Thomson. — Portobello Marine Fish-hatchery. 553 



been successfully accomplished at several stations in the Northern 

 Hemisphere. Nowhere, indeed, has this work been more suc- 

 cessfully carried out than at the biological station of the Com- 

 missioners of Inland Fisheries, Rhode Island, U.S.A. ; and Dr. 

 A. D. Mead, of Brown University, with his small floating labora- 

 tory, has been able there to rear vast numbers of these crusta- 

 ceans to a stage when they ceased to swim, and could be liberated 

 on a rocky bottom. All the available information on this sub- 

 ject has been kindly communicated to the local Board by Dr. 

 Mead. It is also the case that the common shore crab of Britain 

 (Carcinus mcenas) has been introduced into Australian waters 

 within the last few years, and has spread round the shores of 

 Port Philip. How it was brought out is not clear — perhaps in 

 ballast, or attached in some way to ships' bottoms — but the 

 occurrence is recorded by Mr. S. W. Fulton in the " Proceedings 

 of the Royal Society of Victoria," vol. xiv, p. 55. 



The possibility of conveying live lobsters to the colony was 

 solved by the Otago Acclimatisation Society in 1891, when nine 

 specimens were brought out by Mr. Purvis, chief engineer of 

 the s.s. " Ionic." There being no suitable place in which to 

 keep them, these specimens — which were in fine condition — 

 were taken down to the mole at Otago Heads and liberated 

 there. The locality is one exposed to all easterly weather, and 

 is subject to continual strong tidal currents which carry shifting 

 sands. It was therefore most unsuitable for lobsters, which, 

 like other crustaceans, try to keep their gill-chambers as free 

 as possible from sand. Nothing was ever heard of them again, 

 and the experiment has not been repeated since. 



During 1904 preparations were made at the hatchery for a 

 lobster-pond, and a large natural cleft in the rocky promontory 

 on which the hatchery is situated was deepened and cut off 

 from the outer channel by a concrete wall and embankment, 

 fitted with valve openings, &c. The pond is about 50 ft. long. 

 26 ft. broad, and can be filled by the pump to a depth of 9 ft., 

 the ordinary depth at high water being from 6 ft. to 7 ft. 



Advantage was taken of the visit of Mr. R. Chisholm, a 

 member of the Board, to England during this last year to ar- 

 range for a trial shipment of lobsters. Communications were 

 entered into with Dr. E. J. Allen, Director of the Marine Biological 

 Association, Plymouth, who kindly undertook to procure the 

 required crustaceans and forward them to London. The manager 

 and other officials of the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company 

 also took up the scheme heartily, and commenced to make the 

 necessary arrangements for the conveyance of the lobsters to 

 New Zealand in one of their steamers leaving for Port Chalmers. 

 When Mr. Chisholm left London everything seemed in train 



