BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY. 183 



already not less than four institutions of a similar kind, 

 namely, at Roscolf, Concarneau, Villefranclie, and one in the 

 Mediterranean at Cette. Austria, with only a small sea 

 coast, had one at Trieste ; and, more important than all, at 

 Naples the German Government were annually giving £1500 

 a year to a laboratory of the same kind, and he believed 

 that he was right in saying that it was the most complete 

 in existence. If we went to the other side of the Atlantic 

 we found that Professor Agassiz had instituted at Newport 

 a most admirable institution, the work of which had already 

 been rewarded with marked practical success. He desired 

 to say a few words as to the importance of British fisheries. 

 Certain statistics were lately given to Parliament by the 

 Board of Trade which he might summarise very shortly. 

 The production of fish in the United Kingdom of Great 

 Britain and Ireland amounted to no less than 598,000 tons 

 last year, and the value of this fish at the port of landing 

 was £6,390,000. The whole industry was not, however, 

 represented by that sum, for he believed that the retail 

 value of the fish would amount to at least £13,000,000 a 

 year. The East coast was, of course, by far the most 

 fruitful of all our coasts for fishing. Grimsby, Hull, 

 Lowestoft, and Yarmouth between them produced no less 

 than £2,846,000 worth of fish during the year. Though 

 Plymouth followed at a long interval, yet at this port they 

 had no less than £96,000 worth of fish during the year. That 

 amount was for Plymouth only, but there were also various 

 fishing ports in the district, such as Brixham, with £56,000, 

 and Penzance, £41,000, which gave a very good idea of 

 what a vast harvest there was to be reaped from the sea, a 

 harvest by the way which we had never sown. He would 

 compare those results with other countries which had already 

 done something for the scientific investigation of fisheries. 

 Canada did not produce in 1886 more than £3,892,000 worth 

 of fish, and France even less, namely, £3,709,000 worth. 

 Another aspect of the trade was the amount of traffic it 

 gave to the railways, on which he might appeal to his friend 

 Sir Edward Watkin for confirmation ; even fi'om Plymouth 

 no less than 5000 tons were conveyed annually. He would 



