252 



EEPOtr?""^ COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



destroy the vastly g^reater unmber, yet these are the fish swimmino- in 

 the open sea and taken after the operation of spawnin- has been acc^om- 

 phshed, whde the ponnds secure particularly the spawning' fish, and that 

 too, durino- the few weeks when they school near the shore for the Dur' 

 pose ot depositing their eg-s. Whether the British coniiaittee, which 

 prosecuted tiie inquiry as to the infinenoe of nets and tr.ips upon the 

 fishing, would have decided as they did, to tlie etfect that they could ob- 

 serve no evil result therefrom, had the bliie-flsU been an inhabitant of 

 tlieir coast, is a very serious question. 



