438 NATURAL SCIENCE [December 
THE half-yearly report of the inspector for the eastern sea fisheries district 
just issued, states that the fishing during this season has been much above the 
average. The rigid enforcement of the regulation against taking undersized 
shell fish has benefited the fishing-grounds. The chief offenders in this respect 
are the lobster and whelk fishers, whose practice it has been to use undersized 
crabs for bait. At one place alone the destruction of undersized edible crabs for 
this purpose has been upwards of 3,000 in each day’s fishing, and the number of 
‘unsizeable’ crabs destroyed along the Norfolk coast has been greater than the 
whole number of ‘sizeable’ crabs landed. The wholesome effect of prosecutions 
and convictions, and the increased efficiency of inspection during recent years, is 
shown by the fact that “all the fishermen report that the ground contains more 
small crabs than have ever been seen by them before.” 
CanaDa is to have a floating biological station in the Gulf of St Lawrence for 
at least five years, and the Government of the Dominion has appropriated £1400 
for the purpose. The board of management consists of Prof. E. E. Prince, 
director ; Professors D. P. Penhallow and E. W. MacBride, of McGill University ; 
Prof. Ramsay Wright, of Toronto University ; Prof. L. W. Bailey, of the Uni- 
versity of New Brunswick ; Prof. A. P. Knight, of Queen’s University ; and 
Rev. V. A. Huart, of Laval University. For the first year the laboratory will be 
on the south shore of Prince Edward Island, and will be moved annually. It is 
hoped that active work may begin early in 1899. 
Mr Grorce Murray, Keeper of the Botanical Department of the British 
Museum, has organised an expedition for the study of intermediate ocean depths, 
With the aid of the Royal Geographical Society, the Drapers’ Company, and the 
Fishmongers’ Company, he chartered the ss. ‘“‘ Oceana,” which was fitted with 
deep-sea gear by the Silvertown Telegraph Cable Company. Mr Murray is 
accompanied by two of his colleagues, J. W. Gregory and V. H. Blackman, as well 
as by Dr Sambon, J. E. 8. Moore, and Percy Highley, the last-mentioned acting 
as artist. The steamer, after some delay from fogs, left the Thames on November 
16, and proceeded directly to the west coast of Ireland, where work was begun at 
the edge of the 100-fathom platform, about thirty miles west of Dingle Bay, It 
was intended to steam slowly for about 10 degrees westward, making continuous 
observations with a vertical chain of tow-nets, which would gradually be lowered 
until, with a length of 2000 fathoms, the series would include 38 nets. Thus the 
difference between the faunas of different depths in the same part of the ocean 
can be estimated by comparing the contents of the nets. Experiments with 
various forms of self-closing nets will be made for the sake of comparison, 
Soundings and observations of temperatures will be taken, and there may be 
opportunity for some deep-sea trawling. 
A DETAILED natural history survey of the long sand-bank known as the North 
Bull, in Dublin Bay, recently undertaken by Messrs Praeger and Halbert, is, says 
the Irish Naturalist, turning out unexpectedly interesting from a zoological point 
of view, as this apparently inhospitable spot has already yielded several additions 
to the Irish fauna. 
Mr Joun S. BupGert has started for the Gambia, under the instructions of 
the Zoological Society of London, in order to gather information concerning the 
larger mammals of the colony, and to make zoological collections, especially of 
the fishes. 
Tue following telegram has been received from Dr J. Stadling, who was sent 
by the Swedish Geographical Society to search for Andrée. It is dated Irkutsk, 
November 2 :—“ There being no telegraph in Siberia north of Irkutsk, I am 
sending this note by messenger up the River Lena to that place for telegraphic 
dispatch. We are now, on September 15, at the Lena delta, having been pursuing 
