10 
illness has unfortunately stopped—we hope only for a time 
—this and other good work in connection with fisheries 
investigations in which he was engaged. 
The work that has been done of recent years by Scandi- 
navian Hydrographers, and the attention that has been 
directed to the matter by the International Conferences at 
Stockholm and at Christiania, and the appointment by the 
Board of Trade of an Ichthyological Research Committee, 
all emphasize still further the point that I dealt with in 
some detail in my last report, viz.:—the need for more 
exact and detailed knowledge of our coastal waters and their 
inhabitants. Such knowledge, both scientific and statistical, 
can only be obtained by some such scheme as I outlined 
last year, and by the use of a special steamer to supple- 
ment the information that can be derived from commercial 
trawlers. I have thought it important in the meantime to 
have some samples of water from different parts of our 
district examined as to their physical and chemical 
characters by the most recent hydrographical methods and 
by a competent chemist (1) with the object of noting what 
variations exist in the Irish sea, and still more (2) with a 
view of testing the methods as to their relative importance 
and practicability for future schemes of work at sea. 
Mr. Alfred Holt, Junr., B.A., (Cantab.), has kindly under- 
taken this work, and during the last three months has been 
examining samples of sea-water in my laboratory. I am 
glad to have from him the report which is printed at p. 20. 
At the Eleventh Annual Meeting of Representatives of 
Fisheries Authorities at the Board of Trade in June, 1901, 
the President, the Right Honourable Gerald Balfour, M.P., 
made some interesting observations bearing upon fisheries 
research which must carry weight, and, it is to be hoped, 
will receive the attention which they deserve. Speaking 
