188 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



The Resources of the Sea, as shown in the Scientific Experiments 

 to test the effects of Trawling and of the Closure of certain 

 Areas off the Scottish Shores. By W. C. McIntosh, M.D , 

 LL.D., F.R.S., &c. C. J. Clay & Sons. 



This excellent contribution to the natural history of the 

 sea is written to sustain a thesis, which is, that, granting 

 man's unfortunate agency in the extermination of many land 

 animals, his influence on the resources of the sea is infinitely 

 small, almost practically nil. Last year (Zool. 1898, p. 376) we 

 had the pleasure of giving extracts from a lecture by the Professor 

 on that subject, and this book is a demonstration and exempli- 

 fication on that theme. It is pleasant to find this bracing 

 optimism in relation to at least one of Nature's realms. The 

 enmity of the fisherman to the Star-fish, by "tearing them across 

 the body before returning them to the water, only helped to 

 increase their numbers, for each portion of the disc was re- 

 generated and became a complete five-rayed Star-fish." In fact, 

 " the survey of the sea and its inhabitants, therefore, in the 

 main, affords no grounds for pessimistic views, but, on the con- 

 trary, conduces to reliance on the resources of nature (by which 

 we mean Divine Providence) in this vast area." The deadly 

 effects of the " trawl," as we have read elsewhere, on adult 

 Sponges, Zoophytes, Star-fishes, Crabs, and Shell-fishes on the 

 sea bottom is stated to be compensated by the fact that their 

 larvae and young are pelagic, and quite beyond the reach of 

 injury. Even the " crushing and division of Sponges is not 

 followed by the death of all the fragments, and each of those 

 which survives is capable of flourishing as an independent 

 organism (not to allude to the liberation of ova which may 

 happen to be present)." It seems very necessary to remember 

 that there vis a surface as well as a bottom fauna, and that while 

 we may bewail the action of the trawler on the latter, we must 

 not overlook the action of screw-propellers, which must kill 

 myriads of young, and destroy countless floating eggs. After all, 

 our knowledge of even some of our common food-fishes is very 

 incomplete. " Why should we not be in a position to say, in 

 this nineteenth century, that a fish, say, the Haddock, extends in 

 great numbers from either hemisphere into the Atlantic, and, if 



