124 REPORT— 1876. 



from the earth. The Manatee and Dugoug have been recklessly killed off from 

 hundreds of localities wliere but a century or so since they abounded ; and with 

 them the stores of valuable oil that they furnished have been lost. That ver}' re- 

 markable Sireuian the huge JRJiytina ffiffas has become utterly extinct. The greed 

 of -whalers is believed to have had the same effect on a Cetacean (the Bahena 

 biscai/ensis) which was once the cause of a flourishing industry on the coasts of 

 France and Spain. The same greed has almost exterminated the flight Whale of 

 the northern seas, and is fast accomiilishing the same end in the case of Seals all 

 over the world. You are probably aware that an Act of Parliament, passed in the 

 session of 1875, was intended to put some check upon those bloody massacres that 

 annually take place on the floating ice of the Korlh Atlantic," to which these 

 creatures resort at the time of bringing forth their young, when 



"Sires, mothers, children iu one carnage lie." 



But, whether through oflicial indiflereuce, or what, I know not, the treaties with 

 foreign nations authorized by that Act were not completed ; and last spring, at the 

 solicitation of certain Aberdeen or Peterhead shipowners, the Board of Trado 

 allowed "one year more" of wholesale slaughter. Whatever other nations might 

 like to do, our hands at least should have been unstained ! It is admitted that iu 

 certain manufactures — that of jute, for instance — animal oil is absolutely necessary. 

 It is eas)^ to see that before long there will be very little animal oil forthcoming. " 



There is another Class of animals with whose well-b;^ing the interests of man 

 are largely connected. It cannot be denied that our Fisheries are year by year 

 subjected to an ever-increasing strain, through the rapidly increasing population of 

 these islands, and are giving unmistakable signs of being unable to bear it. But 

 it must be admitted that the consideration of their case is fraught with unusual 

 difliculties. Commissions, either Royal or Parliamentary, have been appointed 

 one after another to inquire into the facts and to seek a remedy, if one is to be 

 found, for the falling-off. It is with great diffidence that I venture to pass any 

 criticism on the recommendations made by those Commissions, and especially on 

 such as were contained in the lleport of a Commission the constitution of which 

 was such as to inspire the greatest respect, since men so eminent as Prof. Huxley 

 and Mr. Iloldsworth were named in it. That Commission reported in effect that 

 there was nothing to be done with our Sea-Fisheries but to leave things alone. I 

 do not profess to quote the words of the lieport (which, indeed, I have not seen 

 for a long time) ; but in substance, I believe, it amounted to this : — That the 

 natiu-al enemies to which Fishes were exposed were so multitudinous, so crafty, 

 and so rapacious, that their destruction b}' man was verj" slight in comparison, and 

 that his interference might be safely neglected iu considering its consequences. 

 Now it has always seemed to me that the Commissioners on this occasion sufl'ered 

 themselves to be deceived. Well aware of how little is known as to the indirect 

 effects of man's acts in regard to the lower animals, and in their fear lest any rm- 

 forseen bad results should follow from measures intended to be remedial, they re- 

 commended none at all. But I fail to discern that land or sea makes finj' essential 

 difference in the laws of life. The balance of Nature must be preserved as steadily 

 in a dense as in a rare fluid — in water as in air — or all will not go well. What- 

 ever be the weight in either scale, equipoise is as easily destroyed by an ounce as 

 by a ton. The marine Fishes that are of such commercial importance (Cod, Her- 

 rings, and the like) have naturallj-, no doubt, enemies innumerable — Dogfisb, Cor- 

 morants, Porpoises, and what not ; but we know that, owing to their fertility and 

 habits, the Cod and Herrings have continued till lately to contend successfully 

 v.'ith these drawbacks and to maintain their numbers. It matters not if only one 

 egg of the 10,G00, or whatever be the number in the roe of a Herring, produces a 

 flsh that arrives at maturity and escapes its natural enemies, so long as that one 

 fish is sufficient to supply the place of its parent. Now this, according to the 

 arrangement of Nature, has hitherto been the case. But if, instead of that fish 

 living to propagate its kind, it is cut off before its time hj an enemy against whom 

 Nature has made no provision, her balance is at once destroyed ; and the oftener 

 the operation is repeated the sooner will the numbers of the species dwindle; and 

 the dwindling will go on in a rapidly accelerated ratio. Therefore it seems that, 



