352 
Part III. — Tenth Annual Report 
years, at the end of which time this class of fishing (by one or more 
vessels) is to cease in the territorial zone of Portugal, because it is injuri- 
ous and ought to be suppressed. The reports on which this decision is 
founded are given in full. 
The regulation is supported on three special grounds : — 
1. That in the territorial waters the State has power to legislate as 
well for natives as for foreigners. 
2. That in the outer free waters they have the right to regulate the 
native vessels. 
3. That in these outer free waters, within certain limits and restric- 
tions, they cannot impose rules on foreign vessels, but tliey can 
demand commercial import duties in the national waters and ports 
(the italics are ours). 
The whole weight of evidence adduced is against trawling, as an injuri- 
ous mode of fishing. 
Seiior Hidalgo Bermudez proposes to employ oysters and the coral 
insect to create natural harbours around Spain. When the translator 
proposed to employ the Modiola for this purpose, in his prize essay, 
London 1883, it was only as a binder for loose material ; but the Spanish 
inventor looks to the oyster-bed to increase so rapidly as to form a break- 
water of itself. His figures are delusive ; and although at the mouth of 
the Gironde, the Portuguese oyster increased so fast as to obstruct navi- 
gation, this is quite exceptional conduct. As a binder, however, it will 
no doubt prove of value. 
D. Joaquin de Borja, in his memoir presented to the Minister of 
Marine, along with a Zoological Collection prepared by him at Naples, 
summarises his views with much force and ability 'As to 
! the sedentary species, such as flat fish, Scorpcena, &c, that live at great 
' depths, the minimum size at which they ought to be authorised to be 
' sold in the markets ought to be decided. And in place of establishing 
' useless close times, and still more useless sizes in the meshes of the nets, 
' municipal authorities ought to exercise vigilance in the markets, so that 
' only those that have reached a certain development be sold ; since it is 
* self-evident that, if the fishermen can only sell fish of a certain size, they 
' will henceforward take every care not to catch them. And if, in con- 
' sequence of the lack of vigilance, the coast becomes impoverished of 
1 certain species, the fault will be that of the public administration and 
' not of the fishermen, since these must engage in the struggle for exist- 
' ence. The protection of this class of fishes may be better secured as 
' M. Marion proposes, that is, by establishing closed districts for a series 
1 of years to serve as a refuge for persecuted species, and changing their 
' position every three years.' Elsewhere he repeats ; — ' To establish close 
4 times for all the Species appears to us not only inconvenient, but 
* impossible to make it effective in practice. It only falls to impose them 
* on certain sedentary species and in certain stated localities.' The very 
immature fish sold in the markets of Spain and France would find no 
purchasers with ns at all. 
Papers on the fishery in the time of the Phoenicians, with reference to 
numismatics, and the ' Protection of Galicia,' are in the January number, 
the latter calling attention to the absolute necessity for the removal of 
duties on materials required in the trade. 
The papers of the Fishery Board for Scotland are freely referred to 
and translated ; and, while Spain is doing little as yet in a practical way 
itself to elucidate fishery problems, a station has been established at 
Santander, and much interest is taken in the whole subject by this intel- 
ligent Spanish Commission. 
