VUl REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 

 4. — CORRESPONDING RESEARCHES OF OTHER NATIONS. 



A few years previous to the movement on the part of the TJuited 

 States in the establishment of a commission for the investigation of 

 the fish and fisheries of its coast, the Fischerei-Verein, an associa- 

 tion composed of several eminent naturalists, physicists, and statisticians 

 of Germany, warmly urged upon its government the importance of 

 prosecuting similar researches, recognizing equally with the United 

 States that the only way of securing definite and practical results in the 

 way of protecting and improving the fisheries was to initiate a series 

 of thorough inquiries into the general physical and natural history of 

 the seas. 



A commission was accordingly appointed by the German government 

 to report upon the best method of securing the desired object. A 

 report of what was needed was presented by the commission, which 

 invited careful inquiry into the following points : first, the depth, and 

 character of the water, the peculiarities of the bottom, the percentage 

 of salt and gas in the water, and the nature of its currents and temper- 

 atures; secondly, a minutely- detailed determination of the animals and 

 plants found in the sea ; and, thirdly, the distribution, mode of nourish- 

 ment, propagation, and migration of the useful fishes, shells, crustace- 

 ans, &c. While this programme embraced the primary physical condi- 

 tions oftea indicated a low barometer, strong winds, unsettled weather, and thunder 

 and lightning. 



In conclusion, the committee recommend that, in further elucidation of the siibject, 

 steps should betaken to obtain information which may lead to a solution of the following 

 queries : 



1. What determines the time of the commencement of the fishing ? 



2. What determines the fluctuations in the catches of herring in different districts, 

 or in the same district on dift'erent days ? 



3. What causes the absence of herring during some seasons from certain districts of 

 the coast ? 



4. What determines the ending of the fishing-season ? 

 The information required demands — 



1. An extension of the area examined, so as to include the Moray Firth, the Shet- 

 land, Orkney, and Hebrides Islands, and the west coast of Scotland. 



2. Daily returns of the number of boats fishing and the catch. 



3. The erection of self-registering sea-thermometers at different points on the coast, 

 similar to those now in operation at Peterhead Harbor. 



4. Thermometric observations taken by the fishermen themselves over the grounds 

 fished ; as it is only by the observations of numerous thermometers in continuous im- 

 mersion that we can hope to obtain accurate information regarding those currents of 

 cold and warm water round our coasts which are often found to interpenetrate each 

 other, and which are supposed, with apparentjy good reason, to influence greatly 

 the migration of the herring. It is said that the Dutch fishermen derive valuable 

 practical advantages from a system of this kind, and there can be no doubt that 

 favorable results might confidently bo looked for if a similar system were geherally 

 adopted by our fisherraeu. 



It is au iuterestiug fact in the natural history of the herring that, while the season 

 or their cai>ture is quite definite and generally uniform at auy one point, it varies on 

 ditferent parts of the coast ; thus, on the east of Great Biitain, from Shetland in the 

 north to Flamborough Head in the south, it occurs in July, August, and September, 



