CONCLUSION 



THIS book is at once statistical and critical. 



It is statistical because it gives the essential facts con- 

 cerning a number of subjects ; and it asks questions 

 which it does not answer. I have taken care never to 

 divorce the fish from its natural surroundings, and as a 

 basis for the industry of ocean fishery I have given the 

 always exacter knowledge and the more deliberate and 

 thoughtful methods of the fishermen of the coast. The 

 duty of science is to advise, not to direct ; but it must 

 also listen. 



This book is also critical, and indeed should be so. 

 It is impossible to write a history of French fisheries 

 without making a survey of the fisheries of other 

 countries ; and as the comparison is not to the advantage 

 of France, it is inevitable that bitter reflections should 

 occur to us. There is no clear-sighted patriot who does 

 not denounce * the tariffs which oppress the merchant 

 marine of France. I am aware that sceptics have made 

 it the fashion to laugh at such prophets of evil ; but such 

 laughter is the sign of a barren mind. 



It will be enough to develop this preamble in a few 

 words to show the sequence of the ideas which are 

 embodied in the book as a whole. 



The sea is inexhaustible, and there can never be a 



1 No one has done so more powerfully than M. Marcel Dubois in 

 his excellent book, La Crise maritime. 



345 



