MR. T. SOUTHWELL ON THE HERRING FISUERV. 75 
than tliat of years gone by ? If so, are we taking more fish out of 
the sea than is legitimate, and thereby ruining the fisheries ? or 
are they already so depleted, that it requires all this additional 
exertion to maintain the supply? As I said before, there are no 
sufficient data to enable a definite reply to be given to these 
momentous questions ; but it is obvious that, with this vastly 
increased expenditure of capital and skill, a proportionately largo 
increase in the result ought to follow, otherwise the only logical 
conclusion which it would bo possible to arrive at is, that the 
depletion of tlio fishery grounds has rendered it more and more 
difficult to obtain a given result. Opinions differ in the inter- 
pretation of such scant evidence as wo do jiossoss ; but I am 
firmly of opinion tliat the sea is not inoxhaustiblo, and that if we 
continue to fish with such deadly engines in season, and out of 
season, as at present, the result cannot fail to bo most fatal. 
Having regard to the magnitude of the interest at stake, it seems 
quite beyond conception that the Government should so long delay 
the appointment of a really competent English Fisheries Board, 
whose duty it should bo to study the habits and economy of the 
fish, and to collect reliable statistics with regard to all matters 
directly and indirectly affecting the sea fisheries, with a view to 
passing such legislative enactmcnt.s, if any, as the experience of 
the Board may indicate to bo desii’able. 
AV'ero this done, I venture to predict that the Spring Herring 
Fishery, as well as the size of the mesh now in use by the drift- 
net fishers, would speedily receive attention. Another legitimate 
object for investigation by such a body would have been the cause 
of the altogether exceptionally vast influx of Herrings upon the 
East Coast which occurred last year ; and we might also have hoped 
for information which would have thrown some light upon the 
inferior condition of the fish themselves. It has been suggested 
that the presence of such unusual quantities of fish was due to 
the abundance of food which swarmed in the abnormally warm 
sea.s, resulting from the great heat of the past summer. If this 
were so, the fish should have been in prime condition, where- 
as the reverse was the case ; and to this very cause (the high 
temperature of the water), — which although favourable to the 
production of their food, was by others considered prejudicial to 
the Herrings themselves, — has been attributed their poor condition. 
