SCIENTIFIC WORK IN THE SEA-FISHERIES. 215 



experiment is on a small scale, and, in view of what takes place 

 in the nets of the shrimpers, could not materially affect the 

 situation. 



Allusion has been made to the work of the United States Fish- 

 Commission, which for nearly thirty years has carried out exten- 

 sive experiments in sea-fish hatching. Yet, though Prof. Baird 

 noted that small Cod of the grey or offshore variety (that used 

 in the hatchery at Gloucester, Mass.) appeared in the harbour 

 next year, where they never were found previously, and larger 

 forms of the same variety in the two following years, no absolute 

 proof is forthcoming, even up to date. It is true the American 

 Fisheries Bureau* claims that there has been a general improve- 

 ment in the shore-fishery for Cod, and that this improvement 

 has been to some extent cumulative since the operations com- 

 menced at Woods Holl and Gloucester, and that the increase 

 followed the line of the adult fishes which were marked and set 

 free after spawning. Even though hundreds of millions of fry 

 of Cod and Flounders have been placed in the sea by the Ameri- 

 cans, Mr. Fryer, one of H. M. Inspectors of Fisheries, holds 

 that marine fish -hatching is immaterial, since there are so many 

 young forms in the sea. Similar views are held by Petersen, of 

 Denmark, who considers that it is of no consequence whether 

 Plaice spawn in the Lim Fjord or not, as enormous numbers of 

 small Plaice exist in the free waters outside, and migrate into it. 

 Even the long-continued labours of Capt. Dannevig, who for 

 many years has turned the artificially hatched Cod-fry into the 

 fjords of Norway, are held to be useless by Dr. Hjort, Dr. 

 Knut Dahl, and others in that country. Similar remarks apply 

 to the great hatchery for Cod at Dildo, Newfoundland. 



The enormous powers of reproduction of the sea-fishes, their 

 pelagic eggs, the wonderful passage of the larval and post-larval 

 fishes shorewards, or otherwise, according to definite laws, which 

 are altogether independent of currents or temperatures, and their 

 migrations outward to deeper water as they grow older, place 

 them in a wholly different category from fresh-water and ana- 

 dromous fishes — even without considering the marvellous and 



* I am much indebted to Dr. Goode Brown for valuable information on 

 this head. 



