RECENT REPORTS OF FISHERY AUTHORITIES. 213 



Governments of Great Britain and the United States, which provided 

 for the appointment of a joint commission of two experts, one on 

 behalf of each Government, to report upon the fisheries in the territorial 

 and contiguous waters of the United States and Canada. The reports 

 were to be presented within two years, and the object in view was 

 the recommendation of practical and administrative measures to be 

 adopted by both authorities. The two Commissioners appointed were 

 Mr. Eichard Eathbun and Dr. William Wakeham, and their investi- 

 gations during the time covered by this report were confined to the 

 mackerel fishery. 



Various other investigations, such as the survey of oyster beds in 

 Chesapeake Bay and Galveston Bay, the study of the lobster by 

 Professor Herrick, at Wood's Hole, the discovery that the tile-fish had 

 returned to the Continental slope, south of New England, with the 

 return of warm water to that region in consequence of a change in 

 the interaction of the currents, are mentioned, but the full description 

 of them is to be found in special papers. 



The Fourth Report of the Danish Biological Station. 



By 

 F. B. Stead, B.A. 



The Plaice in Danish Waters. — The Fourth Eeport of the 

 Danish Biological Station consists of a lengthy paper by Dr. C. G. J. 

 Petersen " on the Biology of our Flat-fishes and on the Decrease of our 

 Flat-fish Fisheries," which was awarded a prize by Det Kongelige danske 

 Vidensl'oberncs Selskab, and which certainly deserves the careful 

 attention of all who are interested in fishery questions. The first 

 chapter gives a fairly complete account of some of the main features in 

 the life history of the plaice in the Danish seas, together with shorter 

 notes on other flat-fishes ; the second and third are occupied by a 

 discussion of the reasons for the deterioration of the fisheries, and of the 

 remedial measures by which this evil may in the future be prevented. 

 The paper is supplemented by five appendices, one of which, on the 

 post-larval stages of flat-fishes, is of particular interest. For the full 

 English translation with which we are provided English naturalists can 

 but express their gratitude to the author. 



The first question to which our attention is drawn in this })aper 

 is that of the variations in size, which plaice from different localities 



