/f^09S- 



PEEFACE. 



The author has felt it an urgent duty, since the work for 

 the Royal Commission under Lord Dalhousie, to watch the 

 various experiments to test the effects of trawling and of the 

 closure, the more especially as these had been originally sug- 

 gested by himself Judgment was withheld until all the 

 necessary facts were available, and a sufficient margin of time 

 had supervened for the thorough investigation and testing 

 of the areas. Now, after the lapse of twelve years, and of 

 fifteen since the original work was begun ; after a study of all 

 that had been done at home independently of these experi- 

 ments, and in other maritime countries ; after a prolonged 

 investigation into the development and life-histories of the 

 food-fishes ; and after the general statistics of the fisheries 

 had time to settle into a reliable condition, it has been deemed 

 prudent to make a critical survey of the work, and to form 

 conclusions on this important question. 



It was hoped that opportunities would have been afforded 

 for repeating in 1898, on the same dates and, as far as 

 possible, under the same circumstances, the experiments of 

 1884, but the authorities did not appear to see either the way 

 or the importance of such an enterprise. The suggestion was 

 made in no narrow spirit, indeed its acceptance would have 

 entailed very serious responsibilities on the author. 



The great aim of the survey has been to search for truth in 

 this complex subject, to weigh carefully every fact bearing on 

 its solution, and to bring an unbiassed mind to the task. To 

 the scientific investigator a conclusion favourable to the con- 

 tinuance of restrictive measures would have been as welcome 



