OUE SEA FISHEEIES. 245 



The result will be, that the small capitalist who 

 owns large smacks and is the backbone of our fishing 

 system, will be ruined; the fishermen themselves, 

 win find their trade invaded by a lot of 'long-shore 

 men, who are not sailors, and who follow other occu- 

 pations when the herrings are not about, and instead 

 of the fine smacks which make good sailors and the 

 steady markets we have now, we shall have great rises 

 and great falls, gluts alternating with scarcity, and 

 the trade carried on by small in-shore boats, which 

 do not make sailors. To sum up the recommenda- 

 tions : the one will destroy the herrings, and the 

 other will, at the same time, ruin the home trade ; 

 while the abolition of the brand will, as before 

 shown, ruin the foreign trade. This will be a fitting 

 pendant to our Newfoundland policy. 



There is an old motto which says "Let well 

 enough alone;" but it seems impossible for us to 

 "Let well enough alone," for we have a mania for 

 trying our hands at tinkering. We are wretchedly 

 unskilful, or eoxeedingly skilful tinkers; for, either 

 by accident or design, we always contrive in stopping 

 one small crack to make a dozen large holes. 



It has been stated by able ichthyologists that 

 sprats are not the young of the herring, some dif- 

 ference existing in the position of the fins, and the 



