Bibliographical Notice. 421 



Board'8 decision. Especially is this the case where foreign craft can 

 come and trawl without let or hindrance — nay, dispose of their 

 catch in the British ports, while the native population, by law, are 

 only allowed to look on despairingly. 



Possibly the members of the Board may have been considerably 

 influenced by papers of their able scientific superintendent 

 Dr. T. Wemyss Fulton. In one * the ten years (1886-1895) experi- 

 ments are admirably summarized. From his point of view of the 

 statistical analysis a diminution, not increase, of the important 

 flat-fishes has occurred, which he suggests " may probably be 

 traced to the influence of beam-trawling in the open waters where 

 the fishes spawn." As to the round fishes he expresses doubts. 



Thus stands the question — one as interesting and instructive to 

 the biologist, as all-important alike to the fisherman, the merchant, 

 and the public generally. 



In Prof. M'Intosh's Preface the following remark sets us won- 

 dering. He says : " It was hoped that opportunities would have 

 been afforded for repeating in 1898, on the same dates and, as far 

 as possiblo, under the circumstances, the experiments of 1 881 ; 

 but the authorities did not appear to see either the way or the 

 importance of such an enterprise." We may express regret that 

 this crucial test was not applied. 



The author's opening chapter is framed in the wide aspect of 

 science. His keynote may be said to be the cycle of interdepen- 

 dence between the lowly plant and animal life in the sea and its 

 fish fauna. Add to this the surcharge of marine food, the enormous 

 fecundity of most food-fishes, their pelagic eggs scattered broadcast, 

 together with boundless regions unfished, which nevertheless supply 

 by replacement voids in the neighbouring areas where depletion may 

 have occurred. These and other reasons conduce to his belief that 

 the predicated utter ruin of our sea-fisheries is not yet. 



He contrasts man's destructive influence among certain groups of 

 animals on the land, in the air, and in the water. Nor does he 

 mince the fact that the once hordes of Ungulata &c., even families 

 of birds, are a fast diminishing quantity by human agency, though 

 he points out that some sections of Mammals and Aves hold their 

 own, whilst many Insecta defy extirpation. Concerning freshwater 

 fishes, a sure decrease results by over-fishing unless artificial measures 

 are resorted to. 



Except among seals, whales, and Sirenia, he holds that oceanic 

 life does not present the same chance of speedy extermination. He 

 brings forward the plenitude of the Plankton aliment, as regular as 

 the tides and as powerless to be arrested. As the Diatoms nourish 

 Foraminifera and Eadiolarians, so they in turn are the prey of 



* " Review of the Trawling Experiments of the ' Garland ' in the Firth 

 of Forth and St. Andrews Bay in the years 1886-95," 14th Ann. Rep. 

 Fish. Board Scotland, pp. 128-149, pis. i., ii. Consult also his papers, 

 " The Distribution of Immature Sea-Fish, and their Capture by various 

 Modes of Fishing," 8th Ann. Rep. F. B. S. for 18S9, and "On Over- 

 Fishing of the Sea and the Culture of Sea-Fish," 10th Rep. for 1891. 



