5H 



NATURE 



[February 28, 19 r 



set forth on the co-ordination of engineering training 

 at the Conference of Engineers and Educational Asso- 

 ciations held at the Institution of Civil Engineers, 

 London, on October 25 last, with the object ot secur- 

 ing increased efficiency in the training of apprentice 

 engineers and a wider appreciation of the value in 

 industry of education of university rank. 



THE EXPLOITATION OF THE SEA- 

 FISHERIES. 



THE searfisheries as a source of food was the sub- 

 ject of an interesting series of letters published 

 by the Times between February 8 and 18. First of 

 all, Dr. W. S. Bruce directed attention to the abund- 

 ance of whales and seals in Antarctic seas, and in- 

 quired whether Lord Rhondda and " the National Ser- 

 vice" had sought advice about all this. Ought not 

 " canning factories and refrigerating vessels to be 

 started immediately in the. rich Antarctic whaling 

 grounds"? There are, he stated, whale meat there 

 whiclj "is better to eat and tastes better than beef"; 

 seals and penguins, also an additional meat supply; 

 and "millions and millions of new-laid penguin eggs, 

 larger and better than hen's eggs." Other corre- 

 spondents supported these remarks, but they did not 

 suggest where the canning factories and refrigerating 

 vessels were to be constructed, nor did they show that 

 it was sounder economics to send fishermen and large 

 vessels to high Antarctic latitudes rather than employ 

 men and small motor-driven vessels to obtain the fish 

 that is plentiful enough just now a few miles away 

 from our own shores. 



About the same time Lord Morris and others had an 

 interesting discussion at the Aldwych Club with refer- 

 ence to Newfoundland fisheries and other matters. 

 The remarkable quantities of plaice and soles existing 

 there were mentioned. Letters in the Times from 

 Dr. Shipley and Mr. C. Tate Regan rather dulled the 

 alluring picture, and cast doubts on the knowledge of 

 the speakers, by showing that there are no plaice or 

 soles in Newfoundland waters. Whether it is better 

 polipy to send men and vessels there after the war or 

 to employ them here was not discussed at the Aldwych 

 Club. Before the war British fishermen caught so 

 much sea-fish in British waters that about one-half 

 was exported. The remainder worked out as a 

 ration of about i| oz. a day for all persons above five 

 years old. Even then the fishing trades had to 

 organise a "fish as food" campaign to promote the 

 demand. 



To the same correspondence remarks were contri- 

 buted by Capt. Howell, (late) Director of Fisheries for 

 the Punjab, contrasting this country with the United 

 States. We fail because we do not do artificial fish 

 culture on the American scale — fish culture which has 

 been studied here and in Norway as intensely as it is 

 in the United States. Because of this lack of applica- 

 tion of science, we are told in the letter of Capt. 

 Howell to the Times that " dogfish have ousted plaice 

 as the staple fish of the English Channel." Also, our 

 Governments have lagged behind America in promot- 

 ing the study of "the pure science of marine biology." 

 America appropriates 8000Z. a year for that purpose; 

 had any British Government ever voted half that 

 amount? Capt. Howell apparently does net know 

 that, before the war, the Imperial Parliament gave 

 42,oooZ. a year to the scheme of international explora- 

 tion of the sea. 



Finally, Dr. J. T. Cunningham directed attention to 

 the failure of the Fish Food Committee to promote the 

 general use of pickled herrings as food — a matter about 

 which most people have heard a great deal during the 

 past few months. In further letters Mr. Cecil Harms- 



NO. 2522, VOL. 100] 



worth and Mr. Geo. M. Tabor gave an account of what 

 had been done in this way. Mr. Tabor points out that 

 the stocks are already nearly exhausted. (There were, 

 we believe, some 250,000 barrels of pickled herrings in 

 stock last Easter.) They were offered at "artificially 

 low prices," Mr. Tabor says. These prices were 

 (wholesale) : — 



Scottish pickled herrings, mean of 1904-13, 245. per 

 barrel; 1913, 365. per barrel; April, 1917, Hos. per 

 barrel; September, 1917, 655. per barrel; February 

 1918, 425.-485. per barrel. 



Mr. Tabor's own advertisement {Fish Trades 

 Gazette, February 16) points out that Scottish pickled 

 herrings can be bought for 485. per barrel and sold at 

 4<i. per lb., making a profit of 305. per barrel, while 

 Norwegian pickled herrings (bought in order to prevent 

 Germany from getting them, Mr. Tabor says) can be 

 had at 295. per barrel and sold at 3d. per lb., making a 

 profit of 205. per barrel. The controlled maximum 

 price for pickled herrings is 6d. per lb., and that is now 

 also the general minimum price. J. J- 



SEISMIC DISTURBANCES CONNECTED 

 WITH THE GUATEMALA EARTHQUAKE. 



T N view of the widespread destruction caused by the 

 ^ earthquake in Guatemala, the accompanying notes, 

 written by Dr. Crichton Mitchell, superintendent of 

 Eskdalemuir Observatory, are of interest. We are in- 

 debted to the Director of the Meteorological Office for 

 these notes, and are glad to be able to publish them. 



From December 25, 19 17, until January 4, 1918, a 

 number of seismic disturbances were recorded at Esk- 

 dalemuir Observatory by means of the Galitzin seismo- 

 graphs. Some of these were without doubt connected 

 with the disastrous earthquake in Guatemala. But 

 the epicentral distance, about 8500 kilometres, is so 

 •great that except in favourable circumstances it is 

 difficult to detect the primary and secondary waves 

 which form the preliminary phases and from which a 

 determination of epicentral distance is usually obtained. 

 It must also be remembered that the Galitzin instru- 

 ments are of such high sensitiveness that they record 

 microseismal movements and also local tremors due to 

 wind effects on the building. 



The following notes have been drawn up from the 

 seismograms for the period referred to above : — 



December 25, 1917. — From iih. 15m. until 2oh. wind 

 effects on the record make it impossible to say whether 

 there was any true seismic effect or not. Otherwise 

 there was no disturbance recorded. 



December 26, 1917. — After 5h. a faint disturbance 

 was recorded. Its maximum on the E.-W. instrument 

 occurred at 5h. 15m. 47s. ; its period was 19s., and the 

 amplitude was 15 /j.. These were lon^ waves due to 

 some distant earthquake, but no preliminary phases 

 were noticeable. Similar waves were recorded on the 

 E.-W. instrument from 6h. 4m. to 6h. 22m. 



Between 9h. and loh. the long-wave phase of a dis- 

 turbance, the preliminary phases of which were too 

 feeble to be identified, was recorded. The first notice- 

 able portion consisted of a slight impulse in a direc- 

 tion nearly from S.W. to N.E. at gh. 26m. iis. Fairly 

 well marked long waves began at 9h. 28m. 55s.. with 

 a period of i8s. and a maximum amplitude of io-6 /it 

 at gh. 29m. 28s. The end of this slight disturbance 

 came about 15m. afterwards. 



Another series of long waves of low amplitude 

 occurred from i4h. 5m. to i4h. 15m. 



December 27, 1917. — A slight disturbance with no 

 distinctly marked phases began at 7h. 52m., and lasted 

 until 8h. 8m. 



December 28, 1917. — A large disturbance was re- 



