842 EXAMINATION OF THE PRESENT STATE 
may reasonably be inferred to be the motive of inception, there 
would seem to be a much greater chance than usual that the object 
desired is for the general benefit as well as for that of the agitators. 
Still, however strongly the genuine nature of an agitation may 
appear to be warranted by the probabilities of the case, common 
prudence demands that it should be supported by the most exact 
evidence of which the circumstances permit ; and especially is this 
the case in fishery affairs, simce experience has taught us that the 
ignorance of the fisherman of the most elementary features in the 
natural history of the organisms on which he depends, often leads 
him to set forth as fact, matter which is by no means capable of 
that denomination. 
Moreover, granted that the complaints prove to be well founded, 
it will be conceded that remedial measures beneficial to the whole 
community have their best chance of origin in investigations con- 
ducted from a standpoint altogether independent of any trade 
interest whatsoever. 
On these accounts it appeared to the Council of the Marine 
Biological Association that here was an investigation in which 
the means at the disposal of the Association could be most usefully 
employed, and no time was lost in instituting a series of inquiries 
as to the alleged destruction of immature fish by beam-trawling 
in the North Sea, and the best means of checking such destruction, 
if it should be found to exist on a serious scale. 
These inquiries the Council was good enough to place in my 
charge, and for three years, according to my ability and oppor- 
tunities, I have laboured to collect whatever information seemed to 
bear on the case. My headquarters were at Grimsby, where the 
Association, by arrangement with a local Society, secured a small 
laboratory, fitted with tanks and other conveniences, for my use. 
From time to time I have communicated the result of my inquiries, 
either in the form of articles in the Association’s Journal, reports 
to the Council, or evidence before the Parliamentary Committee. 
At the end of three years the object of the investigations may be 
said to have been accomplished, since sufficient evidence has been 
coliected to allow us to form a fairly reliable opinion on the question, 
and the investigations have accordingly been closed so far as this 
particular matter is concerned. 
Of course an important fishery like that of the North Sea will 
always afford abundant scope for the activity of the scientific in- 
quirer, but no new question of paramount importance has as yet 
arisen, nor, indeed, is the old one by any means settled. Still we have 
at our disposal all the material necessary for dealing with it in a 
rational way, should such a proceeding ever commend itself to our 
