5 MARCH 1921, Page 24

The Resources of the Sea. By W. M. McIntosh. (Cambridge

University Press. 358. net.)—Dr. McIntosh, the well-known Director of the Gatty Marine Laboratory at St. Andrews, has produced after twenty-one years a second edition of his standard work on the Scottish fisheries. His main contention was that the resources of the sea were not lessened to any appreciable extent by all the modern trawling fleets. In a long additional chapter he urges that the investigations made since 1899 by the countries bordering on the North Sea have confirmed his argument. " If a small bay like that of St. Andrews can defy the local and immigrant fishing vessels of all kinds, and hold its own, even on a narrow strip, what permanent effect can the mere scraping of about three-fourths of the North Sea (Moray Frith included), with its 140,000 square miles, several times a year, have on its fish-fauna, especially when it has a considerable area of untrawlable ground, not to allude to the belt within the three-mile limit, or to the vast increment of young fishes it receives from the north and more sparingly from the south ? " Dr. McIntosh gives sound reasons for his optimism, and his review of the evidence accumulated during the past twenty years is of great interest. He indulges in some sharp criticism of the Scottish Fisheries Board.