FISHERY AND SCIENCE 161 



cal classes are held for the future managers and foremen 

 of preserving factories, factories of fish farina or fish oil, 

 smoking and curing establishments, &c. Most of the 

 European schools give a special diploma, without which 

 no one may command a fishing-vessel. In France the 

 question is under consideration. There is some talk of 

 establishing two diplomas, those of deep-sea master-fisher- 

 man and off-shore master-fisherman (patron dc peche au 

 large, patron de peche cotiere). 



" Rome is falling ; let us fly to the Fortunate Islands, 

 said the cynical Horace. M. Victor Guillard would seem 

 to have expounded this doctrine when he counselled the 

 fishermen of France to seek in the open sea the fish 

 that they failed to find upon the coast. But to gain the 

 open sea and return to port surely and speedily they 

 require some knowledge of navigation. The exploitation 

 of the new fishing-grounds discovered by the naturalists 

 is thus dependent upon a knowledge of navigation. 



M. Guillard's cruises of investigation on board the 

 Jeanne carry us back to a period twenty-three years ago. 

 The distinguished Director of the School of Fishery of 

 Groix proved long ago that there exist enormous quantities 

 of fish at the bottom on the belt of ooze which stretches, 

 at a distance of about 50 miles from the coast, between 

 Cobra Point and Point Race, and also on the sandy belt 

 which lies beyond the former. Soles, hake, gurnards, 

 and rays abound at depths of 60 to 70 fathoms. More- 

 over, he showed that upon the sandy zone, whose width 

 averages nearly 70 miles, there are the finest soles and 

 turbots. He also stated that at this distance the sea is 

 less rough than upon the coast, and far less rough than 

 the Channel or the entrance of the Gironde. The " New 

 Bank "for so he baptized this ocean bank is still 

 visited by trawlers to-day ; but less frequently than of 



11 



