Sept 14, 1876] 



NATURE 



441 



sions, and especially on such as were contained in the Report of 

 a Commission the constitution of which was such as to inspire 

 the greatest respect, since men so eminent as Prof. Huxley and 

 Mr. Holdsworth were named in it. That Commission reported 

 in effect that there was nothing to be done with our sea-fisheries 

 but to leave things alone. I do not profess to quote the words 

 of the Report (which, indeed, I have not seen for a long time) ; 

 but in substance, I believe, it amounted to this : — That the 

 natural enemies to which fishes were exposed were so multitudi- 

 nous, so crafty, and so rapacious, that their destruction by man 

 was very slight in comparison, and that his interference might 

 be safely neglected in considering its consequences. Now it has 

 always seemed to me that the Commissioners on this occasion 

 suffered themselves to be deceived. Well aware of how little is 

 known as to the inditect effects of man's acts in regard to the 

 lower animals, and in their fear lest any unforeseen bad results 

 should follow from measures intended to be remedial, they re- 

 commended none at all. But I fail to discern that land or sea 

 makes any essential difference in the laws of life. The balance 

 of nature must be preserved as steadily in a dense as in a rare 

 fluid — in water as in air — or all will not go well. Whatever be 

 the weight in either scale, equipoise is as easily destroyed by an 

 ounce as by a ton. The marine fishes that are of such com- 

 mercial importance (cod, herrings, and the like) have naturally, 

 no doubt, enemies innumerable — dogfish, cormorants, porpoises, 

 and what not ; but we know that, owing to their fertility and 

 habits, the cod and herrings have continued till lately to contend 

 successfully with these drawbacks and to maintain their numbers. 

 It matters not if only one egg of the 10,000, or whatever be the 

 number in the roe of a herring, produces a fish that arrives at 

 maturity and escapes its natural enemies, so long as that one 

 fish is sufficient to supply the place of its parent. Now this, 

 according to the arrangement of nature, has hitherto been the 

 case. But if, instead of that fish living to propagate its kind, it 

 is cut off before its time by an enemy against whom nature has 

 made no provision, her balance is at once destroyed ; and the 

 oftener the operation is repeated the sooner will the numbers of 

 the species dwindle ; and the dwindling will go on in a rapidly 

 accelerated ratio. Therefore it seems that, so far from leaving 

 our sea-fisheries unrestricted, it is highly necessary to impose 

 some limitation upon them ; and, so far from dreading inter- 

 ference, our interference is at present so fatal that further inter- 

 ference of another kind is required as a counterbalance ; while 

 that counterbalance science only can apply. 



As much may be said for those other industries, in common 

 speech also called " fisheries" — the taking of oysters, crabs, and 

 lobsters, all of which have lately been diminishing in a still more 

 alarming degree. Here Parliament has wisely resolved to 

 interpose, though whether the manner of interposition is wise 

 seems to be a matter on which, as few naturalists have been con- 

 sulted, we had better reserve our opinion. 



Thus, without troubling you with many technical details, I 

 have striven to lay before you_a sketch of man's treatment of some 

 of his fellow- creatures, and of the effects which have sprung, or 

 certainly will spring, from it. There is probably hardly an 

 island on which he has set foot the fauna and flora of which has 

 not been in some degree influenced by his even temporary 

 presence ; there is assuredly not a continent, though a continent 

 takes longer to subdue : and his control does not stop at the 

 shore ; for, if what I have been advancing is true, the inhabitants 

 of the deep come also more or less under his dominion, I invite 

 you to contemplate whether it is always, or even generally, that of 

 a beneficent ruler. But it will, doubtless, be urged that this kind 

 of thing has gone on for ages — ever since life first existed on the 

 earth. I may be told, in the words of the great poet of the 

 country in which we now find ourselves — 



" Look abroad through Nature's range. 

 Nature's mighty law is change : 



»»*♦*«« 



Why then ask of silly man. 



To oppose great Nature's plan ? " 



I would answer from the same source that 



" " ' man, to whom alone is giv'n 

 A ray direct from pitying Heav'n," 



should by means of that ray not oppose nature, but rather 

 second her preservative measures. That ray is the ray of science. 

 We can only govern nature by obeying her, only by obeying her 

 can we assist her. To obey her laws we must know them ; what 

 can we know of them but what science teaches us? 



It may be said that I have taken too gloomy a view of this 

 matter of the extirpation of animals by man. I wish I could 



think so. But I believe that if we go to work in the right way 

 there is yet time to save many an otherwise expiring species. In 

 this country there is happily a strong disposition, which grows 

 stronger day by day, to preserve our wild animals. It is very 

 desirable that this feeling should not be limited to the British 

 Islands. If it is, as I maintain, a right feeling — a feeling sanc- 

 tioned alike by humanity, by science, and by our own material 

 interests — it cannot be too widely disseminated. But its propa- 

 gation must not be left to humanitarians and sentimentalists, 

 whose efforts are sure to be brought to nothing through ignorance 

 and excess of zeal, nor to economists, whose endeavours would 

 unquestionably fall short of what is required. The officiousness 

 of the one class and the slackness of the other must equally be 

 tempered by the naturalist. He can be trusted not to interfere 

 with the use, but with the abuse, of the animal world. Only to 

 do this he must place himself in the forefront of the movement ; 

 for he can submit to no other leader. He alone has, or should 

 have, that knowledge which gives the power of coping success- 

 fully with the difiicult questions that will arise ; and the advan- 

 tage it gives him he must not abstain from exercising. If, 

 without offence, I might here paraphrase some venerable words, 

 I would say that, according to the greatness of this power, we 

 must preserve those that are otherwise appointed to die. 



THE NOR WEGIAN A TL ANTIC EXPEDITION 1 



T N continuation ol my last notice, I may say that the Expedi- 

 tion stayed at Reikiavik from July 26 to Aug. 3. While 

 Capt. Wille made magnetical observations onshore, the majority 

 of the members of the expedition made a tour to Thingvalla, 

 where they had the pleasure of frilling in with an Englishman 

 coming from the north and bound for the Geysers ; we had a 

 very happy evening together. The remarkable geological struc- 

 ture of the country attracted much interest. The excursion party 

 returned July 30. Stormy weather prevailed during the whole 

 stay at Reikiavik, so that the coaling was much delayed, and 

 no magnetical observations could be made on shore. A small 

 leak in the boiler took up most of the last day to set it right, 

 and at last we got away on the evening of the 3rd. The season 

 was now so far gone that we were obliged to give up the idea of 

 exploring the sea between Iceland and Greenland, and we shaped 

 our course south of Iceland again, and then towards N.E., 

 running out a line of soundings which showed the transition from 

 the warmer Atlantic water at the bottom, to the ice-cold Arctic 

 water east of Iceland. During a dredging on the bank, between 

 Iceland and Faroe, on a hard, probably volcanic, bottom, the 

 line got fast on a rock, and it became necessary to break it ; we 

 thus lost a dredge and some hundred fathoms of dredging line. 

 From a point east of Iceland, the course was laid for Namsos, 

 and several deep sea stations were well explored on this line. 

 The depth at first increased from 1,000 fathoms to 1,500, and at 

 last to 1,800, the last being midway between Norway and 

 Iceland in lat. 64° 65'. The more easterly soundings gave a less 

 depth, the last of them being only 650 fathoms. The tempera- 

 ture at the bottom was always under 32° ; at 1,800 fathoms it 

 was 29°, corrected for the error of the thermometer, and for that 

 caused by pressure. The layer with 32° was found in about 200 

 fathoms east of Iceland, and in 300 or 400 fathoms further east. 

 It seems that the Faroe bank prevents the warm Atlantic water 

 from filUng up the upper layers of the northern seas to such a depth 

 on the north-east side of these islands, as it does in the interval 

 between this region and the cold sea east of Iceland. The nearer 

 Norway the warmer is th.i upper layer of the sea, not only on 

 the surface, but at the depths of 100 and 200 fathoms. 



The fauna of the Arctic deep sea seems to be very constant, 

 while it is not very rich ; the same specimens have been found 

 farther south in ice-cold water, but none of the large forms 

 found in ice-cold water near the coasts (were met with by us 2). 

 The bottom consists of mud, with innumerable specks of small 

 round calcareous shells. 



During the last cruise, the weather was constantly bad ; never- 

 theless, it has been possible to work the deep-sea apparatus even 

 in gales, and with a sea in which the ship went bowsprit under. 

 This result has been attained after successive experiments. The 

 last working day the dredge and trawl were sent out together, 

 the latter behind the former. The weather was stormy, the sea 

 very high, but the experiment was made, and the dredge came 

 well on board. After this result, we can now see no objection 

 to working all the deep-sea apparatus in any kind of summer 



' (^ontinued from p. 338. 



* Probable omission in original. 



