318 RErOHT OF THE COUNCIL. 



animals wliich serve as the food of fishes. This exhibit has been 

 successfully transported to St. Louis and set up in the Exhibition. 



The collection and supply of specimens for teaching purposes and 

 for museums has been continued as heretofore. This part of the work 

 of the Laboratory has grown considerably during the last few years, 

 owing to the fact that the teaching of biology is receiving more and 

 more attention in secondary and technical schools, and that local 

 museums are also paying more attention to the subject. It is a matter 

 for regret, however, that the increase in these directions is accompanied 

 by a decrease in the amount of material supplied to the Universities 

 and University Colleges, where the number of zoological students 

 appears to be generally diminishing. 



The International Fishery Investigations. 



Section I.— NORTH SEA WORK. 

 A. WORK OF THE S.S. "HUXLEY." 



Trawling Investigations. — Except when required for the quarterly 

 hydrographic cruises in the English Channel, the ss. Huxley has been 

 continuously engaged during the past year in the investigation of the 

 North Sea fishing grounds. In carrying out this work the Association's 

 naturalists have directed their principal attention to the analysis of 

 hauls made on the various grounds with the large commercial trawl, 

 the quantities and sizes of the fishes caught having been systematically 

 recorded in every case, 



LTp to the end of May, 1904, the Hu.dnj had made thirty-one 

 voyages, often of two or three weeks' duration, and had taken 349 

 hauls of the great trawls (otter and beam), in addition to other ex- 

 periments with special apparatus. 



In accordance with the scheme of international co-operation, most 

 attention has been paid by the Huxley to the western half of the 

 North Sea south of latitude 56° N. ; but all the important trawling 

 grounds south of that latitude have been visited, and special voyages 

 have been made to assist in the survey of the continental grounds 

 where small flat-fish particularly abound. Nearly one -third of the 

 Huxley's hauls {i.e. 110) have been taken upon or on the borders of the 

 English and continental "nursery grounds." 



Fish Measured. — On the voyages mentioned over 100,000 fishes 

 have been measured on the grounds where they were caught, as shown 

 in the following table: — 



Plaice. Haddock. Others. Totals. 



North Sea . . 34,809 8,388 6:2,106 ... 105,303 

 English Channel . 252 — 2,059 ... 2,311 



35,061 8,388 64,165 ... 107,614 



