58 FISHERIES AND FISHERMEN 



apprehended in our day, and that there are still more fish 

 in the sea than ever came out of it. According to Prof. 

 Huxley, one of the greatest living authorities on these 

 matters, the ravages of man are but very trifling in character 

 when compared with those arising from other and natural 

 causes, and more particularly from the depredations of the 

 birds and the larger members of their own tribe. According 

 to the illustrious Professor, in the case of the herring at least, 

 bird, fish, and man form a kind of joint-stock company, the 

 latter having to be content with a modest 5 per cent, of 

 the annual dividends. In fact, so far did the trawlers turn 

 out to be from destroying the herrings by routing up the 

 spawn, that they tended greatly to their preservation 

 through the capture of such fish as turbot, brill, sole, and 

 plaice, who possess an epicurean appetite for that kind of 

 food. Such a declaration is undoubtedly reassuring, but 

 yet one cannot altogether repress a certain qualm of ap- 

 prehension when we read upon an authority of such great 

 practical experience as Mr. Olsen, of ground after ground, 

 in which the abundance of fish is a matter of the past. In 

 the Off-ground near Grimsby, formerly abounding with all 

 kinds of fish, there has been a scarcity of late. In the 

 California Ground, a small one no doubt, large quantities of 

 soles used to be caught. On the Doggerbank codfish have 

 been caught abundantly in former years, but have been 

 scarce of late. From the Great Silver Pits large quantities 

 of soles were taken for the first three years. The Botney 

 Ground formerly abounded with a great variety of fish, but 

 of late years it has not been so productive. Off the N.N.E. 

 Hole the supply of soles, formerly abundant, is now 

 fluctuating, though still occasionally large ; and so on in 

 the case of nearly every fishing resort mentioned by this 

 high authority, that fatal past tense Is continually recurring. 



