INTRODUCTION 17 



steamer could not prosper without the ironclad. In 

 reality these three elements are closely interdependent, 

 but for the convenience of study we must consider each 

 by itself. 



In this book I shall deal with maritime fisheries. 



By maritime fishery I mean the wholesale capture and 

 distribution of fish as a common food-stuff. I have 

 ignored all that concerns the capture or sale of edible 

 shell-fish and crustaceans, such as oysters, mussels, 

 lobsters, crayfish, and the industries of smoking, salting, 

 and drying, as also such by-products as fish guano, fish- 

 oil, isinglass, and fish-glue. We must begin at the 

 beginning, that is, with the catching of fish, and the sub- 

 ject is vast enough to demand the minutest inquiry. 



This book is not a treatise or text-book : by reading it 

 you will learn neither how to catch fish nor how to sell 

 them. I have endeavoured simply to produce a syste- 

 matic study of the subject, by choosing, from the limbo 

 of scattered material, those facts which are most im- 

 portant in the marine as in the economic domain. I 

 have endeavoured to write, to the best of my ability, for 

 the shipowner and the merchant, who, being absorbed in 

 their own affairs, have not always the leisure to collate 

 and digest the innumerable articles, books, and pamphlets 

 dealing with the question. I have also endeavoured to 

 write for the people who like to know something of 

 everything. My principal aim, however, has been to call 

 attention to the lamentable condition of our marine 

 fisheries, and to seek the most efficacious remedies, with 

 the aid of the persuasive examples of foreign countries. 



I must express my gratitude to Professor Marcel Dubois 

 for his inclusion of my book in his Bibliotheque des 

 A mis de la Marine. 



M. A. H. 

 2 



