NOTES AND MEMOEANDA. 95 



reconiTnendation of the committee, whicli consisted of Drs. Hoffmann, 

 Hoek^ and Hubreclit, to purchase a movable wooden building which 

 might be transported eveiy season to such a locality as might be 

 deemed desirable. The necessary funds were raised by public 

 subscription, and in July, 1876, the station was placed for the first 

 time on the great dyke near the seaport of Holder, opposite to the 

 island of Texel. The work was continued for eight weeks, and was 

 gi'eatly assisted by a small steamer lent for the purpose by the 

 Minister of Marine. Since this date the station has been erected 

 at different points of the Dutch coast, such as Welfzyl, Terschellmg, 

 Nieuwe Diep, Flushing, Bergen op Zoom, Tholen, and this year at 

 Enkhuiren on the Zuyder Zee. The original object of the station 

 was purely scientific, and it stood at its commencement in no official 

 relation to the Netherlands Fishery Commission, although the latter 

 body from the first gave it encouragement and supported its 

 applications for Government aid. Before long, however, the services 

 of the skilled naturalists who directed the station were requisitioned 

 for practical purposes, and in 1881, '82, and '83 elaborate investiga- 

 tions on the life-history and development of the oyster were 

 undertaken by the Zoological Station, and the results were published 

 in a separate volume under the title Eecherches sur I'huitre et 

 I'Ostreaculture, Leiden, 1883—4. 



In 1886 the Association was brought into closer relations with 

 the Government, being entrusted with the disposal of a grant from 

 the funds of the Fisheries Commission, which was spent in the 

 investigation of the life-history and development of the anchovy 

 {Engraulis encrasicholus) . The results of this investigation were 

 published in the report of the Fisheries Commission for 1886, and 

 included Wenckebach's account of the anchovy. 



Recently the Netherlands Government has appointed Dr. P. P. C. 

 Hoek as scientific investigator of the Fisheries, his duties being to 

 investigate such fishery problems as may be brought under his 

 notice by the Fisheries Commissioners. Dr. Hoek was from the 

 foundation of the Zoological Station one of its most active members, 

 and secretary of the managing committee, and on his appointment 

 the Netherlands Zoological Society, the founders and owners of the 

 marine station, placed the transportable building with its inventory 

 and apparatus at the service of the newly-constituted official, on the 

 condition that its members should always have access to the working 

 tables and should enjoy such facilities as the naturalist might be 

 able to afford them. Now that a definite relation between the 

 Fisheries Commission and the Marine Station has been established, 

 it is hoped that a permanent building may be erected, probably at 

 Nieuwe Diep, and that the scientific knowledge of the Dutch 



