i8 9 6. SOME NEW BOOKS. 53 



fishery problems. Facts and statistics (by no means two names for 

 the same thing) in regard to our sea fisheries are usually exceedingly 

 dry reading, but Mr. Ernest Holt has managed, not only to invest his 

 subject with interest, but even in places to make it amusing. His 

 caustic humour breaks out every here and there, as, for example, where 

 he reminds us that " a Conference is usually prolific only to the third 

 generation. It begets a Resolution, the offspring of which adhering 

 to the strictly discontinuous type of Variation, is a Deputation. A 

 deputation has been described as a ' noun of multitude, which 

 signifies many but does not signify much ' ; and the unanimity with 

 which the sufficiency of this definition is accepted by those in office, 

 of whatever shade of politics, is alone sufficient to prove that ' great 

 minds think alike.' " i\nd, again, when he illustrates the relative 

 merits (sic !) of the in-shore and deep-sea fisherman in destroying 

 small fish, by a reference to the Walrus and the Carpenter in " Alice 

 through the Looking Glass," where one ate more oysters than the 

 other, but the other ate as many as he could get ! " However," says 

 Mr. Holt, " if the assembled wisdom of Parliament chooses to 

 consider that its business is rather to settle the squabbles of rival classes 

 of fishermen than to take measures to increase the fish supply, one 

 can but regret it." One of the sections of the report gives an in- 

 teresting account of a twelve days' voyage in a steam trawler from 

 Grimsby, which we can, from our experience of the similar vessels on 

 the other side of the country, commend as giving an excellent life-like 

 sketch of the personal peculiarities, habits, and conversation of these 

 rough and ready mariners who sweep our sea-bottoms from Iceland to 

 the Bay of Biscay, and who perpetuate in this degenerate age the enter- 

 prise and hardihood, along, perhaps, with other virtues and vices, of 

 the Viking and the buccaneer. 



The history of trawling in our seas has been a history of the 

 discovery, and the destruction, one after another, of fresh fishing 

 grounds ; and it is interesting, as showing the extent of the evil, 

 that the present agitation and demand for fishery regulation and 

 supervision differs from all other known fishery grievances in that the 

 complaints of the trawlers are directed, not against some other body of 

 fishermen, but against their own practices. This agitation originated 

 at Grimsby and Hull, and, consequently, Mr. Holt has been stationed 

 at Grimsby for the last three years by the Marine Biological Associa- 

 tion, in order that he might collect information as to the alleged 

 destruction of immature fish in the North Sea by beam trawling, and 

 as to the resulting effect upon the fisheries. 



Mr. Holt has now given us a very fair statement of his methods, 

 his material, his evidence, and his conclusions, which must, we think, 

 carry conviction to any unbiassed mind that large numbers of imma- 

 ture fish are destroyed by trawling, and that the supply of the more 

 valuable trawl fish in the North Sea is in consequence diminishing. 

 It is no easy matter to get reliable fishery statistics, and to handle 

 them properly. We are told that " It appears to be the peculiar 

 function of the fisheries department of the Board of Trade to formulate 

 statistics which shall be just sufficiently complete to bring into strong 

 relief the importance of what is omitted from them " ; and in com- 

 paring quantities or values of successive years or decades, the increase 

 in numbers and efficiency of boats and gear, and the great extension 

 of the area fished, have all to be taken into account. Steam and 

 petroleum engines, ice-room, and fish-well, and lastly the new otter- 

 trawl — which, although Mr. Holt does not know it among English 

 trawlers, is now being used at Liverpool — are all improvements which 



