+ 
In the States I visited the head-quarters of the Fish 
Commission at Washington, and had the advantage of 
discussing their operations with a number of members of 
the staff. I then went to the celebrated hatchery at 
Wood’s Holl, where I spent a couple of days with the 
Superintendent of the Hatchery, with the Collector (Mr. 
Vinal Edwards), and the Captain of the ‘‘Grampus,” 
learning all I could of the details of their work, both 
as to sea-fish eggs and as to lobsters. Lastly, I went 
to Gloucester, the chief centre of the fishing industries 
of the American coast, and said to be the greatest fishing 
port in the world. There is a sea-fish hatchery here also, 
belonging to the Fish Commission, which has just recently 
been enlarged in order to increase the output. At both 
these hatcheries I saw the working of the McDonald 
hatching jar for lobster eggs, which we propose to try 
experimentally at Piel. It was interesting to learn at 
Gloucester that when the Fish Commission proposed 
lately to remove the hatchery from there to another 
part of the coast, the fishermen objected to the removal 
from their midst of what they regarded as a valuable 
institution. 
Many of the details of information which I was able to 
learn on this tour of inspection will, I have no doubt, be 
of use in our local operations, and some of these points 
will be alluded to later on in this Report. 
The chief additional matters I have to report upon this 
year are :— 
Ist.—A scheme which we started a year ago for the 
simultaneous observation of the ’ or floating 
fish food, &c., in the sea round our district, taken weekly 
throughout the year, at half a dozen stations. We are 
continuing the observations this year on an improved plan. 
ce 
plankton,’ 
