640 REPORT— 1882. 



IV. Brewers witli a free mash tun can make better beer more scientifically at 

 less cost; natural laws regulating production prevent adulteration. Maize and rice 

 are not adulterants, beer brewed from tliem being identical with, and as pure as 

 malt beer. If the duty was reduced to its old level, the public would get better 

 beer at less cost than at present. If farmers succeed in securing the protective 

 mash tun, the advantages to themselves will equal those they have gained by the 

 repeal of the malt tax, and the general community will lose more. 



4. The North Sea Fisheries. By 0. T. Olsen, F.B.A.S., F.E.G.S. 



The author, who has laboured among the fishermen of the North Sea for nearly 

 twenty years, clearly points out several very important facts in connection with 

 these fisheries. He describes by name forty different fishing-grounds, where all 

 kinds of marketable fish are caught. He also calls attention to a very extensive 

 oyster-ground nearly 200 miles in extent and from thirty to seventy miles in 

 breadth, containing inexhaustible oyster-beds, for which he recommends steam 

 trawlers or dredgers. Reference to the chart published by him will show the 

 situation of these fishing-grounds, and a very elaborate description of these banks is 

 given in his ' Fisherman's Seamanship.' 



With regard to the fish itself, where, when, and how caught, bait, food, when in 

 season, time of spawning, number of eggs, and the set of the tide in the North Sea, 

 this is graphically described in the Piscatorial Atlas, nearly ready for publication. 



The fishermen of the North Sea must be an intelligent class of men, with 

 a very clear conception of things pertaining to their trade, as their observa- 

 tions show, found in the log-book which Mr. Olsen, in conjunction with the 

 late Mr. Buckland, has sent out for the last three years. One fact may just 

 be mentioned as communicated by them. In one particular spot in the North 

 Sea they find fish more or less maimed or emaciated, and among them a very few 

 splendid healthy ones. Now this is their idea : the locality is the hospital, the 

 healthy fish are the nurses, and the flora found there a specific for their ailments, or 

 an asylum from pursuit, in accordance with what is known of land animals. A very 

 able description, regarding the depths of water and the nature of the bottom, fallowed, 

 over twenty different kinds of .soil being enumerated. Next, the author gave an 

 account of about fifty difl'erent kinds of marketable fish, caught by the trawl, and a 

 graphic history of this implement from its introduction to its present development. 

 Previous to railways the trawling trade was of very little importance, but the great 

 facility for the transport of fisli has contributed much to its present magnitude. 

 From open boats, of about ten tons, to modern smacks of from 80 to 100 tons, and 

 costing from 700/. to 1,500/., nay even some with refrigerators and screw trawlers, 

 costing up to 4,000/., is a great stride. 



The fi.shing fleet of the United Kingdom numbers about 40,000 ve.ssels, carrying 

 about 150,000 men, be.sides boys. Particular statistics are given in the Fisherman's 

 Almanac. 



These brave fishermen of the North Sea, the author stated, would be of invalu- 

 able service for coast defence, and by his scheme could be organised and kept in a 

 state of efficiency, even without cost to the State. 



From the foregoing it will be seen that the author has a threefold object in view, 

 viz., the feeding of the nation, assistance to science, and the defence of this country. 



SATURDAY, AUGUST 26. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. On Some Ivflwence^ affecting the Progress of our Shipping and Carry- 

 ing Trade. By Hyde Clarke, F.S.S. 



Taking the English tonnage engaged in the foreign trade at 0,000,000 tons in 1850, 

 and at 41,000,000 in 1880, he proceeded to consider what were the causes to which 



