V THE INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION 207 



unwittingly encouraged by others. Legislation is 

 continually demanded, and has been from time to 

 time carried out, in reference to such matters as modes 

 and seasons of fishing and pollution of waters. But 

 it is undeniably true that, in most cases, the accurate 

 knowledge as to the life-history and circumstances of 

 fishes is too small to justify legislative interference. 

 No doubt zoologists have suggested some valuable 

 restrictions which have been adopted by the Legisla- 

 ture in regard to some fisheries, and it is to Linnaeus, 

 the great Swedish zoologist of the last century, that 

 Sweden owes important fishery laws. But if we are 

 to have effective legislation at the present day in 

 regard to our sea fisheries we must, before proceed- 

 ing any farther, have more knowledge. Those (and 

 there are many) who earnestly desire additional restric- 

 tive Fishery Laws should do their utmost to enable 

 zoologists to carry on researches which will provide 

 that accurate knowledge of fishes and shell-fish, their 

 food-reproduction and conditions of life which must be 

 obtained before legislation can reasonably be proposed. 

 The only mode of deciding between the conflict- 

 ing opinions which have so often been expressed 

 during this Congress, as to the necessity of this or 

 that legislative enactment, is by bringing new know- 

 ledge to bear upon the questions at issue. That new 

 knowledge is nothing more nor less than a part of 

 Zoological Science, and can only be obtained through 

 the exertions of those who are already acquainted 

 with the actual condition of that science, and with its 

 methods of minute and thorough investigation. 



