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LEGISLATION. 



IT has been shown on all sides that if the abuses practised 

 in fisheries be not substantially ameliorated the fish will 

 either be frightened away, or abandon the stations, which 

 amounts to the same thing, since it matters little to a 

 country that the normal reproduction is kept up, if they are 

 not available for food. 



Hence the necessity of remedial measures for the 

 existing evils. But what shall these measures be ? That 

 is the question we must answer, a question too complex to 

 be defined, since it depends on a multitude of contradictory 

 elements. The natural condition of the waters, the diver- 

 sity of creatures sought out from it, the differences in the 

 life and habits of those creatures, and the obstacle which 

 the element they live in presents to a study of those 

 habits, have allowed very few persons to study ichthy- 

 ology : whilst the inhabitants of a country, their social 

 condition and fundamental laws, and lastly the free con- 

 currence of individuals in a common ground of action, are 

 among the many elements which complicate the solution of 

 the problem. 



The principle for fishery legislation on a sound basis is a 

 very simple one, and merely consists in the establishment 

 of equilibrium between the spontaneous production of the 

 waters and that which is drawn out of them. But the 

 carrying out of this principle and making the regulations to 

 meet it doubtless present a multitude of insuperable 

 difficulties. 



An absolutely restrictive system and one which would cut 

 at the root of those inveterate abuses sanctioned by con- 

 stant practice and of old date, however well considered and 

 reasonable it may be, will inevitably meet with an opposition 



