39 



forward any alternative scheme. He did not think it was 

 possible for man to destroy the fish in the sea. That point 

 was very shortly and ably put in a lecture which Professor 

 Huxley gave at Norwich. He said there were a number 

 of enemies of the herring : the cod fish, birds, and everything 

 else we have heard of, and if man took so many herrings 

 out of the sea, it was a sort of co-operative society, those 

 others herring fisheries getting so much less ; but as for 

 any idea of destroying deep sea fisheries, from the know- 

 ledge we possessed he was diametrically opposed to the 

 opinion expressed by Dr. Day and some other gentlemen, 

 and he believed that more investigation would only show 

 that it was absolutely impossible. Still, he admitted it was 

 a subject which ought to be discussed, and he was glad to 

 hear their opinion upon it. He did not think it was pos- 

 sible to supply the markets now by simple inshore fishing, 

 and while he admitted that to some extent those fisheries 

 might be injured, much more harm was done to fisheries 

 in general by trying to protect them, than any good which 

 might be supposed to be effected by increasing the inshore 

 fisheries. It was true that restrictive legislation had not 

 been put in force in all cases, but both the chairman and 

 himself had alluded to the very great mischief which was 

 done on the west coast of Scotland, for the population of 

 the western islands were reduced almost to starvation by 

 laws which did absolutely no good to the fisheries. The 

 Executive Committee would pay every attention to the 

 suggestion made by Mr. Johnson with reference to bringing 

 the matters he mentioned more fully before the public. 

 In conclusion, he begged to propose a vote of thanks to 

 the Chairman, who, he was glad to think, as a scientific 

 authority, as well as a man of practical knowledge, entirely 

 agreed with him on the controverted question which had 

 been raised. 



