176 



NA TURE 



[June 21, 1883 



more dramatic than another I have witnessed in an ever- 

 green forest of the Rocky Mountain region, where a tribe 

 was gathered under the great pines, and the temple of 

 light from the blazing fire was walled by the darkness of 

 midnight, and in the midst of the temple stood the wise 

 old man, telling in simple, savage language the story of 

 Ta-w&ts, when he conquered the sun and established the 

 seasons and the diys. In that pre-Columbian time, 

 before the advent of white men, all the Indian tribes of 

 North America gathered on winter nights by the shores 

 of the seas, where the tides beat in solemn rhythm, by the 

 shores of the great lakes, where the waves dashed against 

 frozen beaches, and by the banks of the rivers flowing ever 

 in solemn mystery — each in its own temple of illumined 

 space — and listened to the story of its own supreme gods, 

 the ancients of time " (p. 40). 



A detailed notice of the other more important papers 

 in this volume must be reserved for a future occasion. 



A. H. Keane 



THE FISHERIES EXHIBITION 



WE are gratified to see the very thorough way in 

 which the management of the Fisheries Exhibi- 

 tion are endeavouring to carry out their plans. It is 

 evident that the scientific aspects of the wide and 

 important subject will have a fair amount of atten- 

 tion ; and we are glad to think that in this direc- 

 tion advice has been sought in the right quarter. 

 In the Exhibition itself those interested in the science 

 of the subject will find much to attract them. Last 

 week (p. 156 we gave a list of subjects which have 

 been settled for conferences, and among those who have 

 consented to read papers, we find such names as Professor 

 Huxley on Fish Diseases, Professor Ray Lankester on the 

 Scientific Results of the Exhibition, Professor Brown 

 Goode on the Fisheries of the United States, Professor 

 Hubrecht on Oyster Culture and Fisheries, Sir Henry 

 Thompson on Fish as Food, Dr. F. Day on the Food of 

 Fishes, Mr. R. H. Scott on Storm Warnings. Further, 

 we are glad to see that a series of handbooks has been 

 arranged for on subjects cognate to the Exhibition. 

 Among them are a few by men of scientific standing, and 

 likely to be of real scientific importance ; we hope it may 

 not yet be too late to secure the preparation of a few 

 more handbooks or reports of a similar character. Among 

 the handbooks arranged for, six will be published this 

 month, and the remainder in July. Those of special 

 interest to science are, " The Life History of Fishes," by 

 Prof. H. N. Moseley ; "Fish Culture" and ''Indian 

 F'ish and Fishing," by Dr. Francis Day ; " Food Fishes," 

 by Mr. G. B. Howes ; " Marine and Freshwater Fishes of 

 the British Isles," by Mr. Saville Kent ; " Curious Sea 

 Creatures," by Mr. Henry Lee. 



The conferences were introduced on Monday by an 

 interesting lecture by Prof. Huxley, a report of which we 

 give below, and this was followed on Tuesday by a care- 

 fully prepared paper by the Duke of Edinburgh, on 

 British Fisheries and Fishermen, read by the Prince of 

 Wales. The real interest which the leading members 

 of the Royal family take in the Exhibition has no doubt 

 done much to contribute to its success. It was to be ex- 

 pected that the German Ambassador would show his 

 appreciation of the importance of science to an industry 

 of such magnitude as that of fishing, and he aptly pointed 

 out how important was the didactic and scientific work at 

 last commenced. 



With the general concurrence of opinion in high quarters 

 as to the value of the scientific aspects of the Exhibition, 

 and of the great services which science may render in 

 bringing about the practical obje ts which are aimed at, 

 we of course heartily concur. It is admitted on all hands 

 that the haphazard way in which our fisheries have 

 hitherto been carried on has led to the worst results, the 



extinction almost of some important fishes and mollusks, 

 the bid condition of others, and the dearness of what 

 might be the cheapest and mo^t plentiful of foods. In 

 recent years science has done something to remedy this 

 state of things, and it will be well for our fisheries, and 

 therefore for the welfare of a large portion of our popu- 

 lation, if the Fisheries Exhibition leads to still more being 

 done in this direction. So far the Exhibition has been an 

 immense success ; half a million of people have already- 

 visited it, and thus the educational results are likely to 

 be widespread. 



Prof. Huxley, in opening the proceedings, said: — 



It is doubtful whether any branch of industry can lay claim 

 to greater antiquity than that of fishery. The origin would seem 

 to be coeval with the earliest efforts of human ingenuity ; for 

 the oldest monuments of antiquity show us the fisherman in full 

 possession of the implements of his calling; and even those 

 tribes of savages who have reached neither the pastoral nor the 

 agricultural stages of civilisation are skilled in the fabrication 

 and in the use of the hook, the fish-spear, and the net. Nor is 

 it easy to exaggerate the influence which the industry thus early 

 practised and brought to a considerable degree of perfection has 

 directly and indirectly exerted upon the destinies of mankind, 

 and especially upon those of the nations of Europe. In our 

 quarter of the globe, at any rate, fishery has been the foster- 

 mother of n ivigation and commerce, the disseminator of the 

 germs of civilisation. Having glanced at the development of 

 the industries connected with fishing, more especially by the 

 Phoenicians, he continued : — These few remarks must suffice to 

 indicate the wide field of interesting research which fisheries 

 i. tier to the philosophical historian, and I pass on to speak of the 

 fisheries from the point of view of our present practical interests. 

 The supply of food is, in the long run, the chief of these inte- 

 rests. Every nation has its anxiety on this score, but the ques- 

 tion presses most heavily on those who, like ourselves, are 

 constantly and rapidly adding to the population of a limited 

 area, and who require more food than that area can possibly 

 supply. Under these circumstances, it is satisfactory to reflect 

 that the sea which shuts us in at the same time opens up to us 

 supplies of food of almost unlimited extent. In reference to 

 the relation which the fisheries bore to the total supply of food 

 of th ise who had easy access to the sea, be quoted the following 

 paragraph from the Report ot the Fisheries Commissioners, 

 1866 : — " The produce of the sea around our coasts bears a far 

 higher proportion to that of ihe land than is generally imagined. 

 The most frequented fishing-grounds are much more prolific 

 of food than the same extent of the richest land. Once in a 

 year an acre of good land, carefully tilled, produces a ton of 

 corn or two or three hundredweight of meat or cheese. The 

 same area at the bottom of the s^a in the best fishing-grounds 

 yields a greater weight of food to the persevering fisherman 

 every week in th year. Five vessels belonging to the same 

 source in a single night's fishing brought in seventeen tons' 

 weight of fish, an amount of wholesome fo (1 equal in weight to 

 that of fifty cattle or 300 sheep. The ground which these vessels 

 covered during the night's fishing could not have exceeded an 

 area of fifty acres." My colleagues and I made this statement a 

 good many years ago. I have recently tried to discover what yield 

 may be expected, not from the best natural fishing-grounds, 

 but from piscicultural operations. At Con. acchm, close to the 

 embouchure of the Po in the Adriatic, there is a great shallow 

 lagoon which covers some 70,000 aces, and in which pisciculture 

 has been practised in a very ingenious manner for many centuries. 

 The fish cultivated are eels, gray mullet, atherines, and soles ; 

 and, according to the figures given by M. Coste, the average 

 yield for the sixteen years from 1798 to 1813 amounted to 5 cwt. 

 per acre — tbat is to say, double the weight of chee e or meat which 

 could have been obtained from the same area of good pasture land 

 in the same time. Thus the seas around us are not only im- 

 portant sources of food, but they may be made still more 

 important by the artificial development of their resources. 

 But this Exhibition has brought another possibility within the 

 range of practically interesting questions. A short time ago a 

 visitor to the market night have seen fresh trout from New- 

 Zealand lying side by side with fresh salmon from Scandinavia 

 and from the lakes and rivers of North America. Steam and 

 refrigerating apparatus combined have made it possible for 

 us to draw upon the whole world for our supplies of fresh fish. 

 In my boyhood "Newcastle" was the furthest source of the 



