21 



rities who have addressed us at the Conference, viz., that 

 the stock of herrings in the sea, so far as man is concerned, 

 is practically inexhaustible. The opinion expressed by the 

 Playfair Commission in '62, by the Sea Fisheries Commis- 

 sion in '66, by the Herring Fisheries Commission in '78, is 

 confirmed by the exhaustive enquiries of the Duke of 

 Edinburgh, and by the ripe experience of Professor Huxley. 

 Although we cannot account for the mysterious movements 

 of the herring, causing the fluctuation which characterise 

 our fishery, it is at least some consolation to know on the 

 high authorities I have mentioned, that although advancing 

 civilisation may pollute our rivers and destroy our salmon, 

 we are still likely to enjoy our herring, as the inventive 

 genius of the age has failed to discover any means of de- 

 priving us of an ample supply of the most abundant and 

 nutritious food which the bounty of the ocean yields to the 

 labour of man. 



DISCUSSION. 



The CHAIRMAN said his honourable friend had treated 

 the subject as he had expected he would from the in- 

 telligent action which he had taken in Parliament in 

 promoting regulating but not restrictive laws, with regard 

 to sea fisheries. The only reason he presumed why he 

 found himself in the Chair on this occasion was, that in 

 1862 he was Chairman of the Royal Commission for 

 examining into the herring-fisheries of the British coast. 

 Why he, a Chemical Professor, should be found in that 

 position, he could never fully understand, especially as 

 there was on the Commission a man of European eminence, 

 and of the greatest authority on fisheries : though they both 



