132 REID NATURAL HISTORY AND THE FISHERIES. 



The coal fields of England may give out, and Scientists be un- 

 able to increase the amount, but it is not so with our staple. The 

 abundant hand of nature multiplies it from year to year with lavish 

 extravagance, and did we not know her laws as they may be found 

 out by studying the life history of each species we could deal with 

 certainty instead of chance or luck. We must however know when 

 where and how they obtain their food ; and when, where, and how 

 they avoid their natural enemies, the cause of their migrations, and 

 such like, and then we would not fear a failure in the catch with 

 the significance it implies. That this does often happen is not to 

 be wondered at, for our ignorance is supreme ; the beet naturalists 

 know so very little about those animals whose habitat is in the deep 

 sea, because few scientists are favorably situated for this variety 

 of study. 



The education of our fishermen does not fit them for research, 

 and besides neither their merchants nor the Government give en- 

 couragement to induce them to do one bit more work than they can 

 get along with, or to lay themselves out to observe systematically 

 the phenomena that from time to time occur. 



Had we an Academy of Science under the patronage of the 

 Government, — or an independent one of sufficient wealth such as 

 exists in the older countries, — annual prizes for the best essays on 

 the natural history of the marine food fishes, would ere long not 

 only increase our scientific knowledge, but in time greatly eliminate 

 the theory of chance and the so called bad years from the list of 

 probabilities. We would learn why fish frequent certain grounds 

 at certain seasons and why they leave for other localities, with the 

 best way to guard their food supply and spawning seasons and so 

 increase their numbers. Even small prizes to amount to no more 

 than $100 per year, would before long prove of general public 

 benefit ; but into the details I have not at present time to enter. 



If the schools that are now scattered all around the coast were 

 properly utilized, every child would soon learn the known natural 

 history of those animals that their daily life makes them familiar 

 with ; and would in addition to knowledge gained, have their powers 

 of observation utilized. Thus before many years the errors that now 



