REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. XIX 
At this last Exhibition, which was held with a view to the foun- 
dation of a Fisheries Technical School in Cornwall, the Association took 
a prominent part. Besides the exhibition of mounted specimens 
illustrating the rate of growth in food-fishes and the richness of the 
Plymouth fauna for scientific work, &c. &c., a complete set of a 
naturalist’s equipment of dredges, trawls, and tow-nets was shown, 
and lectures were delivered by Mr. Cunningham on “The Natural 
History of Marketable Sea-Fishes,” by Mr. Garstang on “ Animal 
Life in our Seas and the Methods for its Investigation,” and by the 
Hon. Secretary on the “ Conditions for Successful Oyster Culture.” 
A medal was awarded to the Association for its services to the 
Exhibition. 
The Staff. 
Through the generosity of the Worshipful Companies of Fish- 
mongers and of Drapers, each of which has made a special donation 
of £105 for the purpose, the Council has been enabled to retain the 
services of Mr. Holt at Grimsby for a third year. 
The Council regret that Mr, Garstang, desiring to prosecute 
original researches elsewhere, has not offered himself for re-election. 
As the post has been an annual one, the Council do not consider 
that the finances of the Association justify them in filling it up at 
present. 
Scientific Investigations. 
Both Mr. Cunningham and Mr, Holt have continued during the 
past year their inquiries into the various questions relating to the 
maturity of food-fish which were so prominent last year before the 
House of Commons Select Committee on Sea Fisheries, and upon 
which much information is still required. The value of the evidence 
adduced on these points by the officers of the Association has been 
acknowledged in the Report of this Committee.* 
Mr. Cunningham has finally settled by direct experiment the 
much-debated question of the identity of the egg of the pilchard. 
He has been able to rear the larve of plaice, hatched and fertilized 
in the aquarium at Plymouth, to the age of thirty-seven days ; no flat- 
* “ Your Committee have however, had an advantage over any previous fishery inquiry 
in the fact that they have had laid before them the statistics which have of recent years 
betn collected by the Board of Trade, and the statistics compiled by the officers of the 
Scottish Fishery Board ; and they have also had the evidence founded on the observations 
of the scientific experts employed by the Marine Biological Association, and by the Scottish 
Fishery Board. Indeed it may almost be said that this is the first fishery inquiry in which 
the more important complaints have been founded, not merely on the statements and the 
ideas of rival classes of fishermen, but upon facts and statistics.” 
NEW SERIES,—VOL, II, NO, III, 19 
