390 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



perhaps with some few exceptions, were alone regarded in the 

 light of science, while study of the useful groups of Sea Fish were 

 little better than meagrely referred to or looked at rather in the 

 light of a trade subject. How could it be otherwise when the 

 genial but distinguished Yarrell was shunted by the Royal Society 

 as only a tradesman and pseudo-scientist? 



Yet, after all, though late in the field, it looks as if Fish 

 economy is bound to revolutionize some of the older doctrines 

 current among Ichthyologists. It is a case of evolution in science ; 

 the microscope and embryology have helped Fishery questions 

 over the stile, so that practical or economic Ichthyology — namely, 

 the life-history of our Food Fishes— is the new departure of this 

 branch of Zoology. 



There are two circumstances which stand out in relief in the 

 chronicles of commercial Sea Fish. One, the oft-recurring scares 

 as to the decline and probable destruction of the British Fisheries, 

 with repeated Parliamentary enactments thereon ; the other, the 

 antagonism of the fishermen and ichthyologists. 



What took place, say, in the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries 

 onwards, is certainly reproduced with but slight variation up to the 

 present date. Forsooth, there has been no want of legislation ; 

 the old Statute Books teem with it. For example :— Catch and 

 traffic in Herring ; preservation of Sea Fish spawn and fry ; width 

 of mesh of nets ; regulations for Pilchard fishery ; grievances of 

 Lowestoft versus Yarmouth ; encouragement of British Fisheries ; 

 relations with foreigners re Fish and Fishing, &c, &c. — nearly all 

 subjects worrying the Sea Fisheries Boards of to-day as much as 

 they did Parliaments in the reigns of the Henrys, Elizabeth, and 

 the Georges. 



The fact is, as in every other trade, that of fishing is liable 

 to fluctuations ; but the problem in this case and the remedies 

 are far more intricate than in an ordinary business. Even the 

 methods of science, as of political economists, hitherto have failed 

 to unravel the laws of, still less to point out modes of relief to, the 

 fishing industries, though there is a dawn, it is to be hoped, of 

 better things in store. Wherefore non-agreement between fisher- 

 men and ichthyologists is easier accounted for. Why inquire 

 about common things, our catch, or where a particular sort of 

 fish is found, &c. ? It cannot mean business, but may only hide 



