September, 1922. The Irish Naturalist 97 



ERNEST W. L. HOLT. 



By the death in London on June loth of Mr. E. W. L. 

 Holt, Chief Inspector of Irish Fisheries, Irish Marine 

 Zoology has lost not only one of its ablest and most versatile 

 investigators, but also an efficient supporter, for though 

 his interests were mainly centered in the institution of 

 which he became the head and with which he was for so 

 long associated, he was always ready to aid any researches 

 which seemed likely to yield useful results. 



Ernest William Lyons Holt was born in London on the 

 17th October, 1864. He was educated at Eton, where he 

 gained the Biological Prize, and, entering the army through 

 Sandhurst, was gazetted to the Duke of Cornwall's Light 

 Infantry. He served through the Nile campaign of 1884-5 

 and afterwards in the Burmese War of 1886-7, during which 

 his health broke down and he was invalided home. After 

 leaving the army he took up the study of zoology in 1888, 

 and while acting as assistant to the Professor of Zoology at 

 St. Andrews he commenced those researches in ichthyology 

 which afterwards became his chief interest. 



Holt first came into touch with Irish zoology in 1890, 

 when he was appointed assistant-naturalist to the Survey 

 of the Fishing Grounds of the West Coast of Ireland, organ- 

 ised by the Royal Dublin Society, and carried out on board 

 the steamer " Fingal," replaced in 1891 by the " Harlequin." 

 The general report on the Survey was entirely his own work, 

 and he subsequently published valuable papers on the eggs 

 and larval stages of fishes taken during the Survey, and also, 

 in collaboration with W. L. Calderwood, on the rarer fishes, 

 chiefly deep sea forms taken during an extension of the 

 cruise into the deep water of the Atlantic. 



After the completion of the Survey, Holt joined the 

 staff of the Marine Biological Association, having been 

 appointed to take charge of a laboratory which wa^ opened 

 at Grimsby for the purpose of studying the fishery problems 

 of the North Sea. Here he continued his fishery investi- 

 gations, applying scientific methods to the solution of 

 practical problems of economic importance, and helping 



