REGULATING THE FISHERIES BY LAW. 143 



second crop to cut. His cattle would starve, himself and family be 

 beggareclj and turned out of their farm as improvident and destructive, 

 who not only beggared themselves, but, to the extent of their power, 

 impoverished the people by destroying the resources of their country. 

 The farmer who thus destroys the hopes of a rising crop by injudicious 

 farming, is not onl}' his own enemy, but the enemy of his country as 

 well." 



Such evidence could be multiplied to any extent if it were necessary, 

 but I feel that quite enough has been said to prove the point. It is a 

 point I have no doubt upon whatever, and persons who have studied 

 the question are alarmed, and say it is no use blinking the matter any 

 longer— that the demand for fish as an article of food is not only begin- 

 ning to exceed the supply, but that the sui)ply obtained, combined with 

 Avaste of spawn and other causes, is beginniug to exceed the breed- 

 ing-power of the fish. In the olden times, when people only caught to 

 supply individual wants, fish were plentiful, in the sense that no scar- 

 city was ever experienced, and the shoals of sea-fish, it was thought 

 at one time, would never diminish; but since the traffic became a com- 

 mercial speculation, the question has assumed a totally different aspect, 

 and a sufficient quantity cannot no^v be obtained. Who ever hears now 

 of monster turbot being taken by the trawlers ? Where are the mirac- 

 ulous hauls of mackerel that used to gladden the eyes of the fisher- 

 men ? Where are now the wagon-loads of herring to use as manure, as 

 in the golden age of the fisheries? I do not require to X3a use for the 

 reply — echo would only mock my question by repeating it. Exhausted 

 shoals and inferior fish tell us too plainly that there is reason for alarm, 

 and that we have, in all probability, broken at last upon our capital 

 stock. 



What, then, if this be so, will be the future of the British fisheries? 

 I have already, and more than once, in preceding pages, hinted my 

 doubts of the existence of the enormous fish-supplies of former days; 

 in my opinion, the supposed plentifulness of all kinds of fish must in 

 a large degree have been a myth, or at least but relative, founded, in 

 all probability, on the fluctuating demand and the irregular supply. 

 Were there not an active but unseen demolition of the fish-shoals, and 

 were these shoals as gigantic as people imagine them to be, the sea 

 would speedily become like stirabout, so that in time shii)s would not be 

 able to sail from port to port. .Imagine a few billions of herrings, each 

 pair multiplying at the rate of thirty thousand per annum ! picture the 

 codfish, with its million ratio of increase ; and then add, by way of 

 enhancing the bargain, a million or two of the flat-fish family 

 throwing in their annual quota to the total, and figures would be 

 arrived at far too vast for human comprehension. In fact, without 

 some compensating balance, the waters on the globe would not con- 

 tain a couple of j^ears' increase ! If fish have that tendency to mul- 

 tiply which is said, how comes it that in former years, when there 

 was not a tithe of the present demand, when the population was but 

 scant, and the means of inland carriage to the larger seats of popula- 

 tion rude and uncertain, the ocean did not overflow and leave its inhab- 

 itants on its shores ? Were we better acquainted with the natural his- 

 tory of fish, it would be easy to regulate the fisheries. The everlasting 

 demand for sea-produce has caused the sea-fishing, like the salmon- 

 fishing, to be prosecuted at improper seasons, and fish have been, indeed, 

 are daily, to a large extent, sold in a state that rentiers them quite im- 

 proper for human food. Another cause of the constantly-lessening 

 supplies may be also mentioned. Up till a recent period, it was thought 



