394 OUR FISHES AND THEIR ENEMIES—AMBROSE. — 
ART. [X.—OuR FISHES AND THEIR ENEMIES. By REV. JOHN 
AmBROSE, D.C. L., Dicgpy, N.S. 
(Read 24th March, 1890. ) 
THE fisheries have been truly described as “the harvest of the 
sea,” “the harvest that never fails ;’ for although fish may easily 
be destroyed in vast quantities, or driven away from their accus- 
tomed haunts, still their amazing power of reproduction, and the 
impossibility of finding them in all the labyrinths of their sur- 
roundings, seem to set man’s power of destruction at defiance. 
The fish harvest, however, cannot always be depended on, 
especially in localities where man’s greedy interference with the 
laws of nature defeats his own purpose, and expels beyond his 
reach that which he would fain destroy. 
The same short-sighted greed works still more rapid destruc- 
tion in other productions of nature for the wants of man. From 
over-cropping and forest fires (mostly the result of carelessness), 
our timber supply, in this Province especially, is everywhere 
shewing premonitory signs of approaching exhaustion. Yet iron 
and other materials are largely taking the place of wood in build- 
ing for marine and land purposes. Arboriculture will ere long 
be a matter of imperative necessity, and already legislators are be- 
ginning to protect the harvest of the seas and rivers, for the bene- 
fit of the present generation as well as of posterity. Our Repub- 
lican neighbors are thus endeavoring to replenish some of their 
own denuded forest-lands, and also re-people their coasts and 
rivers with the finny tribes, and our own Government perceives 
the necessity of guarding our fisheries from depletion and ruin 
through modes of fishing which experience has shewn to be in- 
jurious to that country, as well as our own. 
No other food-supply can take the place of fish, and the fish- 
eries of our Dominion—under adequate protection and judicious 
management—will always furnish an unfailing and increasing 
