ESTUARY FISHING IN WESTERN rNDIA. 633 



an annual closed season and a weekly closed season ( " between the 

 hour of 1 2 of the clock at noon on Saturday and the hour of 6 

 of the clock on Monday morning"). 

 Thus the estuaries and rivers of the United Kingdom may be said to 

 have been protected by legislation, centuries ago. 



(6) It was little thoaght that the advance of civilization in the special 

 form of immensely destructive engines- a form which it is recog- 

 nized that civilization often has, unfortunately, a tendency to take 

 — would ever render it necessary for mankind to move in the in- 

 terest of the fisheries at sea. For, it must be recollected that, 

 except in the case of some species of deep-water sea fisli, the spawn 

 of almost all varieties, unlike those in the estuaries and rivers 

 of the world, float. Thus, it came to be considered— quite 

 rightly — and could be consideied at present as regards the sea fish- 

 eiies of India— quite rightly— that no special protective measures 

 were necessary. It was the introduction of the steam-trawler on 

 the coast of England and elsewhere that rapidly caused a revolu- 

 tion in the fishing industry which threatened to do enormous harm. 

 («) In 1883 Hull and Grimsby " included 20 steam and about 

 1,000 sailing trawlers " ; seven years later (1900) the 

 number of steamers had increased to no less than 869 while 

 the number of sailing trawlers had fallen to 4. 

 (6) The Encyclopedia Britannica contains, under the head "Fish- 

 eries," a most excellent article. The history of sea-fish legisla- 

 tion may be said to have started with a commission given to 

 Messrs. Buckland and Walpole in 1878 to "enquire into the 

 alleged destruction of the spawn and fry of sea fish, especially 

 by the use of the beam-trawl and ground seine", but it was the 

 Boyal Commission of 1883 which " resulted in the institution of 

 fishery statistics " for the United Kingdom. 



(c) In 1886 a Fishery Department of the Board of Trade was orga- 

 nized under the Salmon and Fresh-water Fisheries Act of that 

 year. 



(d) Practically the whole coast line of England and Wales has now 

 been divided into local fisheries districts, to which the Acts of 

 1888, 1891 or lb94 are made applicable, as local circumstances 

 require. 



(c) I have not been able to ascertain what the results of the Inter- 

 national Conference of Bepresentatives of North Sea Powers 

 at Christiania in 1901 (?) were. 

 The latter portion of the above khcrt historical reference to this subject is 

 included merely in order to try and show, that, even where the conditions, as 

 at sea, are so clearly and wonderfully favourable to uninterrupted propagation, 

 it was nevertheless found ultimately necessary, not only in the British Isles, but 



