LEGISLATION, 
It has been shown on all sides that if the abuses practised * 
in fisheries be not substantially ameliorated the fish will 
either be frightened away, or abandon the stations, which 
amounts to the same thing, since it matters little to a 
country that the normal reproduction is kept up, if they are 
not available for food. 
Hence the necessity of remedial measures for the 
existing evils. But what shall these measures be? That 
is the question we must answer, a question too complex to 
be defined, since it depends on a multitude of contradictory 
elements. The natural condition of the waters, the diver- 
sity of creatures sought out from it, the differences in the 
life and habits of those creatures, and the obstacle which 
the element they live in presents tu a study of those 
habits, have allowed very few persons to study ichthy- 
ology: whilst the inhabitants of a country, their social 
condition and fundamental laws, and lastly the free con- 
currence of individuals in a common ground of action, are 
among the many elements which complicate the solution of 
the problem. 
The principle for fishery legislation on a sound basis is a 
very simple one, and merely consists in the establishment 
of equilibrium between the spontaneous production of the 
waters and that which is drawn out of them. But the 
carrying out of this principle and making the regulations to 
meet it doubtless present a multitude of insuperable 
difficulties. 
An absolutely restrictive system and one which would cut 
at the root of those inveterate abuses sanctioned by con- 
stant practice and of old date, however well considered and 
reasonable it may be, will inevitably meet with an opposition 
