CONFERENCE ON THURSDAY, JULY 12, 1883. 



Prof. HUXLEY, P.R.S., in the Chair. 



THE FOOD OF FISHES. 



IN compliance with a request from the Committee to com- 

 municate a Paper on the Food of Fishes to the Fisheries 

 Conference, I have thrown together a few notes upon this 

 vast and interesting but complicated subject. For when 

 one commences to investigate this question, it is found to 

 branch off into many directions, and the inquirer has to 

 consider the locality where the fish reside, whether marine, 

 estuary, or in the fresh waters, as well as the description of 

 the food on which it exists. And as researches are pushed 

 further, it is found necessary to institute an exhaustive 

 inquiry, not only into the nutriment made use of by each of 

 these various classes of fishes, but likewise into what is 

 necessary for the young in their different stages of growth, 

 and in the same fish as it attains maturity. 



When the description of food most suitable to each kind 

 has been discovered, it becomes desirable to ascertain 

 what influences there are which tend towards the de- 

 velopment of this food or else injuriously affect either its 

 abundance, growth, or distribution. Some valuable forms 

 of fish depend for their subsistence on food which may be 



