36 
So far.from crustacea in the condition shown in. the 
specimen bottles being the normal food of fishes, we always. 
kept plenty of small crabs in- heavily stocked tanks to act 
as scavengers and eat up any waste morsels of: food that 
might otherwise have decayed and polluted the tank. I 
never noticed the fish touch them except when they had 
bd 
cast their shells and were “soft crabs,’”’ and only in this 
condition have I ever seen a cod disgorge them. 
If we turn from these fishes, foods, and meshes .to the 
rest of the. Exhibition, what do we find? A common sea- 
man’s telescope and compass, supposed to possess some 
special merit because a fishery officer uses it ; some fancy 
badges worn by the fishery officers when hunting and_ 
harassing the fishermen, and a large series of brass instru- 
ments of torture for the fishermen (called; gauges in the 
catalogue). I think I have shown in regard to size 
of mesh, and later on shall try to do in regard to size 
of cockles and mussels, how Dame Nature:and the laws 
of political economy have provided absolute gauges. 
which cannot.be violated by the fishermen except at 
their own cost—gauges which work without cost and 
without irritation, but to our scientists these forces are 
hum-drum, old-fashioned, so they, have applied their in- 
tellects to invent something better, and we are called upon 
to gaze in admiration upon these proofs of their wisdom. 
It is true they differ very slightly from the others. It is 
