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money that it is scarcely worth the while for their sake to multiply the provi- 

 sions of a law; for it must, evidently, be looked upon as a great advantage 

 when a law of fishery is as » simple* as possible. As an example to show 

 how long time it takes before such a law becomes practicahy used, I shall 

 mention that one of the greatest fishmongers at Frederikshavn, when the 

 present law had been in force for three years, was much astonished to 

 learn that a size-limit had been fixed also for the turbot. He had 

 at any rate dealt in turbots through these three years without knowing 

 this regulation. 



I do not think therefore that we ought to burden a law with regula- 

 tions concerning more species than just necessary; for laws whose regula- 

 tions are not kept actually in force by means of a very effective control and 

 great care, are, I believe, only injurious. 



From the above-mentioned reasons I think that a future law with re- 

 spect to the flat-fishes ought to contain regulations for the whole country 

 only concerning: 



The plaice, 



The sole, 



The turbot. 



The brill*). 



On the other hand it would be good perhaps, if local regulations could 

 take the flounder into consideration, a fish which is of no value for the 

 export, but nevertheless at certain places is of some moment. 



More difficult it would be to defend the said protection of the 

 common dab in the Cattegat, partly on account of its unimportance to 

 the wholesale trade, partly on account of its slight vitality, and moreover 

 because it seems to propagate in the Cattegat at the expense of the plaice; 

 at any rate it is astonishing to see the number of common dabs we get in 

 a seine with little meshes almost everywhere in the Cattegat. Their number 

 is certainly many times greater than that of the plaice, and as both fish 

 live, partly, of the same food, it is not impossible that they are actu- 

 ally competing species, so that the common dab Mali spread farther at the 

 expense of the plaice, when it gets the opportunity, as it now does, when 



*) There might be some reason also, to propose a size limit for the halibut, but 

 this fish is at present so rarely met with in the Cattegat (see ante p. 39), that I 

 have been unable personally to study its biology, and I dare not, therefore, set 

 forth any decided opinion on this matter. A size limit for this fish must, I think, 

 as it has been proposed in England, not be smaller than e. 36 Engl, inches 

 the fish is nut supposed to be mature till it reaches this length, 



