238 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 



coasts. The same opinion prevailed at that time (1868) in 

 France \ 



Mr Shaw-Lefevre states that from the Scotch returns the 

 average catch of herrings for the 5 years previous to 1863 

 was 680,000 barrels, and for the 8 years ending 1881, 1,050,000 

 barrels, an increase of about 50 per cent. During the same 

 period cod and ling had increased about 50 per cent. The 

 number of fishermen had increased by only 15 per cent., the 

 number of boats by the same proportion, while the tonnage had 

 increased by 20 per cent. In 1863 there were 580 trawlers 

 from Hull, Grimsby, Yarmouth, and Kamsgate, in 1881 there 

 were 1500, and in addition the vessels were nearly double the 

 tonnage^. 



He tersely gives his opinion thus : — " I think that it 

 may be taken as an established and incontrovertible fact that 

 there has been no falling off in our fisheries, but a very great 

 increase, an increase in most cases greater in proportion than 

 in the number of men and boats employed, and giving an 

 adequate return to the very largely increased capital devoted 

 to theml" 



Similar views were held by the late distinguished Prof. 

 J. P, van Beneden of Louvain, who was a member of the Com- 

 mission appointed by the Belgian Government for investigating 

 the subject of the fisheries. He was of opinion that the pro- 

 ducts of the sea were inexhaustible, and that no restriction 

 should be placed on the capture of marine fishes. His equally 

 distinguished son. Prof. Edward van Beneden of Liege, Vice- 

 President of the permanent Commission on pisciculture (mari- 

 culture), more recently opposed the proposition to restrict the 

 fisheries — broached by the Commission — on the ground that it 

 had not been proved that a general diminution had taken 

 place. 



Mr Holds worth's article on Sea-fisheries in the Encydopcedia 

 Britannica breathes the same spirit. 



1 Internat. Fish. Exhih. 1883. Conferences, vol. i. p. 



2 Op. cit., pp. 89 and 90. 



2 Fisheries Exhih. Lit. iv., Conferences, p. 91, 1884, 



