i8Si WORK AS FISHERY INSPECTOR 



modern notion that it was possible to stock the sea by artificial 

 methods. He w r rote to me, when the Fisheries Exhibition of 

 1883 was in contemplation, " You may have seen that we have 



a new Fish Culture Society. C talked gravely about our 



stocking the North Sea with cod ! After that I suppose we 

 shall take up herrings : and I mean to propose whales, which, 

 as all the world knows, are terribly over fished ! ' And after 

 the exhibition was over he wrote to me again, with reference 

 to a report which the Commission had asked me to draw up : "I 

 have just finished reading your report, which has given me a 

 world of satisfaction. ... I am particularly glad that you have 

 put in a word of warning to the fish culturists." * 



He was not, however, equally certain that particular areas of 

 Sea Shore might not be exhausted by our fishing. He extended 

 in 1883 an order which Mr. Buckland and I had made in 1879 

 for restricting the taking of crabs and lobsters on the coast of 

 Norfolk, and he wrote to me on that occasion : " I was at 

 Cromer and Sheringham last week, holding an enquiry for the 

 Board of Trade about the working of your order of 1879. Ac- 

 cording to all accounts, the crabs have multiplied threefold in 

 1881 and 1882. Whether this is post hoc or proptcr hoc is more 

 than I should like to say. But at any rate, this is a very good 

 prima facie case for continuing the order, and I shall report 

 accordingly. Anyhow, the conditions are very favourable for a 

 long-continued experiment in the effects of regulation, and, ten 

 years hence, there will be some means of judging of the value 

 of these restrictions." 



If, however, Professor Huxley was strongly opposed to un- 

 necessary interference w r ith the labours of sea fishermen, he 

 was well aware of the necessity of protecting migratory fish 

 like salmon, against over-fishing: and his reports for 1882 and 

 1883 in which he gave elaborate accounts of the results of 

 legislation on the Tyne and on the Severn show that he keenly 

 appreciated the necessity of regulating the Salmon Fisheries. 



It so happened that at the time of his appointment, many 

 of our important rivers were visited by " Saprolegnia ferax," 



* When I was asked to write the report on this Commission, I said 

 that I would do so if Sir E. Birkbeck, its chairman, and Professor 

 Huxley, both met me to discuss the points to be noticed. The meet- 

 ing duly took place ; and I opened it by asking what was the chief 

 lesson to be drawn from the exhibition? "Well," said Professor 

 Huxley, "the chief lesson to be drawn from the exhibition is that 

 London is in want of some open air amusement on summer evenings." 



