1907] The Marine Biological Station and its Work. 107 



described many beautiful Peridinians, usually regarded as plants, 

 also Diatoms and various Foraminifers and Infusorians, as well 

 as pelagic crustaceans and larvae of higher forms, all of which 

 are elements in that floating food upon which young fishes feed 

 in Nova Scotian waters. 



The three reports by Professor Knight, of Queen's Univer- 

 sitv, are in many respects the most valuable in the volume, for 

 they treat of subjects of the highest public importance. The 

 "Sawdust Question" is dealt with in a "further" and a "final" 

 report, and the laborious investigations and experiments com- 

 menced by Dr. Knight in 1900 and continued season after 

 season for four or five years, are here presented in concise and 

 readable form. Our law-makers must in future consult these 

 splendid reports before attempting legislation on the grave 

 "sawdust versus fish" controversy. The killing of fish by dyna- 

 mite has been much practised in spite of statutory prohibitions, 

 and Dr. Knight, at the suggestion of Professor Prince, carried 

 out with much skill and at some bodily risk, experimental re- 

 searches which prove how wasteful such nefarious fishing is. 

 Professor Knight's reports entitle him to the profound gratitude 

 of the Canadian public. 



Dr. Joseph Stafford, who continues to act as Curator of the 

 Station, reports on the Atlantic fauna; his short list of sponges, 

 Coelenterates and Echinoderms, 70 species in all, is the pre- 

 liminary instalment of a more complete list, which wall form a 

 desirable supplement to the splendid list published seven years 

 ago by Dr. Whiteaves. A large collection has been made at 

 each of the five locations where the work has been carried on. 

 A knowledge of the animal and plant life in each locality is, from 

 a fishery standpoint, a necessary preliminary. "The study of 

 the environment of fish and fisheries" (the Director of the 

 Station, Professor Prince justly observes) "is as necessary as the 

 studv of the fish themselves and their habits, and of the practical 

 methods of exploiting fishery resources." 



Dr. Stafford has established a wide reputation as an 

 authority upon Trematodes and other parasites, and his 

 numerous papers, published largely in Germany, are substantial 

 contributions to science. His paper on Trematodes or parasitic 

 sucker-worms (the tenth in the present series) is a concise account 

 of the group and their life-history, so far as known, and he gives 

 a list of 28 known and 10 undetermined species a very creditable 

 addition to American Helminthology. Dr. A. H. MacKay, 

 Superintendent of Education for Nova Scotia, furnishes a list 

 of the Diatoms of Canso, and he states that the 73 species which 

 he determined do not exhaust all the material secured at the 



