9,8 Tlie Irish Naturalist. September, 



to lay the foundations of those enqmries which in time 

 resulted in the founding of the International Council for 

 the Study of the Sea. Leaving Grimsby in 1894, he worked 

 for some time at the Station Zoologique d'Endoume at 

 Marseilles, where he published a comprehensive and finely 

 illustrated paper on the larval developm^ent cf Mediterranean 

 fishes. He then returned to England and spent three years 

 at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, where in addition to 

 ichthyolog}/ he took up the study of various groups of 

 invertebrates. 



In 1898, when the first Irish marine laboratory was 

 started by the Royal Dublin Society, Holt returned to Ire- 

 land to take charge of it, and when in 1900 the Department 

 of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland was 

 founded and the marine laboratory, then at Ballynakill, 

 Go. Galway, was transferred to its care, he was appointed 

 Scientific Adviser to the Fisheries Branch of the Department, 

 becoming subsequently, in 1908, Inspector of Fisheries and, 

 on the retirement of the Rev. W. S. Green in 1914, Chief 

 Inspector. 



As soon as he joined the Fisheries Branch of the Depart- 

 ment, Holt devoted all his energies to the furtherance of 

 fishing investigation on a scientific basis, and to bringing 

 Irish investigations into line with the most recent British 

 and European work. When the International Council for 

 the Study of the Sea was founded, he successfully pressed 

 the claim of Ireland to play her part in the work then being- 

 organised, and again, when Dr. Schmidt commenced his 

 memorable researches into the life-history of the freshwater 

 eel, Holt came to his aid and, as Schmidt has recorded, was 

 able more than any other to forward his work. 



Most of the results of Holt's personal studies after coming 

 to Ireland will be found in the Scientific Investigations of 

 the Fisheries Branch, a series of reports which consist in 

 the earlier years very largely of his own work, and in which 

 the share contributed by his colleagues was mainly the 

 result of his inspiration and instigation. He early devoted 

 his attention to the improvement of methods of Salmon 

 hatching and rearing in Ireland, and was instrumental in 

 starting a number of new^ hatcheries. Lie also set on foot,. 



