of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
341 
different relations. The female lobster carries her ova till they hatch, 
and is armed potently in their defence ; and, I believe, so far as natural 
foes are concerned, defends them with great success. The eggs of fishes 
are cast forth, and are devoured in multitudes before they can hatch. 
Hence the benefit of the protection of the ova in the two cases is very 
different. But in Newfoundland the lobster eggs would be thrown away, 
and therefore the advantage of protecting and hatching them in such vast 
numbers must be enormous. In appendices Mr Nielsen gives interesting 
and detailed reports of his expedition in search of the summer herring, 
on the winter cod fishery at Channel, on the southern shore, and on the 
need of fishery statistics. The latter is brief, but to the point — and 
indeed, the collection of accurate statistics is a sine qua non in the 
judicious management of fisheries. Statistics are simply the quantitative 
expression or record of observed facts and relations; and the history of 
all fisheries shows that without it regulation has been much like a game 
of battledore and shuttlecock. 
IV. NEW SOUTH WALES. 
The Report of the Commissioners of Fisheries for 1890 was issued 
last year. It is pointed out that there has been a falling off in the 
number of applications for leases for oyster culture, and neglect of lessees 
to pay up arrears of rent due upon their holdings. During the year the 
sum of £1160, 8s". 4d. was paid as rewards for the destruction of cor- 
morants and ' shags,' which are very destructive to the fisheries. These 
birds exist in vast numbers on the Murray River. The Commissioners 
recommend that this regulation should be repealed. They state that the 
blacks and half-castes raid the nests at the breeding season and capture 
the fledglings, and as each nest contains an average of three birds, a 
large number could be without difficulty collected. That seems on the 
thesis quite legitimate ; but they also say : — 4 Another plan pursued was 
' to collect the eggs and hatch them out under a hen, or in an incubator. 
' A few half-castes made this quite a business, so that the greater part of 
1 the large sum paid as rewards for capture passed to those persons.' In 
the operations on fish acclimatisation, the endeavours to introduce trout 
were repeated ; 5000 ova of Salmo fario, 1000 of Salmo levenensis, and 
1000 fry of Salmo fontinalis were obtained, and a large percentage of the 
ova hatched and distributed. From experiments it was found that trout 
fry could exist in hermetically sealed jars for seventy-two hours at least ; 
and fry thus treated were successfully transported to New Zealand. 
Details are given as to the distribution ; these operations would have 
a much greater chance of being useful if they were conducted on a greatly 
increased scale. 
In regard to oysters, the Commissioners are unable to report that the 
industry is in anything like a flourishing condition, the returns comparing 
most unfavourably with those for the previous year, and 'comparison with 
' previous years is still less encouraging.' New South Wales is indebted 
to other colonies — New Zealand and Queensland — for two-thirds of its 
supply. The causes of the failure in the native supply are attributed 
partly to floods and the ravages of the ' worm disease ; ' but ' the main 
f reason is that many of those who during past years have taken up fore- 
c shore for oyster culture have not practised culture at all ' — they seem 
to have been desirous to collect and sell at once all the oysters that they 
could gather. An increase took place in the fisheries generally, to the 
extent of 2486 baskets and ,£4383. The Commissioners give the draft 
