24 TKAXSACTIOXS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OV GLASGOW. 



who lias bad the chief management of the dredging- 

 operations since the steam yacht Medusa came tO' 

 the west coast about four years ago, informs me 

 that hist autumn when dredging in Upper Loch 

 Fyne hirge hauls of copepods were obtained 5 and 

 10 fathoms from the bottom in depths of 70 and 75 

 fathoms. In one of these hauls a half-gallon bottle, 

 now in the "Ark" (a branch at Millport of the 

 Scottish Marine Station), was filled with them. They 

 are mostly Euchceta norvecjica and Calanus finmarchi- 

 cus. Schizopods were also abundant in the same 

 haul. These statements quite agree with my own 

 notes made during many dredging expeditions in 

 Loch Fyne, which I had the privilege of having in 

 the yacht Medusa. 



All the numerous samples of the work of the tow- 

 net, both from Upper and Lower Loch Fyne, show 

 the same result, viz., abundance of copepods and 

 schizopods, summer and winter, affording plenty of 

 food for the herring at all seasons of the year. 

 Anyone who has paid attention to the copepods 

 must have noticed that a large quantity of globules of 

 oil come to the surface after the animals have been 

 kept for some time in spirits. From this, as well as 

 the soft and easily digestible consistence of their 

 teguments, we may infer that they afford very rich 

 food to those fish that feed upon them, when com- 

 pared with the hard chitonous scales of the schizo- 

 pods. Keeping in view that the herring of Loch 

 Fyne feed greedily uiDon copepods, while these 

 crustaceans do not seem to enter into the dietary 

 of the herring on the east coast of Scotland, may 

 not the rich quality and great abundance of this 

 food account in a great measure for the superior 

 quality of the "caller" Loch Fyne herrhig? 



