NATURE 



[November .3, 1904 



THE SALMON FISHERIES OF ENGLAND 

 AND WALES.' 

 'J'HIS report, although the first issued bv the Board of 

 Agriculture and Fisheries, is on the same lines as the 

 forty-three previous annual reports of the Inspectors of 

 Fisheries of England and Wales issued bv the Board of 

 Trade. It embodies the reports of the three Inspectors of 

 Fisheries of England and Wales, Messrs. Archer and Fryer 

 and Dr. Masterman. Besides these reports there are twe'lve 

 appendices. 



It is pleasing to learn from Mr. Archer's report that the 

 salmon and trout season of 1903 was on the whole a good 

 one. Mr. Archer refers to the long-standing difficulty of 

 getting accurate statistics, and has made inquiries of' the 

 various boards of conservators as to the possible methods 

 of obtaining them. The answers from these boards are not 

 encouraging, and it is apparent that legislation is necessary 

 in order to compel the recording of fish caught. 



As usual, the want of funds by the boards of con- 

 servators, and the impossibility of their carrying out their 

 proper work without such funds, is discussed. The present 

 system by which the boards derive their revenue solely 

 from the net and rod licences granted annually is obviously 

 inadequate, and Mr. Archer quotes a resolution adopted 

 unanimously by the Wye Board of Conservators, which is 

 as follows ; — 



"That as the present system, by which the income of 

 1-ishery Boards in England and Wales depends entirely 

 upon the amount realised from licences paid for nets and 

 rods, has proved inadequate for the proper protection of the 

 Fisheries, this Board is of opinion that legislation is urgently 

 required to enable any Fishery Board, with the consent and 

 subject to conditions formulated bv the Board of Agriculture 

 and Fisheries, to assess the annual value of all the Fisheries 

 in Its district and to levy a rate upon each Fishery for the 

 purpose of providing the Board with a sufficient income 

 for the proper protection and management of the Fisheries 

 in the district under its charge." 



We quote this, not because it is new, for the suggestion 

 that some form of assessment of fisheries was probably un- 

 avoidable was made by the Salmon Fisheries Commission 

 in their report in 1902, but because this move on the part 

 of the Wye Board is worthy of commendation, and seems to 

 us to be a move in the right direction. Too often our Royal 

 Commissions make valuable reports which are pigeon- 

 holed, and perhaps if the various boards of conservators 

 pass similar resolutions to that passed bv the Wve Board, 

 and thus show some common agreement in the matter it 

 will go some way towards making those in authority take 

 the matter up seriously. We have heard rumours of new 

 salnion legislation, and let us hope that the financial side 

 of the question will have full consideration. 



Mr. Archer discusses further evidence brought forward 

 by those who believe in the advantages of artificial pro- 

 pagation of salmon to show the success of the experiments 

 upon the Weser in Germany, and he shows quite clearly 

 that "not proven " must still be the verdict on the question 

 of their success. 



We are very glad to see from Mr. Fryer's report that 

 salmon-marking experiments, which have now been carried 

 on for some years in Scotland and Ireland and in Norway 

 have been undertaken in England. The percentage of 

 returns of marked salmon is not very high, and the more 

 the experiment is extended the better chance there is of 

 gathering data which will throw some light upon the 

 migratory habits of the species. 



At last steps are being taken to alter the anomalous 

 state of the law as to the English and Scottish sides of the 

 Solway, as recommended by the Royal Commission on 

 Tweed and Solway Fisheries, which sent in its report eight 

 years ago. 



There is a risum6 of the various local questions with 

 which Mr. Fryer has had to deal, and it is in reading this 

 that one sees the futility of our present fishery laws. While 

 inspectors or boards of conservators are corresponding with 

 this manufacturer or that company or corporation as to the 

 steps to be taken to mitigate some nuisance, the seasons slip 

 by and nothing is done, often because there is insufficient 

 1 Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. .Annual Report of Proceedings 

 under the Salmon and freshwater Fisheries .Acts, &c.. for the Vear ,903. 



NO. 1827, VOL. 71] 



power given under existing Acts to enforce those Acts being 

 carried out. 



Dr. Masterman, who was appointed only just before the 

 end of the period with which the reports are required to 

 deal, submits a short but interesting paper upon fish scales 

 and upon the method of distinguishing the species of 

 Salmonids. He refers to the W'ork so far done upon fish 

 scales as a means of recording the age of fishes, and in 

 this connection we are glad to learn that the salmon scale 

 is being studied at the present time by Mr. H. W. Johnston. 

 The salmon scale is particularly interesting, as a number 

 of rings — roughly about thirty — immediately surrounding 

 the nucleus of the scale, and occupying roughly about 

 05 mm. or 06 mm., are much finer, and are situated much 

 closer together, than the rings outside this area, perhaps 

 representing the fresh-water life period of the individual. 



We notice that the gross revenue returned during 1903 

 was 7504;., as against 6606Z. in 1902. There were more rod 

 licences issued than in any previous years since the com- 

 mencement of the statistics, although the revenue there- 

 from, amounting to 3294!., was not equal to that realised 

 in 1892, when it was 3386/. Revenue from nets was also 

 slightly better than in 1902, being 3994!. as against 3905!., 

 but in 1902 these licences realised less than in any year 

 since 1867, the first year of the statistics, when only 3851 J. 

 was obtained. 



Trout licences produced more in 1903 than in any previous 

 year. 



The report is published at His Majesty's Stationery Office, 

 and is obtainable from Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode, or 

 through any bookseller, price Sd. 



Frank Balfour Browne. 



THE ANATOMY OF CORALS.' 

 T^HE classification of corals based upon the structure of 

 the hard or skeletal parts alone, such as has been 

 used by zoologists in general since the publication of Milne- 

 Edw'ards and Haime's " Histoire Naturelle des Coralli- 

 aires " (1857-1860), is clearly not satisfactory. Some con- 

 sideration in the system of the general anatomy of the soft 

 tissues of the living coral polyps is clearly necessary if our 

 classification is intended to indicate at all the natural group- 

 ing of the genera and species. 



The startling discoveries made by Moseley during the 

 voyage of the Challenger, that the coral Heliopora and the 

 corals of the family Stylasteridse do not belong even to the 

 same order as the Madrepores, was an important, if not 

 the principal, stimulus to the investigations of the anatomy 

 of these zoophytes that have been published in recent years. 

 Moseley himself, and his pupils Bourne, Fowler, and 

 .Sclater, and abroad von Heider and von Koch, contributed 

 valuable memoirs on the anatomy of different species of 

 Madreporaria, and slowly but without any further startling 

 effects our knowledge grew. The result of these investi- 

 gations was to confirm the belief in the close relationship 

 of the Madrepores to the sea anemones, and to show that 

 in the structure of the mesenteries, tentacles, and other 

 organs there are differences between the genera of great 

 systematic importance. But still our knowledge remained 

 insufficient to suggest any permanent improvement on the 

 Edwardsian system. 



Some years ago Mr. Duerden, when stationed in the 

 island of Jamaica, commenced a series of investigations 

 upon the living corals of Kingston harbour and its neigh- 

 bourhood. He took advantage of his opportunities "for 

 observing them alive on the reef and in his aquarium : he 

 was equipped with a profound knowledge of the structure 

 of the Actiniaria and of the modern methods of anatomical 

 investigation. A series of papers and notes marked the 

 period of his residence in Jamaica ; but he reserved for 

 this magnificent memoir of 200 quarto pages a general and 

 detailed account of his work. 



To say that the memoir is brilliant is to express an 

 opinion, but to say that it is important is but to state a fact. 

 Zoologists who are interested in the structure of corals 

 must refer to this memoir as a great store of first-hand 



1 " \Ve5t Indian Madreporarian Polyps." By J. E. Duerden. Menmirs 

 of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. viii. (Washington, 1902.) 



