82 SALT-WATER FISHES 



to those who ramble on the cliflFs or along the beaches, it can 

 hardly be expected that the fishermen, with whom they 

 compete, should regard them in the same light. Any sys- 

 tematic war against the fish-eating beasts and birds and other 

 fishes of our seas would, it is true, be hampered by many 

 difficulties, but the greatest of these would in the end be the 

 opposition of those who hold it a sin to kill any animal that 

 they cannot devour. You may massacre young lambs and 

 calves and chickens, the more the better ; but to slay the 

 voracious cormorant or black-backed gull is dubbed cruelty. 

 Some official recognition, however, of the wisdom and justice 

 of the death penalty against these rivals of mankind may be 

 found in the express exemption of both the birds named from 

 the county councils' schedules of protected fowl, while in the 

 Exe estuary, at any rate, the former has a price set upon its 

 head. Neither the shark nor the porpoise has ever been 

 protected by law, so that it rests with the fishermen themselves 

 to deal with these and other marauders as they think fit. 

 When it is remembered that porpoise-oil is a very valuable 

 article of trade, it is astounding that they do not achieve the 

 double purpose of destroying dangerous rivals and turning 

 them to good account. The late Matthias Dunn, whose name 

 must necessarily recur so often in any work dealing with the 

 fishes of our seas, always held this destruction of cormorants 

 and porpoises to be a most valuable remedy, though the 

 writer, who many times discussed the subject with him, cannot 

 recall that he ever suggested any practical scheme of action. 

 As a matter of fact, the cormorants and black-backed gulls 

 cannot be destroyed (the former more particularly) without 

 the expenditure of a considerable quantity of powder, and who 

 is to provide this, and who even is to use it, is a question that 

 does not at once answer itself. Something might possibly be 

 done by encouraging " week-end " sportsmen, willing to find 

 the ammunition and shoot the birds for amusement ; only the 

 fear at once suggests itself that " week-end " sportsmen are not 



