293 



of man on the scene would have been an interference with 

 nature, but we are on the contrary assured that unaided 

 nature, unable to maintain the requisite balance, had to be 

 assisted by the fisherman, and then, and not until then, all 

 went well. 



Gulls and sea-birds which prey upon herrings are pro- 

 tected by law ; the young herrings have now no protection, 

 but are being consumed wholesale in our land, and no young 

 are being raised by man's artificial means to replace the de- 

 struction caused by man. Our inshore fisheries are being 

 depleted, is the assertion around our coasts ; and whether 

 this is due to absence of food or immoderate destruction 

 of immature fish has still to be ascertained by a judicious 

 investigation carried out as in the United States. Without 

 giving any opinion on the cause of this depletion, I would 

 suggest that instead of raising a cry against the price of 

 fish, a more probable road for inquiry would be into the 

 state of our sea fisheries, and whether by any, and, if so by 

 what, restrictions, or by what means, they can be restored 

 to their original abundance, and afford a cheap and whole- 

 some food to the teeming millions of these isles. 



DISCUSSION. 



Professor BROWN GOODE moved a vote of thanks to Dr. 

 Day for the very interesting and satisfactory paper he had 

 read, which he had no hesitation in saying was the most 

 philosophic and comprehensive treatise on the subject which 

 had yet been prepared. He had referred to the studies which 

 had been made in the United States on the food of fishes, and 

 on the circumstances which surround fish in their natural 

 homes. He might say from the beginning of the organiza- 

 tion of the United States Commission, ten years ago, no 



