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fully worked out, would furnish materials for volumes 

 instead of pages. I have been forced to restrict myself to 

 the consideration of a few carnivorous, omnivorous, and 

 vegetable feeders as typical of what takes place in the vast 

 community of the finny tribes. I have attempted to 

 demonstrate that inshore fisheries, as of the haddock and 

 its allies, may be depleted, owing to the destruction of the 

 food on which those fish subsist, and which may have little 

 or no connection with the food which is eaten by gregarious 

 kinds, as the mackerel and herring, which appear at 

 certain seasons off our shores in enormous numbers. It 

 cannot be too strongly impressed upon those who do not 

 personally search for their information in the homes of the 

 fish, that although in some points injuring one set of 

 fisheries may react upon another, still one class may be 

 depopulated while another is but slightly affected. To 

 argue that because large numbers of herring and mackerel 

 are brought to market therefore all our sea fisheries must 

 be in an eminently satisfactory state, is about as conclusive 

 as to suppose that because sea-birds are abundant no pro- 

 tection is necessary for those living on the land. 



While I cannot resist holding the belief that not only is 

 the destruction of certain forms of fish food possible by 

 man, I think it is proved that such occurs, thus starving 

 fisheries. The following instance may be adduced to show 

 how their food producers have become impoverished. In 

 some localities the mussel beds have been thrown open 

 without restriction to every comer, and at most of such 

 places this fish food has almost disappeared, in the 

 remainder it is hastening to decay. 



I am as averse to legislating upon fisheries without due 

 inquiry being instituted into all their conditions as any one 

 can be, but I cannot help thinking that one of the mem- 



