14 



but also when in storage, markets, cellars, and shops — in 

 short, until they reach the consumer. 



4°. Foreign oysters, unless imported direct from layings 

 which are periodically inspected and certified by an 

 authority approved of by, say, the Fisheries Department 

 of the Board of Trade, must be relaid or subjected to 

 quarantine before entering our markets. Many foreign 

 oyster layings are situated in pure water, others are not. 

 The reasons given, in the evidence taken by the Select 

 Committee, for regarding all Dutch oysters as being free 

 from any sewage contamination will not bear careful ex- 

 amination. 



5°. Finally, shell-fish industries should not be forced, 

 in all cases, to give way to sewage schemes. There ought 

 to be power given in the Bill to consider in each case 

 whether, in the interests of the general public, it is the 

 oyster laying or the sewage that should be removed. 



Sea-Fisheries Conferences and the need of a 

 " Census of our Seas." 



(W. A. Herdman.) 



During the last few years there have been a large 

 number of conferences, congresses, and other meetings, 

 which have dealt either formally or informally with the 

 subject of Sea-Fisheries, and especially their control and 

 scientific investigation. At several recent meetings of the 

 British Association discussions have taken place in the 

 section of Zoology bearing upon artificial hatching, the 

 life and growth of sea-fishes, and the closure of areas of 

 territorial water ; in July, 1898, an International Fisheries 

 Congress was held at Bergen under the auspices 

 of the Society for the Encouragement of Norwegian 

 Fisheries; in September, 1898, a Conference met at 



