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fisheries to any great extent, but merely to state, as he did 

 on a former occasion, that if herrings were caught in such 

 vast numbers as it was proposed to do by these machines 

 it must more or less affect all other fish inshore. The 

 herring was the principal food of a large class of fish, and 

 if they were destroyed to such an extent by these im- 

 proved machines and all the ingenuity which man could bring 

 to bear, not only would the herring be exterminated, but 

 it would very seriously affect the other fish which fed upon 

 them. He regretted very much to find that the system 

 pursued in Canada was now being taken hold of so readily 

 by gentlemen from Scotland for the destruction of these 

 poor innocent fish. These things were sent over merely to 

 illustrate the mode by which fish were sometimes caught 

 in Canada, and it was being taken hold of to exterminate, 

 to a greater extent than was now done, the class of fish 

 which in Canada they were desirous of protecting. The 

 herring of Canada was a different fish from the herring of 

 the sea ; it was a salmonoid very much superior to the herring 

 of the sea, and at one time existed in vast abundance in the 

 inland lakes of Canada. In some of those lakes there were 

 now no herrings left at all, and the consequence was there 

 were no salmon, no salmon trout, and none of the many 

 species of fish which feed on those herrings. If this could 

 be done in a short period of time in the great inland seas 

 of Canada, the same results would follow here if these de- 

 structive engines were adopted, and no protection given to 

 the fish. The food of the larger fish must not be destroyed 

 if they were to be retained. The Almighty had made all 

 things wisely ; He caused the herring to multiply beyond 

 almost any other fish, because it was fed upon more largely 

 than any other description, consequently the herring must 

 produce a greater number to keep up their kind, and if they 

 went on inventing engines, and using every effort to destroy 



