134 OPENING OF THE MARINE 



not go furthei' into statistics, but he thought it desirable to 

 give them an idea of the great industry they were seeking to 

 promote. Every other branch of industry had invoked the 

 aid of science, and not invoked it in vain. Our fisheries, 

 from the nature of the case, and from the condition in which 

 the animals we were anxious to catch lived, were extra- 

 ordinarily difl&cult for observation and experiment, which 

 could only be conducted at a cost which was not within the 

 means of private individuals. It seemed extraordinary, 

 however, that so many years should elapse without scientific 

 efforts being made ; for w^e must recognise more and more 

 that the wealth of nations and individuals depended on the 

 economical and ample use of the powers of nature. The 

 use of those powers depended on our knowledge of them, 

 and that knowledge could only be obtained by obsei'vation 

 and experiment ; not conducted haphazard, but by scientific 

 men and in a methodical way. From day to day, as science 

 broadened down and increased its area, and its great 

 generalisations became applied in all directions, we became 

 more and more impressed with the fact that man is the 

 minister and interpreter of nature, and, in the words of the 

 great father of inductive science, in both of these science 

 must and can only depend on accurate experiment and 

 observation. If they read some of the interesting reports 

 of the Trawling and Fishing Commissions that had appeared 

 lately they could not fail to be struck with the utter 

 ignorance as to the habits of fish, as to their modes of 

 existence, their food, the manner and the places in which 

 they multiplied their species, the climatic and other effects 

 which influenced them in their migrations, and in all their 

 modes of life, shown by the fishermen. But he was afraid 

 that that ignorance was not confined to the fishermen. 

 The great authorities that he saw around him — and there 

 were none greater in England, or perhaps in Europe — 

 would, he believed, confirm his remarks that we knew 

 very little indeed of the migrations of fish. That 

 great want was, he now hoped, about to be supplied. 

 They had seen the Laboratory, and though he did not for a 

 moment express an opinion on it himself, yet he gathered 



