414 OCEANOGRAPHY. 



apparatus. They seek a stratum having a temperature of 4° or 5°, the 

 depth being variable not only in the same locality but also in the same 

 region from time to time, and as soon as they find it they cast their 

 lines and fish with certainty. The example is pertinent. It was fur- 

 nished by an eminent scientist; it has received and still receives, every 

 season, the sanction of practice and affords actual benefit to fishers. 

 How eminently desirable it is that such a study should be made on 

 the Newfoundland Banks or in Iceland, I mean in a serious way, by a 

 competent person, and, as was done by the Norwegians, on board a 

 vessel specially adapted for this research. 



Other experiments no less interesting have been made in the labora- 

 tory of pisciculture in Flodevig. The Norwegians live by the sea; they 

 are obliged to cultivate it, and, in fact, they declare that they have suc- 

 ceeded in restocking it with cod. Their processes are now being applied 

 at Newfoundland by the English. It has been observed that the spawn 

 of the cod must be raised in water of a certain temperature and density. 

 If the water is too dense the young fish are not sufficiently strong to 

 overcome its resistance and seek food on the bottom; if it is too light 

 they easily reach the bottom, but have difficulty in holding themselves 

 there, while if it is within the required limits of density, the animal, 

 able to move at liberty, finds entire satisfaction of his needs and devel- 

 ops rapidly until, having reached his full strength, he ceases to be sen- 

 sitive to the slight variations in his surroundings and can nourish 

 himself in the sea where he is given his liberty. Breeding is carried 

 on at Flodevig under perfectly systematic and scientific conditions, 

 with the greatest benefit to the industry. 



In the laboratory at Dildo, near St. John, Newfoundland, where simi- 

 lar restocking is carried on, the director, Mr. Nielsen, 1 discovered that 

 the water in the breeding ponds for the male and female cod intended 

 for reproduction must have a temperature from 4 to 7 degrees and that 

 young cod, living well in water at zero, will die as soon as the tempera- 

 ture falls only half of a degree. 



By reason of the development of science and general progress, war 

 has become so difficult and frightful in its consequences for the two 

 adversaries, neither of whom can ever be really victorious, that it is 

 almost impossible between nations that are about equal in the scale of 

 civilization. If nations wish to live and not be overwhelmed, peacefully 

 but completely, by other peoples, their competitors in the terrible strug- 

 gle for existence, they must use to their best advantage the riches of 

 their territory, If agriculture, now scientific, obtains profit from the 

 work of scientists who have transformed it from the collection of em- 

 pirical recipes into a positive science; if we seek by knowledge of the 

 soil, by suitable alternations of the crops, by appropriate fertiliza- 

 tion to procure the best results from a piece of land, to make it pro- 

 duce a maximum of yield, we should do the same with the sea. We 



1 Dr. Nielsen, Annual Report, 1893, pp. 21 and 22. 



