392 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



his own humorous but vigorous fashion, the importance and 

 necessity of Sea-fishery investigations. His communications 

 more often appeared in ' The Field' and 'Land and Water,' and 

 occasionally from their literary style suggested a smack of the 

 charlatan. But the best evidence of the earnestness and worth 

 of the man was the devotion to his Fish-cultural Museum at 

 South Kensington, ultimately endowed and bequeathed by him 

 to the nation. 



A wholesome impetus was also given to fish studies by F. M. 

 Balfour's Monograph on Elasmobranchs, quickly succeeded by 

 his Treatise on Comparative Embryology; Buckland and Wal- 

 pole's Government Report ' On Sea Fisheries of England and 

 Wales' (1879) ; Dr. GUnther's ' Study of Fishes* ; and Dr. Day's 

 1 British Fishes,' but especially Buckland's Appendices (II.-IV.) 

 of Beport, pressed home the subject of our Economic Sea Fish. 



The fishing industry itself (chiefly Grimsby and Hull trawlers), 

 on account of the moot question of deterioration of the Sea 

 Fisheries, and supposed relation of this to the capture and sale 

 of immature fish, resolved itself into a National Sea Fisheries 

 Protection Association, with affiliated branches throughout the 

 kingdom. Their conferences and public agitation no doubt had 

 considerable influence in after-movements of corporate bodies and 

 the Government. 



At this juncture came the Norwich and Edinburgh, followed 

 by the London International Fisheries Exhibition of 1883, with 

 its abundance of foreign and American element ; the latter even 

 in certain sections of food-fish and appliances far outstripping 

 the English collections. Much of the Exhibition literature and 

 conferences was of a practical kind, widening yet urging the 

 current of British Fish industry in the new direction. 



Still one thing was manifest, viz. " That our knowledge of the 

 habits, time, and place of spawning, food peculiarities of the 

 young, migrations, &c, of the fish which form the basis of British 

 fisheries is lamentably deficient, and that without further know- 

 ledge any legislation or attempts to improve our fisheries by 

 better modes of fishing, or protection, or culture, must be 

 dangerous and indeed unreasonable." 



But the echoes of the consensus of opinion at the Fisheries 

 Conferences, as above quoted, had hardly died away ere the said 



