 a warm or a cold summer has an enormous influence upon the abundance 

 or upon the scarcity of animal and vegetable life. Some years, for in- 

 instance, we talk of a plague of flies, of caterpillars, or of gnats. The 



