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vessels go to the codfishing at Iceland and the Faroe Islands, 
where they fish with hand-lines. The fish caught here is 
salted during the first part of the voyage, and the fish so 
salted is generally sold to merchants in Shetland, who dry 
it and export it to the Spanish, Scotch, and Irish markets. 
During the latter part of this voyage they keep the best of 
their catch alive, and bring this proportion home at the 
close of their voyage. 
I mentioned in the early part of my remarks that the 
French sent a considerable fleet to the Iceland fishery, and 
I wish to draw attention to the fact that the French 
Government send with this fishing fleet a corvette and 
a gunboat, whose duty it is to superintend and assist, 
and give prestige to their fishermen in those parts. Con- 
sidering the number of British lives and the amount of 
British property employed in the same direction I venture 
to think that if our Government could be induced to send 
one of their smaller vessels of war to this coast during the 
fishing season it would be an act of service to British 
interests. 
There is only one other point to which I beg to call your 
attention. On the nearest banks and along the shore of the 
east coast a large quantity of immature cod are caught, and 
I firmly believe, notwithstanding what we have heard from 
Professor Huxley on the subject, that this wholesale capture 
of the young will sooner or later affect our supply of cod 
on the home grounds. 
My proposal is, that a law similar to that which protects 
the crab and the lobster should extend to all kinds of im- 
mature fish so far as it is possible to carry it out, and as the 
Board of Trade is very anxious to do something for the fish- 
ing trade, I would very respectfully suggest that it should 
take the young fish under its care, and establish one or 
