No. 4.] THE HARVEST OF THE SEA. 137 



6. That trawling in the open sea is not shown to be a waste- 

 fully destructive mode of fishing, but the contrary. 



7. That any legislative restriction upon trawling in the open 

 sea would result in a very great decrease in the supply of fish. 



The Scarcity of Fish. 



This talk about the scarcity of fish is not new. It has 

 been ooino- on from time immemorial. 



Mr. Spencer Walpole reminds us of the good Bishop of 

 St. David's, who was burned at Carmarthen for heresy in the 

 reign of Mary., and who affirmed the opinion that the scarc- 

 ity of herrings in his time was due to the covetousness of 

 fishers, who in time of plenty took so many that they 

 destroyed the breeders. This was three hundred and thirty 

 years ago, and it is doubtful whether more than one herring 

 was taken then for every ten thousand now. 



Another bishop, at the commencement of the last cen- 

 tury, strongly impressed with the approaching destruction 

 of the herring fishery, directed a special prayer to be ofiered 

 in every church of his diocese for its restoration and con- 

 tinuance. This prayer is still read every Sunday in the 

 Isle of Man. 



Again and again since that time the same cry has been 

 raised. " In the year," says Mr. Walpole, " that our queen 

 ascended the throne, I found a petition which had been pre- 

 sented to Parliament, that the fishermen of Ireland, Scotland 

 and Holland had found out the breeding-places of the herring, 

 and that since the discovery was made the fish throughout 

 the west and north of Scotland had annually decreased. . . . 

 It is a striking fact, that, at the very time this petition was 

 presented, the herring fishery was increasing year by year, 

 and its yield now is more than four times what it was at 

 that time." 



It reminds one of the prophecy which we now occasionally 

 hear, and which was frequently heard by our ancestors, that 

 the world was certainly to end within the next hundred years. 



After alluding to the recent scarcity of soles, in 1882, 

 Mr. AValpole tells the story of a fisherman who forty-five 

 years ago landed at Scar])orough with a single pair of soles, 

 which he displayed on the pier, solemnly shaking his head 



