Chapter III: Part 3

There was thus no question of a general scarcity of fish. Fishing-boats were multiplying, and supplies increasing by leaps and bounds. Between 1891 and 1901 the average annual catch of plaice rose from 677,000 cwt. to 959,000 cwt., that of cod from 367,000 to 748,000 cwt., and that of herrings from 1,400,000 to 2,800,000 cwt. In the absence of specific information as to the yield of the older fishing-grounds, Parliament and the Government turned a deaf ear to the fishermen’s complaints.

But in 1900 it was shown to the Parliamentary Committee on the Sea Fisheries Bill of that year that, during the past decade, characterized (as we have seen) by a general fall in the price of fish, the price of plaice had risen 17 per cent., and that of other valuable flat-fishes from 3 to 6 per cent. It was also shown that, while the catching power had multiplied three-fold in ten years, the catch of trawled fish had only increased 30 per cent. In 1901 the inspectors of fisheries provided a table contrasting for ten years the annual supply of trawled fish at Grimsby, Hull, and Boston (which receive the products of the Icelandic fisheries), with that of other East Coast ports which derive their fish exclusively from the North Sea. In the former ports the supply had increased from year to year, while at the other ports the supply during the years 1895-1900 was in no year so great as in the least productive of the years 1890-1895. The fishermen’s case was at last made out; and in 1902 the late Government decided to participate in the investigations recommended by the Christiania Conference in 1901 for the purpose of formulating international measures for the improvement of the North Sea fisheries.

It is satisfactory to turn from the past records of neglect, from the supineness of the authorities, the imperfections of the statistics, the inadequate pittance devoted to investigations, to the progress which has taken place since the Government decided to devote a reasonable proportion of public funds to the improvement of knowledge on fishery subjects. The collection of official statistics has been reorganized on all our coasts on a system which aims at obtaining complete accounts of the results of each voyage of every first-class fishing-boat; the catches of trawlers and liners are now distinguished; the quantities of fish caught in the North Sea are distinguished from those taken beyond that area; the quantities of large, medium, and small fish are separately recorded in important cases; the numbers, tonnage, and landings of different classes of fishing-vessels are separately enumerated.

It is interesting to note the first results of the more exact system introduced in 1903. Considering only the fish caught in the North Sea and landed on the East Coast, we note a marked decline in the total catch of steam-trawlers during the years 1904, 1905, and 1906, and an increase in the catch of sailing trawlers. The former declined from 4¾ million cwt. in 1903 to 3¾ million cwt. in 1905; the latter increased from 277,000 cwt. in 1903 to 296,000 cwt. in 1905. It is shown, however, that these changes were accompanied by a considerable fall in the amount of fishing by steam-trawlers and a rise in the case of the sailing trawlers, so that inferences concerning impoverishment or the reverse would be premature. Nevertheless a fall in the abundance of haddock may be inferred from the fact that not only the total catch of this species, but also the average catch of the boats fell off continuously from 8·4 cwt. per diem in 1903 to 6·1 cwt. per diem in 1905. The fall is also seen to be mainly due to a scarcity of ‘small’ haddocks in 1904 and 1905 as compared with 1903. With the conclusions to which such data as these are likely to lead we are not now concerned; but these examples are sufficient to show that the official statistics are no longer a confused mass of useless figures, but a rational and fairly accurate system capable of analysis.

We have now to examine those experimental branches of investigation which are equally necessary for the effective solution of fishery problems. The chief possible causes of an impoverishment of the sea are three in number. First, as in the central United States the accumulated richness of a virgin soil produced at first huge crops, so, when fishing began in the North Sea an accumulated wealth, both in the number and in the greater size of the individual fish, was drawn upon. This ‘accumulated stock’ has been fished out.

Secondly, a given area of the sea, like a given area of land can support but a limited quantity of produce. There is a definite amount of food for fish in a definite volume of sea; a limit is therefore set to the number of fish in that volume of water. Professor Hensen and Professor Brandt, of Kiel, have shown that a square metre of the Baltic produces an average of 150 grammes of dry organic material in the shape of diatoms, copepods, and other floating organisms. A similar area of land produces 180 grammes of ultimate food-substance. The productivity of the sea is judged on this basis to be about 20 per cent. less than that of the land. The actual amount is of less importance than the consequences it entails. If the methods of fishing are more destructive of one species than another, comparatively worthless species may become dominant in areas where they were formerly scarce, and thus consume the food which should be reserved for their betters. It is commonly reported that the dab has tended to usurp the position formerly taken by the plaice, not only in the Scottish firths, but on the Dogger Bank, in the Devonshire bays, and in other localities. Dr. Garstang, of the Marine Biological Association, tells us that small plaice transplanted to the Dogger Bank in 1904 grew three times as much in weight as did their fellows on the coastal banks; but in the following year they grew only twice as much, owing to the presence of vast quantities of small haddocks, which ate the plaice’s food and were nevertheless too small and worthless themselves to be landed by the fishermen. Yet formerly the Dogger teemed with large plaice and haddock. It was stated to the Royal Commission in 1863 that the fishermen avoided the Bank as causing gluts of fish and depreciation of price; and witnesses from Yarmouth and Hull assured the Commission that between two and three tons of fish, chiefly haddock and plaice, were frequently taken by smacks in a three hours’ haul. As small plaice are confined to the coastal banks, and large plaice are now scarce, it follows that the great food-reserves on the Dogger Bank, which seem providentially designed for the fattening of plaice, are wasted on worthless dabs and baby haddocks. Thus may one cause of impoverishment lead on to another. Perhaps the right remedy in a case like this is to promote the wholesale transplantation of young plaice, as in the case of oysters, mussels, etc. The experiments already made by the Marine Biological Association point strongly in this direction.

Thirdly, the excessive destruction of young fish is another, and perhaps the greatest, cause of the impoverishment of the sea. The destruction is enormous. In the winter of 1882-1883 it was estimated that in the Firth of Forth, the Firth of Tay, and the Moray Firth, 143,000,000 of young herrings and a much greater quantity of sprats were captured. These were mostly sold as manure. Yet the herring does not decrease; it is the flat-fish, the plaice and the sole, that suffer most. In 1896, 368 tons of small fish were seized by the Fishmongers Company at Billingsgate; in 1897, 143 tons; and in 1898, 96 tons. These were sold as manure or destroyed. Mr. Holt estimates that, while over 7,000,000 mature plaice were landed in the port of Grimsby during the year April, 1893, to March, 1894, over 9,000,000 plaice not sexually mature were brought to port; or, taking the trade distinction between ‘small’ and ‘large’ fish, over 6,500,000 plaice under 13 inches in length were landed, as against 9,700,000 over 13 inches. So many as 10,407 young plaice have been taken from a single drag of a shrimp trawl. These are but a few instances out of many, showing the great destruction which is going on among the young of our more valuable food-fishes.

The questions they suggest are still a matter of discussion. Whether even this destruction has an appreciable effect on the adult population is debatable. It does not seem to have affected the herring; and we must not forget the prodigious number of offspring given to fish. The taking of immature fish is not in itself uneconomic, unless by that means we so far reduce the total number that the adult stock begins to dwindle. Sardines are more valuable than their adult form, the pilchard; whitebait, mainly composed of young sprats, with from 1 to 20 per cent. of young herrings, fetch more in the market than the parent form; and so long as the adults exist in sufficient number to keep up the stock of fry, sardine and whitebait fishing is perfectly legitimate.

But, assuming impoverishment from one or other or all of the causes enumerated, we should ask what steps can be taken to check it, especially as regards the more valuable flat-fish. It is at this stage that scientific knowledge becomes particularly important. At least nine out of every ten Acts of restrictive legislation have been shown by experience to be futile, or to have produced results absolutely different from those anticipated. It is equally plain that the failure of these attempts to interfere with the natural course of events has been largely due to inadequate knowledge of the complicated factors which affect the growth, multiplication, and distribution of fish, and of the influence which particular modes of fishing exert upon the sources of supply.

Let us examine the first-mentioned cause of impoverishment, the destruction of the ‘accumulated stock.’ This formula has been eagerly adopted by some who hesitate to admit the existence of any form of over-fishing. It implies that a state of equilibrium is possible between the forces of destruction and the forces of repair; that on virgin territory older individuals tend to accumulate beyond what is necessary for the maintenance of the ‘current stock’; and that their removal entails no real injury to the supply. In scientific terms this means that the average age of mature individuals of a natural stock may be reduced by man to a lower point which represents the economic optimum. The Patagonian cannibals seem to have been early converts to the soundness of this theory. The difference between the Patagonian who eats his mother-in-law and the fisherman who destroys the overgrown plaice is that the former’s actions are deliberate and limited, while the removal of the accumulated stock is not so much an object of the fisherman as an unpremeditated consequence of the intensity with which fishing operations tend to be conducted. Does the fisherman abate his operations when the economic optimum has been reached? Clearly not. He fishes till it ceases to pay; and no other motive affects him. It is plainly a question for scientific inquiry whether, in a given case, the fishery has been prosecuted to excess, and has reduced the average age too far, or not.

On this question the International North Sea Investigations have already thrown valuable light, for the study of the intensity of fishing by means of definite experiments with marked fish has formed an important part of the programme; and the investigation of the age of plaice, cod, and other species has been vigorously prosecuted. According to the latest report of the Council of the Marine Biological Association, more than 7,000 marked plaice have been set free by their staff, and 24 per cent. altogether have been recaptured. Of the medium-sized fish which, furnish the best test of the intensity of fishing, 30 per cent. in twelve months have been captured in the southern part of the North Sea, where sailing trawlers predominate, and 40 per cent. on the Dogger Bank and adjacent grounds, where the fishing is done by steam-trawlers. It seems, however, that some of the fish lose their labels before being caught again. A still closer idea of the severity of the fishing may perhaps be got from another experiment with weighted bottles, which were specially devised by Mr. G. P. Bidder to act as indicators of bottom currents, and were thrown overboard from the _Huxley_ in the winter of 1904-1905, in the southward parts of the North Sea. Out of 600 bottles more than 54 per cent. were returned by trawl fishermen within twelve months. If anything like half the adolescent stock of plaice is taken by our trawlers every year on the deep-sea fishing-grounds, the establishment of the fact must profoundly affect our views as to the causes of depletion and the remedies to be applied; for the fishing in these instances seems not to have been on the so-called ‘small-fish’ grounds or nurseries, but in areas which have always been recognized as legitimate fields of work.

The possibility of determining the age of fish is quite a recent discovery, and is based on the observation that the scales, vertebræ, and especially the ‘otoliths’ or ear-stones of fish, show alternate dark and light rings of growth, corresponding with the summer and winter seasons of the year, exactly like the rings in the wood of trees. Many difficult problems are likely to be cleared up by a knowledge of the age of fish on different fishing-grounds; and, to judge from the scale on which this investigation is being pursued, it will not be long before we may expect something in the nature of an age-census. The Council of the Marine Biological Association have reported no less than 12,000 age-determinations of plaice by their North Sea staff up to June last; and the German and Dutch investigators are working on similar lines.

To conclude our argument, we should now examine the question whether it is possible to determine to what extent and in what manner the destruction of immature fish, which is admittedly enormous, is injurious to the permanent supply. We have already referred to Mr. Holt’s statistics, which showed that 40 per cent. of the plaice landed in Grimsby in the year 1893-1894 were below 13 inches in length. In 1904, 30 per cent. of the plaice landed from the North Sea on the whole East Coast were below 11 inches in length. German statistics show that from 1895 to 1904 there was no sensible increase in the total weight of plaice landed in that country, but the proportion of ‘small’ fish (below 14 inches in length) steadily increased from 68 per cent. in 1895 to 87 per cent. in 1904. There can thus be little doubt that the supply is being maintained only by drawing more and more upon the fish of smaller size and of less value.

It seems to have been too readily assumed, however, that this increasing destruction of small plaice is the great cause of the declining catches of better fish. Has the cart not been put before the horse? In view of what has been said above concerning the general severity of the fishing, does it not look as though the capture of increasing quantities of small plaice were a consequence, and not the cause, of the general depletion of the grounds? The people demand plaice. The proprietor of a large fried-fish shop in the East End was a witness before the House of Lords Committee on the Sea-Fisheries Bill of 1904. His customers numbered from 500 to 3,000 daily; and there were 2,000 other establishments of the same kind in London. He told the Committee: ‘Plaice is the most popular fish in our line of business; people do not care for any other.’ Owing to the higher price of plaice, however, he was often compelled to substitute cheaper kinds of fish. In one month he had even made five purchases of small turbot and brill, against only two of plaice, in order to meet the demand. ‘You must understand,’ he added, ‘that amongst the class of people we deal with we do not sell turbot and brill as turbot and brill; we have to sell it as plaice. Plenty of people, if you said you had turbots, would not have them.’ It is obvious that fishermen would not land small plaice if large were plentiful. It was not until the large fish became scarce that fishermen began to take the small.

If these facts are correctly stated, the remedial treatment of the undersized-plaice problem must be taken up from a new standpoint. We must apparently give up the expectation that by merely stopping the destruction of small plaice we shall replenish the sea. The fishing seems to be too severe for that. Every autumn our trawlers fish the waters between the Dogger and the eastern grounds, confident that they will take a good catch of medium-sized plaice averaging 12 to 15 inches in length. These are fish which no fisherman in these days would despise. Though mixed with a considerable proportion of still smaller fish, no possible size-limit will prevent him from reaping this annual harvest. These fish, as has now been shown by the North Sea experiments, are undertaking their first migration from the coastal grounds to the deeper waters. However much we protect the still smaller fish inshore, this wall of nets will be interposed every autumn between the shore and the open sea. The greater the benefits of protection inshore, the denser will be the barrier confronting the fish outside, and the smaller the chances of escape.

To this must be added a new disturbing element, mentioned by Dr. Garstang in his evidence before the House of Lords Committee in 1904. It is generally agreed that the only possible form which protection can take is that of a size-limit, below which it shall be illegal to land or sell fish. In the case of steam-trawlers this limit must be high enough to render it unprofitable for the boats to fish on grounds where the small plaice are most abundant, since the majority of undersized fish are too much injured in the process of capture to be capable of survival if returned to the sea. It is otherwise with the small local sailing-boats (whether Danish, German, or Dutch) which are accustomed to fish on the small-fish grounds. These boats catch the fish alive and throw the undersized fish overboard in a living condition. As they can operate nowhere else, it may be taken for granted that the Governments of their respective countries, however anxious they may be to improve the fisheries, will scarcely consent to impose such a size-limit as to render it unprofitable for their local boats to fish.

The utmost possible protection of the small plaice would consequently be attained by determining (_a_) a high size-limit for steam-trawlers, practically debarring them from fishing on the coastal grounds; and (_b_) the highest size-limit for sailing-boats that would be consistent with the profitable pursuit of their calling. The first pick of the fish would consequently fall to the local boats; and, if protection should result, as it is reasonable to expect, in an increase in the number of plaice on the coastal grounds, there would be every inducement for these local boats to multiply in number, with the laudable object of catching as many as possible of the marketable plaice before they could migrate to the offshore waters. In practice some fish would escape; but, in the absence of any restriction upon the number of local boats, there seems no reason to expect that the number of emigrant plaice would, in the long run, be any greater than at present. Even under existing conditions, the local fishery on the west coast of Denmark has developed from a value of about £40,000 in 1897 to nearly £80,000 in 1904.

If, however, we are right in assuming that a given area of ground can only produce a given weight of fish per annum, it is fairly certain that, under protection, the increased density of the fish inshore will result in a retardation in the average rate of growth, an example of which we have given on a previous page. This must produce one or other of two results: either the small fish will remain longer on the inshore grounds before emigration, or they will emigrate offshore at a smaller size than at present. Judging, therefore, from the evidence available, it seems probable that legislative restrictions on the lines indicated can do little to replenish the offshore fishing-grounds, while such restrictions may lead to a slight, and possibly a substantial, increase in the number of small boats fishing along the coasts affected.

While Great Britain can grudge no benefit to the fisheries of other countries, it is the improvement of the deep-sea fisheries which is the paramount interest of this country. Doubts, it has been said, are resolved by action; but if we have correctly analyzed the complicated factors which affect this problem, we have also shown how essential to right action is the fullest possible knowledge concerning all the factors involved. Grave as the North Sea problem undoubtedly is, it is equally certain that the condition of the fishing industry generally was never more prosperous than at the present time. The figures quoted in an earlier part of this article prove this statement to be no paradox. Interference of some kind, whether by legislation, transplantation, artificial culture, or some combination of all these means, seems ultimately to be inevitable. But, if we are to interfere with the fishing industry more successfully than our predecessors, we should take advantage of the present time of prosperity to increase our knowledge on every side--scientific, statistical, experimental--so as to be able to act with conviction when the whole circumstances are clearer and the adequacy of our proposals is less open to doubt. Moreover, in view of the growing interest of other countries, especially Germany and Holland, in deep-sea trawling, and of the international character of the most critical problems, there can be no two opinions as to the desirability of continuing these investigations on some kind of international basis, a basis which has already been productive of very promising results.

Before turning our attention to the various bodies which administer and investigate the fisheries of England, a short consideration of what is done in the two great countries which have scientifically developed their fisheries may be profitable. In Germany we have the Kiel Commission, and in the United States the Commission of Fish and Fisheries. The Kiel Commission exists for the scientific investigation of the German seas. It was established in 1870 at the suggestion of a German sea-fishery society--an interesting example of the belief which the German layman has in science. It consists of four Kiel professors--Hensen representing physiology, Karl Brandt zoology, Reinke botany, and Krümmel geography--and of Dr. Heincke, director of the biological station on Heligoland. An annual grant of £7,500 is made by the German Government for the maintenance of the laboratories at Kiel, the cost of steamers for investigations, the cost of the handsome reports published under the name of ‘Wissenschaftliche Meeresuntersuchungen,’ and for salaries; of these the five members of the Commission divide but £270 between them. The German Government has also spent considerable sums on the biological station in Heligoland, and make it an annual allowance of about £1,000.

The American Commission, like that of Kiel, is not an administrative body, but concerns itself with the acquisition and application of knowledge concerning fisheries; like it, too, it is independent of official control. It reports directly to Congress. It was established in 1871. Its work is, however, of a more practical kind; besides general scientific investigation, it collects fishery statistics and undertakes commercial fishery inquiries, assists in finding markets, and generally advises the trade and the Legislature when diplomatic action is indicated; finally, it is by far the most energetic fish-breeding institution in the world. Much of its work is concerned with the vast system of inland waters--rivers and lakes--which traverse the Continent. The work has been carried out on a scale unknown elsewhere, and Congress has supported it with ample funds. The appropriation in 1897-1898 exceeded £97,000, of which £41,000 was spent on salaries, £16,000 on scientific investigations and upkeep of steamers, £37,000 on fish-culture (mostly fresh-water), and £3,000 on administration and statistics. Besides this central body, many of the States possess fish commissions of their own. The commissioners control numerous laboratories and fish-hatcheries, two sea-going vessels, and many railway-cars specially designed for the transport of fish-fry.

Space does not permit our dealing with the Scottish and Irish Fishery Boards. The former has existed for a century, and, being independent of departmental control, while enjoying a moderate income and the advice of such zoologists as Goodsir, Allman, Sir John Murray, Cossar Ewart, W. C. McIntosh--who has done more than anyone in the Empire to elucidate the life-histories of marine fishes--and D’Arcy Thompson, together with an able staff, the Fishery Board for Scotland has done much thorough and useful work. The fisheries of Ireland suffered from the economic disturbances which overtook Ireland during the nineteenth century, and reached, perhaps, their lowest ebb in 1890. The industrial revival, with which the name of Sir Horace Plunkett is so indissolubly connected, has included in its scope the Irish fisheries. The fishery branch of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction receives an annual grant of £10,000, and, under the guidance of the Rev. S. Green and Mr. E. W. L. Holt, is already doing much to promote the fishing of the well-stocked Irish seas.

The English official fishery staff seems to have sprung from the requirements of the Salmon Fishery Act of 1861. To carry out the regulations over fresh-water fisheries recommended by that Act two inspectors were appointed, and these were at first attached to the Home Office; a further Act in 1886 transferred these inspectors to the Board of Trade, and extended their duties so as to include the preparation of annual reports on sea-fisheries. In 1903 another transfer took place; and the inspectors were transferred to the Board of Agriculture, which then became the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries.

At present the central staff consists of an assistant secretary and two inspectors, in addition to a body of statistical experts. Their duties are far too numerous for so small a staff. Much of their time is taken up with the comparatively unimportant fresh-water fisheries; and these are the subject of a separate report. Without actually administering the byelaws of the local committees, they exercise a certain supervision over their actions. They have to attend numerous inquiries all over the country, and to prepare annual reports; and they are responsible for the collection of the statistics which have recently assumed so extensive a development. Besides the central authorities at the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, there are local fisheries committees established by an Act of 1888. These committees can be established by the county and borough councils on application to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, which defines the area over which a committee shall have jurisdiction. One-half of such a committee is chosen by the local councils, and one-half by the central authority. The necessary money is raised by a local rate. A committee may draft byelaws; but these only become operative if confirmed by the Board. These byelaws differ, according to conditions, in different parts of England. They deal largely with restrictions on trawling. No steam-trawler is allowed to trawl within the three-mile limit around the coast of England; even the sailing trawler is forbidden. The byelaws also deal with the sizes of the meshes of nets, shrimping, crabbing, etc.

Neither the central authorities, whose chief function is to administer the law and collect statistics, nor the local committees, whose expenditure is limited to the ‘shell-fisheries’--and, stretch the Act to the breaking point, you still cannot make a flat-fish into a shellfish--have either the time or the money for scientific experiment. This has to a large extent been left to local or private enterprise, and is mainly confined to three centres--the Northumberland coast, the Lancashire and western district, and the Channel and North Sea. The first-named area has recently been supplied by a private benefactor with funds for an efficient laboratory at Cullercoats, from which much useful work may be expected.

It is difficult to disentangle the Lancashire and Western Sea-fishery Committee from Liverpool University on the one hand, and from the Liverpool Marine Biological Committee or Society on the other. The Committee owns a handsome marine station at Port Erin, on the Isle of Man; here and at the fish-hatchery at Peel, in Cumberland, the largest fish-breeding experiments in England are carried out. In 1904, 5,000,000 young plaice were reared and put into the sea from Port Erin alone. The Committee publishes annual reports and a series of ‘Memoirs.’ It is probably to this Committee that the University owes its connexion with the local sea-fisheries authorities. In the laboratories and museums of the University the scientific work of the local districts is carried on by officials paid by the Fisheries Committee; and special rooms in the handsome new zoological department have been assigned to these two organizations. The connecting link between the three bodies is the professor of zoology, Dr. Herdman, who is honorary director of the scientific work, and to whose untiring energy the University and the district owe a large debt. With him work two trained naturalists, Dr. Jenkins, the Superintendent of the District Committee, and Mr. James Johnstone, whose lucid and admirable work is mentioned at the head of this article. From it many of our figures and facts have been taken.

The third and last body occupied with original marine research is the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. It is the most important of these institutions, and aims at a national rather than a local activity. The fine laboratory which dominates the eastern end of Plymouth Hoe was erected at a cost of £12,000, and opened in 1888. The object of the Association is to ‘promote researches leading to the improvement of zoological and botanical science, and to an increase of our knowledge as regards the food, life-conditions, and habits of British food-fishes and molluscs.’ Although a high average of scientific work has been displayed in the published ‘Memoirs’ connected with the Plymouth laboratory, great attention has also been paid to matters of practical interest. In a list of some 350 papers published, with the aid or under the auspices of the Association, between 1886 and 1900, nearly one-half deal directly with economic problems. From 1892 to 1895 the officers of the Association carried on at Grimsby extensive investigations into the destruction of immature fish; and it is gratifying to find that the Select Committee of 1893 extended its recognition to the ‘facts and statistics’ submitted by the Scotch Fishery Board and by the Association. In the summer of 1902 the Association, at the request of the Government, undertook to carry out the English portion of the International Investigation of the North Sea. The scope of this inquiry is immense; and its importance to the largest fisheries available for our fishermen is incalculable. Some idea of the kind of work accomplished has been furnished in the preceding pages.

What now seems to be most required, in addition to the maintenance of the work already in progress, is a closer co-operation of these various bodies with one another and with the central authority now established under the President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. The outlines of some such scheme seem plainly indicated by the existing constitution of these various bodies. The Fisheries Department is responsible for administration, statistics, and general advice to the President of the Board on fishery matters. The Marine Biological Association undertakes general marine investigations of a national as distinct from a local character, as well as such local investigations and experiments as can conveniently be carried out at its laboratories. The Sea-fishery Committees need additional powers to enable them to carry out local scientific investigations more fully in their respective areas. Perhaps an annual conference between the representatives and experts of these bodies and the officials of the Fishery Department, for the express purpose of drawing up plans of work for the ensuing year, would, in the first instance, be the best means of leading up to more intimate co-operation and organization.

The Reports on the North Sea Investigation so far published deal only with the work of the earlier years of the investigations; but already the great prospective value of the results is fully apparent. The Marine Biological Association has carried out the portion of the general scheme entrusted to it with energy and success; and Englishmen have no need to fear comparison with the work done in other countries.

ZEBRAS, HORSES, AND HYBRIDS

_This matchless horse
Is the true pearl of every caravan._
SIR F. H. DOYLE.

The views and writings of Darwin have influenced in an unexpected way the nature of the work carried on by biological investigators during the past fifty years. To a great extent, whilst generally holding the doctrines he held, they have forsaken his methods of inquiry.

If animals and plants have arrived at their present state by descent with modification from simpler forms, it ought to be possible by careful searching to trace the line of ancestry; and it is this fascinating but frequently futile pursuit which has dominated the minds of many of our ablest zoologists for the last thirty years. To such an extent has this pedigree-hunting been carried that there is scarcely a group of invertebrates from which the vertebrates have not been theoretically derived; and one of the ablest of our physiologists has used his great powers in the attempt to trace the origin of the backboned animals from a spider-like creature, and has exercised his ingenuity in a plausible but unconvincing effort to equate the organs of a king-crab with those of a lamprey. This appeal to comparative anatomy and the consequent neglect of living animals and their habits are no doubt partly due to the influence of Huxley, Darwin’s most brilliant follower and exponent. He had the engineer’s way of looking at the world, and his influence was paramount in many schools. The trend which biology has taken since Darwin’s time is also partly due to a fervent belief in the recapitulation theory, according to which an animal in developing from the egg passes through phases which resemble certain stages in the past history of the ancestors of the animals. For example, there is no doubt that both birds and mammals are descended from some fish-like animal that lived in the water and breathed by gills borne on slits in the gullet, and every bird and mammal passes through a stage in which these gill-slits are present, though their function is lost, and they soon close up and disappear. In the hope, which has been but partially realized, that a knowledge of the stages through which an animal passes on its path from the ovum to the adult would throw light on the origin of the race, the attention of zoologists has been largely concentrated on details of embryology, and a mass of facts has already been accumulated which threatens to overwhelm the worker.

The two chief factors which play a part in the origin of species are heredity and variation, and until we know more about the laws which govern these factors, we cannot hope to arrive at any satisfactory criteria by which we can estimate the importance of the data accumulated for us by comparative anatomists and embryologists. Signs are not wanting that this view is beginning to be appreciated. The publication of ‘Materials for the Study of Variation’ by Mr. Bateson some years ago shows that there exists a small but active school of workers in this field; and recent congresses on hybridization give evidence that in America, on the Continent, and in Great Britain, one of the most important sides of heredity is being minutely and extensively explored. Professor Cossar Ewart’s experiments, which we shall attempt to summarize, deal with heredity and cognate matters, and although they are so far from complete that the results hitherto obtained cannot be regarded as final, they mark an important stage in the history of the subject.

Twelve years ago Professor Ewart began to collect materials for the study of the embryology of the horse, about which, owing to the costliness of the necessary investigations, very little is at present known. At the same time he determined to inquire into certain theories of heredity which have for centuries influenced the breeders of horses and cattle, and the belief in which has played a large part in the production of our more highly bred domestic animals. Foremost amongst these is the view widely held amongst breeders that a sire influences all the later progeny of a dam which has once produced a foal to him. This belief in the ‘infection of the germ,’ or ‘throwing-back’ to a previous sire, is probably an old one, possibly as old as the similar faith in maternal impressions which led Jacob to placed peeled wands before the cattle and sheep of his father-in-law Laban. The phenomenon has recently been endowed with a new name--Telegony. Since the publication of Lord Morton’s letter to Dr. W. H. Wollaston, President of the Royal Society, in 1820, it has attracted the attention, not only of practical breeders, but of theoretical men of science. The supporters of telegony, when pressed by opponents, having almost always fallen back on Lord Morton’s mare, it will be well to recall the chief incidents in the history of this classic animal.

It appears that early in last century Lord Morton was desirous of domesticating the quagga. He succeeded in obtaining a male, but, failing to procure a female, he put him to a young chestnut mare of seven-eighths Arab blood which had never been bred from before. The result was the production of a female hybrid apparently intermediate in character between the sire and the dam. A short time afterwards Lord Morton sold his mare to Sir Gore Ouseley, who bred from her by a fine black Arabian horse. The offspring of this union, examined by Lord Morton, were a two-year-old filly and a year-old colt. He describes them as having

‘the character of the Arabian breed as decidedly as can be expected
where fifteen-sixteenths of the blood are Arabian, and they are
fine specimens of that breed; but both in their colour and in the
hair of their manes they have a striking resemblance to the
quagga.’

The description of the stripes visible on their coats is careful and circumstantial, but the evidence of the nature of the mane is less convincing:

‘Both their manes are black; that of the filly is short, stiff, and
stands upright, and Sir Gore Ouseley’s stud-groom alleged that it
never was otherwise. That of the colt is long, but so stiff as to
arch upwards and to hang clear of the sides of the neck, in which
circumstance it resembles that of the hybrid.

This is the classical--we might almost say the test--case of telegony: the offspring resembled not so much the sire as an earlier mate of the dam. The facts related tended to confirm the popular view, and that view is now widely spread. Arab breeders act on the belief, and it is so strongly implanted in the minds of certain English breeders that they make a point of mating their mares first with stallions having a good pedigree, so that their subsequent progeny may benefit by his influence, even though poorly-bred sires are subsequently resorted to.

The evidence of Lord Morton’s mare convinced Darwin of the existence of telegony. After a careful review of the case, he says: ‘There can be no doubt that the quagga affected the character of the offspring subsequently got by the black Arabian horse.’ Darwin, however, latterly came to the conclusion that telegony only occurred rarely, and some years before his death expressed the opinion that it was ‘a very occasional phenomenon.’ Agassiz believed in telegony. He was strongly of opinion

‘that the act of fecundation is not an act which is limited in its
effect, but that it is an act which affects the whole system, the
sexual system especially; and in the sexual system the ovary to be
impregnated hereafter is so modified by the first act that later
impregnations do not efface that first impression.

Romanes also believed that telegony occasionally occurred. He paid a good deal of attention to the matter, commenced experiments in the hope of settling the question, and corresponded at length on this subject with professional and amateur breeders and fanciers. The result of his investigations led him to the conclusion ‘that the phenomenon is of much less frequent occurrence than is generally supposed. Indeed, it is so rare that I doubt whether it takes place in more than 1 or 2 per cent. of cases.’ He adds that his professional correspondents regard this as an absurdly low estimate. Tegetmeier and Sutherland believe that telegony exists in dogs and other animals; and Captain Hayes, whose opinion probably coincides with that of the majority of veterinary surgeons, takes for granted that it occurs in horses. A controversy some years ago in the _Contemporary Review_ shows us that Mr. Herbert Spencer was a firm upholder of telegony, and that he had a theory of his own as to the mode in which it is brought about.

The explanations put forward by the supporters of telegony as to the mechanism by which it is effected differ widely. It will be well to discuss them here. The view that telegony is due to the mental impression of the dam, held by Sir Everard Home and many others since his day, has nothing to support it; but the other two views, which may be termed (1) the infection hypothesis, and (2) the saturation hypothesis, demand more detailed treatment.

The infection hypothesis supposes that the reproductive organs of the mother are specifically altered or infected by bearing offspring to a previous sire. The method by which this is effected is now most commonly thought to be by a fusion or blending of some of the unused germ-cells of the first sire with the unripe ova in the ovary of the dam. Physiologists, however, regard this as very unlikely. Although at the time that the ovum of a mare is fertilized there are usually other ova almost mature, or approaching maturity, these disappear during gestation. Subsequent offspring arise from successive crops of ova, into whose composition it is most improbable that the earlier spermatozoa could enter. Further, it is known that in the Equidæ the male germinal cells do not live long within the body of the female; they are already disintegrating eight days after insemination, and they probably lose their fertilizing power after three or four days, if not sooner; hence it is not possible for them to remain in the body during the whole of a period of gestation and to fertilize the next succeeding batch of ova.

The second theory which attempts to account for the phenomenon of telegony is termed the saturation hypothesis. In the words of Mr. Bruce Lowe, who has formulated the theory, we may say that, ‘briefly put, it means that with each mating and bearing the dam absorbs some of the nature or actual circulation of the yet unborn foal, until she eventually becomes saturated with the sire’s nature or blood, as the case may be.’ Although not very well expressed, it is obvious what the author means; and if this saturation really takes place, it accounts for a good deal more than telegony. It would affect the whole body and nature of the dam, and not only the reproductive organs, which, according to Romanes and others, are alone influenced. There is no doubt that matter can and does pass from the blood of the embryo into that of the mother--in certain classes of mammalia, at any rate. The published Report of the Fourth International Congress of Zoology, which met in 1898 at Cambridge, contains a paper by Professor Hubrecht, of Utrecht, in which he describes certain blood-corpuscles formed in the embryo which undoubtedly make their way into the maternal bloodvessels and take part in her circulation. That matter can pass from the bloodvessels of the embryo to those of the mother is further demonstrated by the experiments of M. Charrin, who showed that diphtheritic toxins injected into the embryos of a rabbit caused the death of the mother within five days, and further that a rabbit can be rendered immune by injecting anti-diphtheritic toxins into the embryos.

There is nothing in these experiments to show that the nature of the dam is radically altered; and in the Equidæ, in which, as we have seen, the classical case of telegony occurred, there is a strong presumption against any such transference of blood-corpuscles from the embryo to the mother. Still, taking all the facts into consideration, it appears that, if telegony exists, it is more likely to be brought about by saturation than by the direct infection of the ovary; though, if the former method be accepted, telegony must be confined to the mammals and the comparatively few other animals whose young spend some time in the body of the mother and are not hatched out from eggs which have lost their connexion with the body of the mother at an early stage.

Before passing on to consider the views of those who hold that telegony does not exist and to see what light the Penycuik experiments throw on the subject, a word or two may be said about Mr. Herbert Spencer’s theory of the mode in which telegony, in which he firmly believed, is brought about. He suggested that some ‘germ-plasm’ passes from the embryo into the mother and becomes a permanent part of her body, and that this is diffused throughout her whole structure until it affects, amongst other organs, the reproductive glands. This view, which in some respects recalls the pangenesis of Darwin, is intermediate between the saturation and the infection hypotheses. Professor Ewart refers to it as ‘indirect infection.’

Weismann, to whom we owe the term telegony, came to consider the facts for and against its existence in connexion with his well-known inquiry into the inheritance of acquired characters. If telegony be true, there is no need to look further for a clear case of the inheritance of a character which has been acquired during the lifetime of the parent. The quagga-ness--if one may be permitted to use such an expression--of Lord Morton’s mare was acquired when she was put to the quagga or shortly afterwards, and was transmitted to her foals. A clearer case of a character acquired during lifetime and transmitted to offspring could not be imagined. Weismann does not absolutely deny the possibility of the existence of telegony, but he would like more evidence. In the _Contemporary Review_ he writes: ‘I must say that to this day, and in spite of the additional cases brought forward by Spencer and Romanes, I do not consider that telegony has been proved.’ And further: ‘I should accept a case like that of Lord Morton’s mare as satisfactory evidence if it were quite certainly beyond doubt. But that is by no means the case, as Settegast has abundantly proved.’ He would, in fact, refer the case to reversion, and quotes Settegast to the effect that every horse-breeder is well aware that the cases are not rare when colts are born with stripes which recall the markings of a quagga or zebra. We shall return to this point later.

A considerable number of German breeders support the contention of Weismann that telegony is as yet unproven, and it may be pointed out that in Germany, on the whole, breeders have had a more scientific education than in England, and that in that country science is regarded with less aversion or contempt than is usually the case among so-called practical men in England. Settegast has been quoted above: neither he nor Nathusius, a leading authority on domestic cattle, has ever met with a case of telegony, and the same is true of Professor Kühn, the late Director of the Prussian Agricultural Station at Halle. We may mention one more case of an experienced breeder who was equally sceptical--the late Sir Everett Millais, who was, as is well known, an authority of great weight in the matter of dog-breeding. He writes as follows, in a lecture entitled ‘Two Problems of Reproduction’:

‘I may further adduce the fact that in a breeding experience of
nearly thirty years’ standing, during which I have made all sorts
of experiments with pure-bred dams and wild sires, and returned
them afterwards to pure sires of their own breeds, I have never
seen a case of telegony, nor has my breeding-stock suffered. I may
further adduce the fact that I have made over fifty experiments for
Professor Romanes to induce a case of telegony in a variety of
animals--dogs, ducks, hens, pigeons, etc.--but I have hopelessly
failed, as has every single experimenter who has tried to produce
the phenomenon.’

It is thus evident that there was a considerable body of opinion, both practical and theoretical, for and against telegony; and that a re-investigation of the subject was urgently needed. Such a re-investigation has been begun by Professor Ewart at Penycuik. Since the clearest and most definite evidence of this throwing back to a previous sire is derived from the crossing of different species of the Equidæ, it was desirable to repeat the experiment of Lord Morton. This is now unfortunately impossible, because the quagga is extinct. The zebra is, however, still with us, and the mating of a zebra stallion with every variety of horse, pony, and ass, and subsequently putting the dam to pure-bred sires, has been the more important part of the numerous experiments carried on in the Midlothian village some ten miles southwest of Edinburgh.

Before considering in detail the result of the experiments it will be necessary to say a few words on the question of the various species of zebra; and since, like Weismann, Professor Ewart explains certain of the phenomena attributed to telegony by reversion, it will be as well to inquire how far reversion is known amongst the Equidæ, and what evidence we have that the ancestor of the horse was striped.

Matopo, the zebra stallion from which Professor Ewart had, some eight years ago, bred eleven zebra-hybrids from mares of various breeds and sizes, belongs to the widely distributed group of Burchell’s zebras. Many sub-species or varieties are included in this group, which, as regards the pattern of the stripes, passes--in certain varieties found in Nyassaland--into the second species, the mountain zebra, once common in South Africa. The third species is the Grévy’s zebra of Shoa and Somaliland; it is probably this species which attracted so much attention in the Roman amphitheatres during the third century of our era. A pair of Somali zebras were presented to the late Queen some years ago by the Emperor Menelik, and for a time were lodged in the Zoological Gardens, Regent’s Park. This species measures about fifteen hands high, is profusely striped, and stands well apart from the other two groups. It is important to note that in Professor Ewart’s opinion it is the most primitive of all the existing striped horses.

There is no direct evidence that the ancestors of horses were striped. Certain observers think that some of the scratches on the life-like etchings on bone, left us by our palæolithic cave-dwelling ancestors, indicate such stripes; but little reliance can be placed on this. On the other hand there is much indirect evidence. Every one who has an eye for a horse, and who has travelled in Norway, is sure to have noticed the stripings, often quite conspicuous, on the dun-coloured Norwegian ponies. Colonel Poole assured Darwin that the Kathiawar horses had frequently ‘stripes on the cheeks and sides of the nose.’ Breeders are well aware that foals are often born with stripes, usually on the shoulders or legs, less frequently on the face. Such stripes as a rule disappear as the colt grows up, but can often be detected in later life for a short time after the coat has been shed; they are sometimes only visible in certain lights, and then produce somewhat the same impression as a watered silk. From the facts that more or less striped horses are found all over the Old World; that in Mexico and other parts of America the descendants of horses which were introduced by the Spaniards and which afterwards ran wild are frequently dun-coloured and show stripes; that foals are frequently striped; and that mules not uncommonly have leg and shoulder stripes, the inference is largely justified that the ancestors of all our horses were striped.