42 



(1) Tlie best methods of carrying out the Christiania 



programme ; 



(2) The reliability of any results obtained ; 



(3) The applicability of such results to our British Sea- 



Fisheries. 



Under these circumstances it is not surprising that the 

 Ichthyological Committee, on May 29th (see Keport, p. 

 xxii.), requested their four scientific or expert members 

 to go into these questions as a Sub-committee, and draw 

 up a memorandum. 



It is scarcely necessary to point out that the clearest 

 distinction must be drawn between the international 

 scheme (1) as a piece of pure scientific research, and (2) 

 as fisheries investigation which will solve practically and 

 within a given time, and by given means, certain questions 

 of importance to British industries. Of the interest and 

 importance, to scientific men, of the scheme as a piece of 

 pure research there ought to be, and probably there is, no 

 doubt. Speaking for myself for the moment, I am in 

 thorough sympathy with the scheme from that point of 

 view. It is just the kind of oceanographic research that I 

 think most desirable ajid fascinating, and which I believe 

 will lead to qualitative results of great interest to biologists, 

 and, I suppose, also to hydrographers. But there is the 

 greatest difference between (1) such qualitative results, 

 which add certain new facts to science, and in regard to the 

 economic importance of which all that can be said is that 

 each and every scientific fact will some day find its 

 application and may at any moment become of real im- 

 portance to mankind, and (2) immediate quantitative 

 results given as the outcome of investigations directed to 

 particular practical problems. It is from the latter point 

 of view that there seem grave reasons to doubt the 

 adequacy and practical utility of the international scheme. 



