1236 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



of nature. The enlightened manufacturer of Germany looks upon a well-paid 

 scientific investigator as a good investment. As a result of this policy the rest 

 of the world is looking on uneasily while its own industries pass into the hands 

 of this far-sighted competitor. Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries, 

 the great fishing nations of Europe, have long been leaders in the scientific 

 investigation of the sea. And in recent years we have witnessed the formation 

 of an international council, representing all of those nations having an imme- 

 diate interest in the fisheries of the North Sea, and organized for the study of 

 hydrographic and biological problems as well as of purely economic ones. To 

 Americans there should be no novelty in all this. Let us keep in mind the 

 oft-quoted words of the distinguished founder of our Fish Commission in 

 outlining the policy adopted by him: 



As the history of the fishes themselves would not be complete without a thorough 

 knowledge of their associaties in the sea, especially such as prey upon them or in turn 

 constitute their food, it was considered necessar\' to prosecute searching inquiries on 

 these points, especially as one supposed cause of the diminution of the fishes was the 

 alleged decrease or displacement of the objects upon which they subsist. 



Furthermore, it was thought likely that peculiarities in the temperature of the 

 water at different depths, its chemical constitution, the percentage of carbonic-acid gas 

 and of ordinary air, its currents, etc., might all bear an important part in the general 

 sum of influences upon the fisheries; and the inquiry, therefore, ultimately resolved 

 itself into an investigation of the chemical and physical character of the water and of 

 the natural history of its inhabitants, whether animal or vegetable. It was considered 

 expedient to omit nothing, however trivial or obscure, that might tend to throw light 

 upon the subject of inquiry, especially as without such exhaustive investigation it would 

 be impossible to determine what were the agencies which exercised the predominant 

 influences upon the economy of the fisheries. 



So that if we can not, from our present labors, offer any suggestions of 

 direct value to the practical fisherman, we trust that we have at least added to 

 the intelligent understanding of the marine life of our coast. And we likewise 

 trust that the ultimate benefit to the practical fisherman will be as great as that 

 to the man of science. 



