252 



fish are all completely extinct Against these facts no 

 argument is possible. 



Exactly the same thing takes place with trawling gear 

 plying nearer the shore. Thus the jdbega had spots 

 appointed to it along the coast, and after working for some 

 years completely denuded them of fish. The boliche had 

 to change its position for exactly the same reasons, like- 

 wise the boliche de rada which operates in small areas 

 where fish are brought for sale and to be salted. Even on 

 the coasts of those countries which have ground suitable for 

 this gear, the fish are so pursued that they do not remain 

 permanently, having no means to satisfy their necessities. 



It is not only this gear which operates injuriously on the 

 produce of the waters on the coast, but the use of poisonous 

 materials and explosive substances and stakes in the 

 embouchure of rivers, with many other things by which 

 man mars the spontaneous production of the finny tribes. 

 Two evils are attached to the use of explosives, the fish 

 caught by it die without distinction of size (it telling 

 with especial force on the young), and the noise frightens 

 those that escape alive. In poisoning the waters the fish 

 are of course deprived of the means of living in them, at 

 the same time that the dead ones are rendered unfit for 

 food, and repugnant to the public taste. With regard to 

 the damage done by stakes at the entrance to rivers it 

 must be remembered how many littoral species ascend to 

 spawn in the limpid bottoms whose fine sands aid them in 

 depositing their eggs, and afford facilities for impregnation 

 in these tranquil places, which would not occur in fre- 

 quented localities. It speaks nothing with respect to these 

 impediments to transit, that certain species live both in 

 fresh and salt water, since the wise English law on salmon 

 fisheries expressly prohibits them. The result of not having 



