SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 197 



Fisheries in Newfoundland remarks in his Report for 

 1895, a great increase of fish after such a short trial of 

 artificial hatching. A Cod fish requires four years to 

 reach maturity. A vast number of the young Cod fish 

 planted must perish from natural causes, and only a 

 small percentage can be expected to grow up and form 

 marketable fish. 



The increase to a fishery can, therefore, only be gradual, 

 and time is required to determine the value of this im- 

 portant experiment. I may add that it may well be that 

 a fishery which is not increasing is still greatly benefited 

 by the results of artificial hatching. On the other hand, 

 I think it quite as unreasonable to attribute any marked 

 increase of fish in a district entirely to the hatching 

 operations, unless it can be definitely proved that the 

 young fish caught are the produce of the hatchery. I 

 agree with Mr. Fryer that, in the case of the reported 

 increase of Cod in the neighbourhood of Dildo during 

 1895 (and again in 1896), it is at least as reasonable to 

 attribute the early catch of the fish to natural conditions, 

 such as the increased temperature of the water, as to 

 claim it as a result of the artificial hatching of a few 

 million of Cod eggs at that place in 1890 and 1891. The 

 careful observations of the Fish Commission have estab- 

 lished the fact that the Gulf Stream fluctuates considerably 

 from time to time in its extension towards Newfoundland in 

 the north, and we now know that the tile fish (Lophola- 

 tilus chamceleonticeps) is influenced in its distribution on 

 the east coast of North America by the condition of the 

 Gulf Stream. The Cod, and other fishes, are probably 

 also affected in a somewhat similar manner. But all this 

 is absolutely no argument against artificial hatching. 

 Natural circumstances will be sometimes with us and 

 sometimes against us, and when they are with us they 



