ARTIFICIAL OYSTER CULTURE. 1133 



knowledge of the habits and life-history of fishes, has been 

 proved by the experience of the American and French 

 commissions. Without such knowledge we cannot improve 

 our fisheries commercially ; with it, there is every proba- 

 bility that a great deal may be done in the way of controll- 

 ing and extending them. 



"In order to gain accurate knowledge as to the cir- 

 cumstances which affect the life of fishes, and the various 

 molluscs, shell-fishes, corals, and sponges, which are im- 

 portant commercially as well as interesting from the 

 scientific point of view, it is necessary that continuous 

 observations should be made upon their growth from the 

 egg onwards, upon their food and its natural history, as well 

 as upon their enemies and the conditions favouring, or inju- 

 rious to their life. 



" Such observations can only be successfully carried 

 out by persons resident on the sea-coast. 



" In order to enable competent observers to spend such 

 time as they can afford for these studies to the greatest 

 advantage, Zoological Observatories have been established 

 on the sea-coast of foreign countries, but at present there 

 is no such observatory on the British coast. 



" The first observatory of the kind is ' the Zoological 

 Station' established by Dr. Dohrn at Naples, which is fre- 

 quented by naturalists from all parts of Europe. Its build- 

 ings and aquaria represent an expenditure of ^20,000, and 

 its annual expenditure is over /^ooo. 



" Similar observatories have been established by the 

 Austrian government at Trieste, and by the French govern- 

 ment at Concarneau, Roscoff, and Villefranche. 



"It has been for some years the desire of English 

 naturalists to establish a zoological observatory on the 

 British coast, which would be in charge of a competent 



