HYDROGRAPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS 217 



the results, even if only a little, to a desire to 

 reach an end more quickly." 1 



The international organisation has been severely, 

 and perhaps rather unfairly, criticised in this 

 country. Two main charges have been made 

 against its methods and aims. It has been 

 thought by some British naturalists that far too 

 much attention was devoted to hydrographical 

 observations, "which have not in any way ex- 

 plained the problems associated with the fisheries,'' 2 

 and too little to general fisheries questions of a 

 biological nature. Now, while the exact value 

 of hydrographic research, as far as " practical " 

 fisheries problems are concerned, may, in the 

 present state of our knowledge, be a matter of 

 opinion, there is no doubt that it is a priori 

 extremely probable that an exact knowledge of 

 meteorological and hydrographical events in the 

 sea is of fundamental importance to the fishery 

 investigator. There are, it is true, few actual 

 proofs so far of the precise relationship between 

 physical changes in the sea, and changes in the 

 productivity of the fishing grounds. I have, 

 however, quoted one such instance in the relation- 

 ship between the temperature of the sea and the 



1 Rapports et Proces-verbaux, Conseil Permanent International pour 

 V Exploration de la Mer> vol. i., Copenhague, 1903. This book 

 gives a very complete (and, of course, an official) statement of the 

 formation of the international organisation, and a full account of the 

 work contemplated. 



2 M'lntosh, Evidence^ Ichthyological Committee, 1903, Q. 1217. 



