( 93 ) 



in pearl-fishing lias been advocated, but this would lead to 

 an exhaustion of the banks by reckless fishing. The har- 

 vest of cinchona in South America, and that of teak timber 

 in the Malabar forests, are known to have been injured by a 

 greedy eagerness to bring as much to the market as possible, 

 to kill the goose that lays the golden egg/' It may be asked 

 is the use of fry as manure ( p. cxxxvii) a free industry ? 

 If the man who makes two grains of wheat grow where only 

 one was previously raised is a benefactor to his race, in what 

 position are we to place that individual in India, who, aware 

 how fish can be substituted for grain, not only connives at 

 but argues that its wasteful destruction should be freely per- 

 mitted ? Surely waste, when it is not wilful, is as a rule 

 the offspring of ignorance or prejudice, much as developing 

 the resources of an Empire ought to be the natural conse- 

 quence of matured investigations and conclusions based 

 upon careful scientific enquiries. 



XCIV. The result of fishing without regulations has 

 Result of fishing without re- generally been found to be destruc- 

 guiations elsewhere. tive to fresh-water fisheries, so much 



so that in Great Britain and elsewhere most stringent rules 

 are enforced for their protection, as liberty unrestrained 

 eventuates in license, which last degenerates into destructive 

 waste. M. Soubeiran, in an excellent paper on this subject, 

 remarks that, although normally the fresh-waters of the 

 United States contain a large number of excellent fish, they 

 have for many years lost their old fertility, greatly due to 

 the erection of weirs, mill-dams and other obstacles that have 

 been constructed for the purpose of facilitating navigation 

 or manufactures. The chief cause of depopulation he holds 

 to be the very common employment of fixed engines, which 

 but too well fulfil their purpose. The salmon have almost 

 disappeared, and all-destructive man, in his greed, has 

 succeeded but too surely in depopulating the waters. Now, 

 the different States have officers whose duty it is to re- stock 

 the rivers. In Canada, the same decrease is observed, due 

 to the same cause. In Nova Scotia, Mr. Knight in 1867 

 observed of the Driver fisheries, that one can without exag- 

 geration compare them to the mines of Golconda, so far that 

 man has at his disposal an inexhaustible wealth, on the 

 sole condition of following the laws of Nature. Instead 

 of this, obstructions have been erected, destructive im- 

 plements of capture brought into use, and the fisheries 

 allowed no rest. Now, depopulation of those waters has 



