Fishery Board for Scotland. 



xxxi 



the fisheries. If this cruiser * were superseded by"a steam vessel Scientific 

 of a somewhat larger size, and the present superintending gunboat investigations 

 H.M.S. 'Jackal' replaced by a seaworthy boat adapted for the<j a ckai' 

 work of a fishery cruiser, and each boat provided with a suitable replaced by a 

 tender, not only would the ordinary work of the Board be more boat. 01 ly 

 efficiently performed, but the scientific researches would be Tenders 



i / -rt i j should be pro- 



lmmensely facilitated. vided< 1 



When the various appliances have been provided, it is estimated £1500 required 

 that the work mapped out above would extend over a period of three fo u * hree r or 

 or four years, and necessitate an annual expenditure of about £1500. ° U1 years ' 

 Finally, the Board desires to point out that all the sums now Sums asked 

 applied for are, even in their aggregate, extremely small if compared g^ a if tremely 

 with sums devoted to similar purposes by the Governments of the 

 United States, Canada, Germany, and other nationalities, and that 

 the investigation of the habits, &c, of our food fishes is not a local, 

 or even a Scottish question, but one which is of imperial import- 

 ance. Sooner or later the work must be done by the State, and as 

 the great feeding grounds of the herring and other useful fishes lie 

 off the Scottish coast, the carrying out of this work will be most Work can be 

 economically performed by the Fishery Board for Scotland. Board.° ne y 



The United States engages between twenty and thirty skilled United states 

 naturalists, and has one splendidly equipped marine laboratory, nasmost com - 



. plete arrange- 



and in addition several hatching establishments, each with a com- ments for 

 petent staff of assistants. A large steam vessel has been specially carrying on 



work inn votp^i 



built, at a cost of above £60,000, for making observations along the large sums 

 coasts, and a smaller steam vessel, adapted for hatching and other annually, 

 operations, has been in use for some years. During 1882-83, it is 

 understood that upwards of £40,000 was placed at the disposal of 

 the United States Fishery Commissioner, in addition to which 

 about £24,000 was expended by the Commissioners of 39 States. 



Further, the United States Commissioner of Fisheries obtains 

 whatever assistance he requires from the navy, and from the 

 telegraph, engineer, and other State Departments. 



The Board, however, confidently anticipates that, with the 

 assistance of the comparatively small sums now applied for, it will 

 be able to conduct scientific investigations yielding results fully com- 

 parable to those which are being obtained by other Governments. 



This anticipation is grounded on the following facts : — Eeasons for 



1. That the Board is already an institution with a large staff of j^^s. 

 intelligent officers stationed at various parts of the coast capable of results will be 

 making observations, and of collecting material, &c. out^reat out " 



2. That Professor Stirling, D.Sc, of Aberdeen; Professor M/Intosh, Sy. grea ° U " 

 F.R.S., of St Andrews, and other distinguished naturalists, are pre- 

 pared to assist gratuitously the Board in conducting its investigations. 



3. That the scientific members of the Board itself are likewise pre- 

 pared to devote a large portion of their time to the same object. 



4. That the exertions of the Board have already yielded results 

 of the highest promise. 



The Board desires to express its thanks to Professor Stirling, 

 D.Sc, Professor M'Intosh, F.R.S., Mr Duncan Matthews, Miss 

 Maclagan, and Dr Francis Day for their valuable additions to the 

 Report included in Appendix F. 



* See also under 'Marine Police,' p. lviii. 



