76 AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 



brought up to and maintained at a maximum production, and to 

 this society is largely committed the satisfactory solution of this 

 important question of political economy. When the methods of 

 artificial propagation have been so perfected and cheapened as 

 to be justified even from the standpoint of the utilitarian ; when 

 the conditions of success in breeding and rearing fish have been 

 so wel established and secured, that we may be sure that the 

 seed sown shall ripen to a productive harvest ; when insur- 

 mountable obstructions no longer bar our migratory fishes from 

 access to their spawning grounds or hinder the free circulation 

 of the resident species in ovir rivers ; when factories no longer 

 discharge their poisonous waste into our rivers, so that they may 

 flow from their mountain sources unpolluted to the sea; when 

 the modes and apparatus of fishing are so regulated and re- 

 strained by law as not to tax too severely natural resources for 

 recuperation and the permanent productiveness of the fisheries 

 is thus established — then the aggressive mission of this society 

 will have, in a measure, ended. 



It will still remain for us, by incessant watchfulness, vigilance 

 and surpervision, to conserve the important results which our 

 efforts will have accomplished. 



A GLANCE AT BILLINGSGATE. 



BY WILLIAM VAN ZANDT COX. 



The Thames being the highway to London and originally the 

 source of its fish supply, it was very natural that some point 

 upon it should become the center of the fish trade. Billingsgate 

 has for centuries been that point. As to the origin^of both name 

 and market there are many traditions. One is that Belin, an 

 ancient Britain ruler, who lived there three or four centuries 

 B. C. and was held in great reverence by the fisher folk, con- 

 structed a gate in the immediate proximity to the present mar- 

 ket and gave it his name. 



