FISHERY INVESTIGATIONS 337 



the Bay of St Andrews on the part of the head of the station, 

 and has sufficed to show how different was the true inter- 

 pretation of some of the results of experiments, especially 

 trawling experiments, carried on under Government auspices, 

 from the interpretations and conclusions published with 

 official sanction from time to time in recent years. Refer- 

 ence has already been made to the remarkable conclusion 

 published in the Scottish Fishery Board's Reports, by able 

 and high officials, where years were compared in which the 

 Government boat carried on experiments in the warm season 

 with those in which experiments were carried on in the cold 

 season, a course which rendered unreliable conclusions in- 

 evitable. All unbiassed observations, since the publication 

 of these results in 1896, have confirmed the view taken at 

 St Andrews based on accurate scientific observations, and 

 backed up by long practical experience of the fisheries of 

 the Scottish coast. 



In every country possessed of fisheries, the officials, charged 

 with responsible administration, have felt the need of accurate 

 conclusions based upon exact and unbiassed research. The 

 St Andrews researches have afforded such a basis, partially 

 at any rate, and it is generally recognised abroad that Lord 

 Reay expressed the truth when he said at St Andrews, 

 ' It is quite clear that no good can result from legis- 

 lation which does not take into account the results of 

 scientific enquiries which are prosecuted in this laboratory. 

 A glance at the papers published since 1884 shows,' His 

 Lordship added, ' how important their contents are for those 

 who wish to protect our fisheries. It is an indirect result, 

 but it increases our gratitude to those who have been absol- 

 utely disinterested in securing it.' None know better the 

 value of the St Andrews fishery investigations during the 

 last thirty years, it may be repeated, than those who have 

 the superintendence of great fishery resources and vast fishing 

 industries, such as those of Canada, or of the United States, 



2u 



