24 
relatively low density and high temperature.’ I fail to 
see the necessity, and I feel it very important that fry 
should not be liberated in such unsuitable waters. We 
must endeavour to plant them in the localities where they 
are naturally found, and in the condition under which 
they are naturally deposited and developed, so that they 
may grow and be distributed in the pelagic waters in the 
ordinary course of nature, and find their way gradually 
into the shallow water nurseries. It will be easy, for 
example, in our own district to carry this out by running 
the boxes of fry on the steamer out into deep water 
over the natural spawning grounds before setting them 
free. I hope, however, that before long we shall have 
taken the further step and be attempting to rear some of 
the newly hatched fry to later stages within enclosed 
areas. 
The Fishery Board for Scotland, in their ‘‘ General 
Statement’ (see Fourteenth Annual Report, 1896, p. 10) 
as to the utility of Sea-Fish Hatching, say: — ‘‘ The 
artificial propagation of the food fishes on a large scale 
may now be regarded as having passed beyond the sphere 
of experiment, and taken its place as a department of 
practical pisciculture,”’ &c. I do not go quite so far as 
that, but would regard the operations as being still in the 
experimental stage, although I consider the experiment as 
being of very great importance, and one it is the duty of 
fishery authorities to test thoroughly, and I agree rather 
with their further remark from the same page of the 
Report :—“‘ It is, however, of importance that the economic 
results of marine pisciculture should be as speedily as 
possible ascertained. Its utility as a means of benefiting 
the sea fisheries depends upon the extent to which it is 
likely to increase the abundance of the fishes propagated.” 
Marine biologists and fisheries authorities everywhere 
