QUESTIONS ITERATED. 291 



sermons about fish, and the best mode of making them useful 

 to mankind ; about fisheries, as an outlet for capital, as a 

 medium for the employment of labour'; not to speak of the 

 important question — important at least to great maritime nations 

 like England and France — how far the fisheries may be made to 

 serve as a training school for either the imperial or the mercan- 

 tile navy. Nor was the force of any of the expositions expended 

 even so. It was attempted to illustrate the technology of fish- 

 eries, as in the arts of boat-building, rigging, sail-making, anchor- 

 forging, and net-weaving. Attempts were likewise made to 

 estimate and compare the productive powers of salt and fresh 

 water, and to measure the additional ascendency which man 

 might obtain over the ocean if he were thoroughly to culti- 

 vate it. 



None of the exhibitions have yet taught us what we most 

 want to know as regards the food-fishes of the sea. At what 

 age (the reader must excuse this iteration) do these animals be- 

 come reproductive, and how long is it ere their eggs come to 

 life ? Many questions bearing on the natural history of fish 

 in general, and on the food-fishes in particular, were propounded 

 at Arcachon ; but have they yet been answered ? Of oysters it 

 was asked — ^At what age do they reproduce ? what is the average 

 number produced by individuals at a time ? what causes may 

 annually influence their fecundity 1 what is their food ? what 

 substances do they attach themselves to ? and how long do they 

 live ? As to fish in general, the following questions were put : — 

 What, in all probability, becomes offish, both migratory and other, 

 when they cease to show themselves on our coasts ? on what 

 kind of bottom does each species prefer to deposit its ova 1 is it 

 possible to determine the spawning-time of most useful species 1 

 and is it possible to cause natural and artificial spawning ? None 

 of these questions were answered at Arcachon, nor yet at the 

 Hague. Nor have our British naturalists ventured to grapple 

 with them, except in a very superficial way. There was hung 

 up in the fishery exposition at Boulogne a chart exhibiting 

 " the grand tour " of the herring, and it was astonishing to 

 note that many of the visitors were impressed with the belief 

 that this grand tour was real, and was still going on year after 

 year ! There are naturalists who think the mackerel to be also a 

 fish of passage, making long voyages from north to south, and 

 vice versd. The turbot, too, has been described as a migratory 

 fish, and it has been often asserted that salmon make an annnqJ. 



