Mr. Ascroft has also stayed some time at the Piel 

 Hatchery, and we inchide in this Report a short account 

 from him of his observations on the separation of mud 

 from sea-water by shell-fish and on the growth of mud 

 banks upon beds of shell-fish, especially Mussels. 



It may be well to note here that the well-equipped 

 biological Laboratory with tank-house at Piel is now 

 open, upon certani conditions, to duly qualified investiga- 

 tors. In addition to the Laboratory accommodation, the 

 building provides dining-room, writing-room or library, 

 and about eight bed-rooms for workers. No charge is 

 made for residence, and meals are provided at a fixed and 

 reasonable rate. The regulations for workers, as approved 

 by the Committee, are appended to this Report. 



During the course of his work in hatching Cod, Plaice, 

 and other fish at Piel last spring, Mr. Scott made a number 

 of coloured drawings of the various embryonic and larval 

 stages of our common fishes. We hope that these may be 

 published on a future occasion, when the series is more 

 complete. 



Having succeeded so far, and shown that the work can 

 be conducted with the sea-water pumped up at Piel, Mr. 

 Scott is naturally anxious to be supplied with a pond in 

 which to keep spawning fish, and with a proper outfit of 

 hatching boxes, so as to be able to carry on operations on 

 a much larger scale. As Capt. Dannevig in Norway and 

 the Scottish Fishery Board (lately at Dunbar, and for 

 the future at Aberdeen) have adopted a special form of 

 hatching apparatus, in which the little cubical boxes con- 

 taining the developing eggs are rocked up and down 

 constantly in the water of a larger tank, with, so far as 

 we can ascertain, very good results, it certainly seems 

 desirable that we should try some of these "Dannevig 

 rocking boxes " at Piel, for comparison with the simple 



