VALUE OF FISHERIES 55 



ultimate welfare of the supply will deplete 

 the source, and eventually the quantity 

 will diminish in proportion to the amount 

 of injury which has been done. If each 

 country is agreed that the North Sea, 

 being an international waterway, is at the 

 disposal and for the welfare of all, there 

 is no reason why the fisheries should suffer, 

 no matter how much the ground is fished 

 nor how much mature fish is taken out. 

 The North Sea is a shallow bay ; tempera- 

 tures, currents, abundance of light on the 

 sea-meadows, and the inflow of so many 

 rivers, are all factors conducive to the 

 growth of enormous masses of the animal 

 and vegetable food on which these in- 

 calculable numbers of fishes found their 

 existence. These fish do not leave the 

 North Sea, for the surrounding Atlantic 

 is so deep that they cannot find existence 

 there. Consequently, if we take the North 

 Sea, bounded by the Channel on the south, 

 the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and the Lofotens 

 on the north, we have an enormous lake 

 of shallow water bounded by the adj acent 

 land and the precipitous descents into the 

 deep water of the Atlantic. If the neigh- 



