THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 675.— September, 1897. 



OUR ECONOMIC SEA FISHES. 



By Dr. James Murie, 



Member of the Kent and Essex Sea Fisheries District Committee. 



It would seem to be a racial peculiarity of the British com- 

 munity concerning those matters in which ultimately they attain 

 preeminence, that they should, more often than otherwise, only 

 be arrived at through a series of blundering experiences. Ex- 

 pressed otherwise, the English slow-to-move habit and perfect 

 do-as-you-like freedom beget a tendency to let things move in 

 their old circle until personal interests of a few spread to the 

 many. Then follow surging and activity, seldom resting until 

 leeway is made up, and they are abreast of, perchance push 

 beyond, the nations started earlier and more systematically dis- 

 ciplined in the given field. Unfortunately too many examples 

 might be cited, particularly in the political sphere, as well as in 

 those of literature, art and science. Speaking broadly, British 

 efforts, as a rule, have sprung from private individual exertion, 

 the Government only falling in perforce, whereas Continental 

 nations in the main reverse the process. 



Our economic Sea Fish and the associated industries are 

 instances in point. Seemingly it has taken a long time to 

 realize and arrive at the conclusion how close is the connection 

 between these and Ichthyology. 



When her Majesty ascended the throne, and indeed almost for 

 half her reign, the Cuvierian and Miillerian classifications of Fish, 



Zool. 4th ser. vol. I., September, 1897. 2 e 



