[ 116 J 



whence they came, it was at once known, because, instead of being 

 all over the Aquarium, and scattered about in every tank, or 

 probably killed by being carried by the system of circulation into a 

 dark underground reservoir, they were confined to the one tank in 

 which they made their appearance. To take a case in point, as an 

 illustration. A cod-fish spawned in the Brighton Aquai-ium, the 

 roe was seen floating on the top of the tank in which the creature 

 was, and was identified at once. In the system of circulation, on 

 the other hand, when a similar event hapiiened, roe was found 

 floating at the top of every tank in that Aquarium, and it was not, 

 at first, evident to what particular fish it belonged. Another 

 minor, but still practical, advantage was this — if, as sometimes 

 happened, a glass was broken and a tank had to be emptied to 

 enable the necessary repairs to be made, there was comparatively 

 speaking, no difficulty with aeration, though there might be with 

 circulation in an Aquarium of such gigantic dimensions. 



Having generalised thus much, it might be well to point out a 

 few of the principal gains to science, through the means of the 

 Brighton Aquarium. George Ossian Sars, as Mr. Lee, F.L.S., 

 F.G.S., bad informed them, was the first naturalist to observe and 

 record the fact, in 1SG5, that the roe of the cod-tribe, as well as that 

 of the mackarel and other fish, was not deposited, as was believed, 

 amongst sand and gravel at the bottom of the sea, but floated on 

 the surface of the water during the whole period of its development. 

 These observations had been proved correct, over and over again, in 

 the Brighton Aquarium. The first recorded observations at the 

 Brighton Aquarium were made in November and December, 1873, 

 and January 1874, on the spawning of the cod, whiting, and 

 whiting-pout. The floating of the roe was a most important fact, 

 because it was a very strong and potent argument against a close 

 time for deep sea fishing, and for laws interdicting deep sea trawl- 

 ing, and cut the ground from under the feet of those who would 

 urge upon the legislature the necessity for a close time, and who 

 affirmed that very great injury was done to ova by the trawl net. If, 

 as had been proved, the roe of the gadidoe and of some other fishes 

 floated, trawling could in no respect damage or destroy; moreover, 

 as it had been found by observation, these fishes were spawning 

 dui'ing several months in the year in one locality, it might reason- 

 ably be inferred that, like the herring, they were spawning all the 



