SCIENTIFIC WORK IN THE SEA-FISHERIES. 265 



scientific staff. Scotland and Ireland, to some extent, already 

 have these ; England has not, and Lord Dalhousie's recom- 

 mendation has additional force to-day. 



An endeavour has been made in these memoirs to show that, 

 on scientific grounds, the British Fisheries are not unsatisfactory, 

 and that Nature is capable, by her marvellous resources in the 

 sea, of keeping pace, even with all the modern agencies of de- 

 struction. Yet no supine attitude is advocated. Constant care 

 and vigilance are becoming, under this great national trust of 

 the sea-fisheries, and of the hardy race so largely dependent on 

 them. The liner should be encouraged to adopt gill-nets in 

 suitable inshore water, and also to vary his methods of fishing 

 with bait. He has still, in the Herrings alone, about half the 

 totals landed from the North Sea, besides Pilchards, Mackerel, 

 Sprats, Lobsters, Crabs, Shrimps, and shell-fishes, not to allude 

 to a share in the white-fishing, and the undisputed freedom of 

 all the closed waters. In his case industry and sobriety never 

 fail to afford a competence. 



It is, indeed, fortunate for this and other nations that the 

 unbroken chain of circumstances combines to render the sea- 

 fishes so capable of holding their own, not only in former 

 geological periods when, for instance, the gigantic fish-eating 

 Ichthyosauri traversed the seas from pole to pole, but to-day. 

 For what alternatives are before us ? 



Artificial hatching, while admirable in fresh-water and ana- 

 dromous fishes, has not yet been proved (and this is said with all 

 deference to the splendid efforts of the Americans) to be of actual 

 service in marine fishes, the young of which are everywhere so 

 numerous. Besides, the heavy expenditure would ill be borne 

 by the taxpayers when the foreign fishermen share equally with 

 their own. 



Transplantation could readily be carried out, especially with 

 flat-fishes, though under the same international disadvantages ; 

 yet Nature in our open waters needs but little aid in this respect. 

 More might be said in favour of a size-limit, but that more 

 has much of sentiment in it ; for, whilst the ordinary fisherman 

 dare not sell his small fishes, and could not possibly eat them, 

 many — indeed, almost all those hooked — would perish. But 

 what would the Legislature make of the destructive shrimper who 



