1 8 BRITISH FISHERIES 



or not the existing methods of fishing did 

 permanent harm to the fishing grounds ; and 

 (3) whether or not the existing legislation was 

 necessary. In 1866 this body issued a report, 

 which is really a historical document of great 

 value. It contains, in 1500 pages, an exhaustive 

 summary of the condition of the British fisheries, 

 based on the personal examination of the methods 

 of fishing in use, and on the answers to 61,831 

 questions put to witnesses. It may be confidently 

 commended to the attention of the reader who is 

 conscientious (and courageous) enough to make a 

 first-hand examination of the literature relating to 

 the national fisheries. No such exhaustive report 

 has since appeared, and in none that I am aware 

 of are the conclusions deduced so courageous or 

 uncompromising. 



Even at the present day it is difficult to answer 

 the questions put to the Commissioners of 1863. 

 Accurate statistical information is still unobtainable 

 in most cases, and in 1863 this information hardly 

 existed. It was nevertheless possible to make a 

 rough estimate of the productivity of the British 

 fisheries. In England, the returns of fish carried 

 by the railway companies, and the current market 

 prices of fish, yielded data which, used critically, 

 convinced the Commissioners that the fisheries of 

 England, so far from being on the decline, were 

 increasing in value, and admitted of a still further 

 progressive increase. The state of affairs in 1863 



