SoLWAV Nature Notes. 165 



the most obvious, and possibly the greatest, is the continual 

 shifting- of the sand. This rnig-ht put certain areas out of the 

 question, but very large areas would be left to be dealt with. 



I should very much like to see the experiment tried of the 

 cultivation of a selected area of sea bottom. 



My idea would be to start with quite a small piece, say, 

 an acre. This would have to be carefully chosen. I would 

 first make it into a cockle bed. Next I would drive stakes 

 in in a carefully thought-out pattern, leaving these to project, 

 say, two feet above the sand. On these I would grow 

 mussels. These two species of shellfish would provide a 

 return for labour, but their cultivation would mean the 

 gathering together of countless minute marine creatures on 

 which fish feed, the growth of algce and weeds, &c. The 

 result would be a drawing together of fish which would other- 

 wise never have been there. I should have arranged my 

 stakes so that periodically the enclosure could be made into 

 a fish trap. All this is a dream maybe, but so many of the 

 things we have accomplished in fresh water ha^e been dreams 

 that it would be no discouragement to have it so labelled by 

 the incredulous. I would extend operations when definite 

 knowledge of the best forms of fish food had been ascertained, 

 and cultivate these. In fact, I would draw from the bound- 

 less store of the sea creatures of value to man, as surely as 

 one may draw together the game on the land by providing a 

 suitable environment and a good food supply. 



There are endless possibilities in such an undertaking, 

 but its beginning would never recompense private enterprise. 

 Patient study, much experimenting, and the spending of con- 

 siderable sums of money would first be necessary, but there 

 would be an ultimate gain, and possibly the opening up of a 

 new and valuable industry. 



Discussion. 



Miss Murphie of Cresswell said when she was a child 

 playing at Carsethorn they used to see a shoal of porpoises — 

 " pellocks," they called them — following the salmon, and 

 they spoke of it as a salmon hunt. She did not think there 

 was anv doubt that the porpoises fed on salmon. 



