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vessels go to the codfishing at Iceland and the Faroe Islands, 

 where they fish with hand-lines. The fish caught here is 

 salted during the first part of the voyage, and the fish so 

 salted is generally sold to merchants in Shetland, who dry 

 it and export it to the Spanish, Scotch, and Irish markets. 

 During the latter part of this voyage they keep the best of 

 their catch alive, and bring this proportion home at the 

 close of their voyage. 



I mentioned in the early part of my remarks that the 

 French sent a considerable fleet to the Iceland fishery, and 

 I wish to draw attention to the fact that the French 

 Government send with this fishing fleet a corvette and 

 a gunboat, whose duty it is to superintend and assist, 

 and give prestige to their fishermen in those parts. Con- 

 sidering the number of British lives and the amount of 

 British property employed in the same direction I venture 

 to think that if our Government could be induced to send 

 one of their smaller vessels of war to this coast during the 

 fishing season it would be an act of service to British 

 interests. 



There is only one other point to which I beg to call your 

 attention. On the nearest banks and along the shore of the 

 east coast a large quantity of immature cod are caught, and 

 I firmly believe, notwithstanding what we have heard from 

 Professor Huxley on the subject, that this wholesale capture 

 of the young will sooner or later affect our supply of cod 

 on the home grounds. 



My proposal is, that a law similar to that which protects 

 the crab and the lobster should extend to all kinds of im- 

 mature fish so far as it is possible to carry it out, and as the 

 Board of Trade is very anxious to do something for the fish- 

 ing trade, I would very respectfully suggest that it should 

 take the young fish under its care, and establish one or 



