144 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 



be eliminated from the essential, primary, normal 

 factors. While time advances in an arithmetical 

 progression so does the value of our results increase 

 in a geometrical ratio. Over and over again has 

 legislation been suggested on an erroneous estimate 

 of causes, and the story of the fishery legislation of 

 the country is the story of a house built on sand.] 



In attempting to give a short resume of the 

 work the Association has accomplished, for the 

 sake of clearness, and because it has furnished 

 the problems of most pressing importance, I will 

 confine my remarks chiefly to the plaice. What 

 the sole is to the wealthy the plaice is to the 

 poor. The fried-fish shops of our meaner streets 

 supply little but plaice. The fish-eating poor 

 will have it, and so exacting are they that if 

 there be an absence of plaice on the market 

 the fish-frier will buy more expensive, and what 

 we think finer fish, such as turbot, but what 

 goes into the back of the shop as turbot is sold 

 over the counter as plaice. 



During the last four years much hard work has 

 been devoted to tracing the life-history and the 

 distribution of this species throughout the North 

 Sea, and I think the following important facts 

 may claim to be, in the main, correct : 



