vi PRACTICAL METHODS OF INCREASING THE SUPPLY 143 



great care and attention, no one has succeeded in feeding and 

 keeping the fry or larvae alive for more than a few weeks, but it 

 seems possible that the difficulties will be overcome in the future 

 by keeping the fry in large enclosures supplied with suitable 

 food and pure water. At Plymouth plaice fry were found to 

 take both minute organisms obtained from the sea, and artificial 

 food in the form of minute particles of minced sea-worms. The 

 exact cause of their ultimate death was not evident. As to the 

 second point, the decrease in the supply appears to be largely 

 due to the diminution in the number of mature fish in the sea. 

 The hatchery may be regarded as a reserve of spawners, and 

 there is no reason except that of cost why thousands or even 

 millions of spawning fish should not be kept at suitable places 

 on the coast. The mere collection of fertilised spawn would 

 certainly be cheaper and less laborious than the hatching of the 

 eggs in ingenious and complicated apparatus. 



In connection with all measures for increasing the fish 

 supply the importance of reliable statistics becomes evident. 

 All who have had occasion to occupy themselves with these 

 questions have felt the inadequacy of the statistics hitherto 

 available. The Board of Trade furnishes tables which profess 

 to give the quantities of particular kinds of fish landed at 

 particular ports, and the total quantities landed on our coast. 

 But the difficulty is that we are not enabled by these tables to 

 compare the yield of given areas in different years, or the rela- 

 tion of the fish caught to the number, size, and character of 

 the fishing boats. A larger total yield generally means an 

 increased number of boats and a larger area exploited, and is 

 accompanied by a diminished supply from grounds which have 

 been long worked. It is obviously unsatisfactory to endeavour 

 by complicated administrative machinery to increase the fish 

 supply, without the power of ascertaining whether any result 

 has been produced, or how much result. It appears that the 

 only satisfactory method of investigating the fish supply is to 

 record the catch landed from every boat, and the region where 

 the catch was taken. It may be thought that this is impractic- 

 able, but a little consideration will show that it could be carried 

 out without much difficulty. There is a collector of statistics 

 at every fishing port at present, but he has no means of obtain- 

 ino- accurate and complete results. If every master of a boat 



