138 BRITISH FISHERIES 



investigation of particular "practical questions," 

 they are given a free hand in relation to the 

 subjects which they may investigate. They are 

 not concerned with the actual administration of 

 fishery laws. It is to these conditions, no doubt, 

 that the success of their work is to be attributed. 

 Finally, they differ from their British colleagues in 

 that their recommendations are occasionally acted 

 upon. 



The amount of scientific work of first-rate im- 

 portance carried out by the Kiel Kommission is 

 very great, as a reference to the six reports or 

 Jahresberichte published from 1873 to 1893, and 

 the five volumes of Wissenschaftliche Meeresunter- 

 suchungen dating from 1894, will show. I can only 

 refer very briefly to the nature of this work, which 

 began with the preliminary survey of the Baltic 

 and North Seas by the Pommerania in 187 1—2, 

 in the course of which biological and hydrographic 

 researches were made, and the sea-bottom was 

 examined from biological and chemical standpoints. 

 About the same time the inspection of the fish- 

 markets was undertaken, and a very detailed system 

 of statistical collection was instituted, in the course 

 of which the amount of fish landed at German 

 ports, and the numbers of boats and men engaged, 

 were tabulated. The area fished over was also de- 

 limited and charted, and an estimate was made of 

 the productivity of the sea, from which it appeared 

 that the yield in food of a given sea area was from 



