40 
In the first place we must grasp the fact that an 
enormous number of cockles exist. Every person outside 
the trade whom I have asked to guess the weight of cockles 
taken annually out of the sand of Morecambe Bay thought 
they were going to an extreme in guessing four or five tons. 
Now, sir, twenty years ago, as well as those used on the 
coast or taken inland by hawkers, estimated at 25% of the 
whole, the railway companies took from Morecambe Bay 
alone 3,000 tons per annum of these valuable food 
molluscs, and they probably take more to-day, as twenty 
years since the: beds were not fished to the limit of their 
capacity. This does not include the Southport shore, 
from which the crop is enormous. 
At this time, at the request of the Commissioners of. 
Fisheries, I made a series of examinations and experiments 
on cockles. These were ‘not a complete life history as 
there was, and still is, a missing link, but they were 
sufficient for the purpose, and proved beyond all doubt the 
enormous reproductive power of the cockle, and that in 
consequence in order to leave room for a certain proportion 
to attain full growth, an enormous destruction of immature 
fish must take place. This we find is the case, and to an 
extent almost beyond the power of man to estimate. 
Legislation was made on the ground that cockles were 
taken so small they were valueless, and returned nothing 
to the cocklers. I was surprised at the weight attached 
