218 ■'. THE ZOOLOGIST. 



difference, or allowed to go on if it could be avoided. It is only 

 cited as a proof of the wonderful resources of Nature, which for 

 so long a period has maintained supplies in spite of the constant 

 drain — natural and artificial. 



A noteworthy instance of the supposed extinction of a food- 

 fish, again, is to be found in the American Tile-Fish (Lopholatilus 

 chamcsleonticeps) .* This fish was discovered in 1879, in deep 

 water off the United States, when fishing for Cod and Hake with 

 " trawls," each about one mile long, and having one thousand 

 hooks, and was caught in considerable numbers. In March and 

 April, 1882, vessels entering the Atlantic harbours of the United 

 States reported that they had passed through countless numbers 

 of dead Tile-Fishes while crossing the northern edge of the Gulf 

 Stream, the mortality being estimated at 1,438,720,000. For 

 ten years no trace of the Tile-Fish was found, but again in 1892, 

 and the following four or five years, some were caught, and in 

 1898 a large number were captured by an expedition sent to 

 their special grounds, the bait being Mackerel. Prof. Verrill 

 thought that the destruction of the Tile-Fishes was due to the 

 effects of a great storm, which lowered the temperature of the 

 warm slope they inhabited. Their reappearance was connected, 

 by Prof. Libbey, with the movement of the warm band of water 

 towards the shore, which thus restored their former environment. 



Nor do the foregoing facts stand alone. A perusal of the 

 English and Irish statistics, and still more of the Scotch official 

 returns, which are at once the oldest and most complete, will 

 show the soundness of the position. One instance will suffice : 

 In 1897, the last return dealt with in the ' Resources of the Sea,' 

 the grand total of the Scotch fisheries was 5,001,672 cwt., of the 

 value of £1,627,752. More or less steadily have these fisheries 

 mounted up, till in 1905 (the last published Report) the grand 

 total (exclusive of shell-fishes) reached 7,856,310 cwt., or 

 2,854,638 cwt. more than in 1897, whilst the total value was 

 £2,649,148, or considerably above a million more. So far as 

 can be observed, therefore, and taking all the circumstances of 

 increased means of capture into consideration, the result is not 

 disquieting. Moreover, countries which began in fear — like the 

 Americans — to spend large sums on the sea-fisheries, now find 



* Dr. H. C. Bumpus, Bull. U. S. Fish. Com. vol. xviii. p. 321, 1898. 



