158 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



It ought to be an object of specitil interest for n8 to obtain an accurate 

 knowledge of our own waters, especially since such a knowledge would 

 be of as great practical and scientific importance to our fisheries and 

 navigation as the geological investigations have been to our agriculture 

 and mining. The proposed investigations of the sea are no less neces- 

 sary, and will certainly prove just as useful. 



§ 30. With regard to the arrangement of these investigations, it may be 

 well in this place to add a few remarks concerning their scientific por- 

 tion. It has, at least of late years, become a custom with us to ])ut all 

 such investigations into the hands of a committee of older scientists. 

 Although cases could be mentioned where such an arrangement was not 

 only not hurtful but proved of absolute benefit, such cases must certainly 

 be considered as exceptions. The most extensive scientiti^c investigation 

 ever undertaken in Sweden, viz, the geological survey, has been arranged 

 on a totally different plan, which, most assuredly, is the only one Mhich 

 deserves to be followed. In foreign countries, such investigations have, 

 as far as known, hardly ever been placed in the hands of a commit- 

 tee. In i^orway, where the fisheries are of much greater importance, 

 and where, consequently, the investigations must be much more exten- 

 sive, not only the making of a plan for such investigations regarding 

 the herring and the herring-fisheries, but the whole management of the 

 Investigations has been placed in the hands of quite a young man, who 

 had not even finished his course at the university.-^ In Germany, these 

 investigations have certainly been entrusted to a commission, Imt its 

 members do all the principal work themselves.^" In tlie United States 

 of I:»forth America, the investigations of the fisheries, both as regards 

 their arrangement and their execution, have been placed in the hands 

 of one and the same man.^' If no person or persons can be found to 

 whom the investigations may be entrusted, it is not ^\'orth while to make 

 any; for a committee, even if its members are tully aware of the object 

 of the investigations, can scarcely reach any valualtle results through 

 others, unless these possess the faculty of acting for themsehes. 



In case such a committee should, however, be considered indispensable, 

 it will be important to place at its head a man who will not be led astray 

 by any interest foreign to the proper object of these investigations. 



If any investigations of this kind are to be truly useful, their result 

 must be laid before the public just as it is, without any additions or 

 emendations. 



§ 31. It has akeady been mentioned in the foregoing, and is really self- 

 evident, that a well-devised and detailed plan is absolutely necessary,, 

 so the object may be reached with the greatest possible saving of labor, 

 time, and money, and to avoid the danger of entering otherfields which 



"^Xordisl- TidsHkrtft for FisJceri. VII. Copenhagen, 1872, p. 8. 



^0 Jahresherk-ht der Comimssion ^ur wi.'iscnsvhaftlU'hc'd UntersucJiutif/ dcr diviinclieii Afccrc 

 in Kiel. I-III. Berlin, lb73, 1875. 



3' United States Commission of Fisli and Fisheries. I-III. Reports of the Commis- 

 sioner for 1871-1^7:^, 1872-1873, 1873-1874, and 1874-l'-'7r>. Washington, 187.^-1870. 



