686 MISCELLANEOUS 



very decided opinion. They reported that the supply of fish gener- 

 ally had largely increased, that the methods of fishing involved no 

 waste of young fish that could be prevented without interfering with 

 the general fisheries, that spawn was not destroyed by the nets, and 

 that all fishery restrictions should be removed except such as were 

 desirable for protecting and keeping order among the fishermen. 

 The recommedations of the commissioners were embodied in an Act 

 of Parliament known as The Sea Fisheries Act 1868, by which, with 

 one or two small exceptions relating to herring fishing on the west 

 coast of Scotland, previous Fishery Acts were repealed, and fresh 

 regulations made having reference to the registration of fishing boats, 

 keeping order among drift-fishermen and beam-trawlers, and pro- 

 viding a close time for oysters in the English Channel. The main 

 object of the Act was to carry out a convention between the British 

 Islands and France, for the better ordering of the fisheries in the seas 

 adjoining the two countries. The Act came into force in England 

 on the 1st of February 1869, but circumstances have hitherto pre- 

 vented any date being fixed for canning out the convention on the 

 part of the French. Great advantage has undoubtedly been gained 

 by British fishermen from the substitution of the present simple 

 fishery regulations for the numerous Acts previously existing, many 

 of which had long been obsolete; but the Royal Commission, which 

 was issued virtually to inquire into the alleged destruction of fish 

 spawn on the ground by beam-trawlers, would probably have never 

 come into existence had the facts then been known which have since 

 come to light about the spawning habits of most of our edible fishes. 

 These facts are so important that a short notice of them may be given 

 here. 



Fishermen are in the habit of asserting with perfect confidence 

 that fishes of almost every kind they are accustomed to catch have 

 certain grounds which they frequent at particular seasons for the 

 purpose of depositing their ova. The herring is known to spawn on 

 the ground at all events the spawn is found there in irregularly 

 shaped lumps adhering to the bottom. It has therefore been con- 

 cluded that all kinds of fishes have the same habits in this respect. 

 Yet no one has been able to speak positively of having ever seen any 

 fish spawn taken from the ground except that of herring. Various 

 soft and gelatinous substances are brought on shore by the sea nets, 

 and commonly go by the name of spawn among the inshore fishermen ; 

 but that they are not fish spawn is perfectly well known to any one 

 who has given attention to the variety of curious animal organisms 

 inhabiting the sea. 



It was stated by Professors Huxley and Allman in 1867, before 

 the select committee of the House of Commons on the Sea Coast 

 Fisheries (Ireland) Bill, as within their personal knowledge, the 

 fish ova had been found floating at the surface of the sea, and that 

 the ova they had met with were in all cases alive, and some of them 

 in an advanced state of development. Reference was at the same 

 time made to the observations then recently recorded by Norwegian 

 naturalists on the spawning habits of the common cod, leading to 

 the belief that spawning at the surface was by no means uncommon 

 with our sea fishes. These investigations have been systematically 

 carried on during the last ten years, under the direction of the 

 Swedish Government, by Professor G. O. Sars of the university of 



