438 NATURAL SCIENCE [December 



The half-yearly report of the inspector for the eastern sea fisheries district 

 just issued, states that the fishing during this season has been much above the 

 average. The rigid enforcement of the regulation against taking undersized 

 shell fish has benefited the fishing-grounds. The chief offenders in this respect 

 are the lobster and whelk fishers, whose practice it has been to use undersized 

 crabs for bait. At one place alone the destruction of undersized edible crabs for 

 this purpose has been upwards of 3,000 in each day's fishing, and the number of 

 ' unsizeable ' crabs destroyed along the Norfolk coast has been greater than the 

 whole number of ' sizeable ' crabs landed. The wholesome effect of prosecutions 

 and convictions, and the increased efficiency of inspection during recent years, is 

 shown by the fact that " all the fishermen report that the ground contains more 

 small crabs than have ever been seen by them before." 



Canada is to have a floating biological station in the Gulf of St Lawrence for 

 at least five years, and the Government of the Dominion has appropriated £1400 

 for the purpose. The board of management consists of Prof. E. E. Prince, 

 director ; Professors D. P. Penhallow and E. W. MacBride, of McGill University ; 

 Prof. Eamsay Wright, of Toronto University ; Prof. L. W. Bailey, of the Uni- 

 versity of New Brunswick ; Prof. A. P. Knight, of Queen's University ; and 

 Eev. V. A. Huart, of Laval University. . For the first year the laboratory will be 

 on the south shore of Prince Edward Island, and will be moved annually. It is 

 hoped that active work may begin early in 1899. 



Mr George Murray, Keeper of the Botanical Department of the British 

 Museum, has organised an expedition for the study of intermediate ocean depths. 

 With the aid of the Royal Geographical Society, the Drapers' Company, and the 

 Fishmongers' Company, he chartered the ss. " Oceana," which was fitted with 

 deep-sea gear by the Silvertown Telegraph Cable Company. Mr Murray is 

 accompanied by two of his colleagues, J. W. Gregory and V. H. Blackman, as well 

 as by Dr Sambon, J. E. S. Moore, and Percy Highley, the last-mentioned acting 

 as artist. The steamer, after some delay from fogs, left the Thames on November 

 16, and proceeded directly to the west coast of Ireland, where work was begun at 

 the edge of the 100-fathom platform, about thirty miles west of Dingle Bay. It 

 was intended to steam slowly for about 10 degrees westward, making continuous 

 observations with a vertical chain of tow-nets, which would gradually be lowered 

 until, with a length of 2000 fathoms, the series would include 38 nets. Thus the 

 difference between the faunas of different depths in the same part of the ocean 

 can be estimated by comparing the contents of the nets. Experiments with 

 various forms of self-closing nets will be made for the sake of comparison. 

 Soundings and observations of temperatures will be taken, and there may be 

 opportunity for some deep-sea trawling. 



A detailed natural history survey of the long sand-bank known as the North 

 Bull, in Dublin Bay, recently undertaken by Messrs Praeger and Halbert, is, says 

 the Irish Naturalist, turning out unexpectedly interesting from a zoological point 

 of view, as this apparently inhospitable spot has already yielded several additions 

 to the Irish fauna. 



Mr John S. Budgett has started for the Gambia, under the instructions of 

 the Zoological Society of London, in order to gather information concerning the 

 larger mammals of the colony, and to make zoological collections, especially of 

 the fishes. 



The following telegram has been received from Dr J. Stadling, who was sent 

 by the Swedish Geographical Society to search for Andree. It is dated Irkutsk, 

 November 2 : — " There being no telegraph in Siberia north of Irkutsk, I am 

 sending this note by messenger up the River Lena to that place for telegraphic 

 dispatch. We are now, on September 15, at the Lena delta, having been pursuing 



