9) 
— 
Some matters that can be treated briefly I shall 
remark upon in this introductory part of the Report; the 
others will be discussed more fully in the special articles 
that follow. 
Tam glad to say that the very full account of the Fisher- 
man’s “ Lugworm,” which Dr. J. H. Ashworth (formerly 
of Owens College, Manchester, now at the University of 
{dinburgh) has been preparing for some years, is now 
finished, and I am able to add it as an Appendix to this 
Report. The expense of lithographing the beautiful 
plates that illustrate this Memoir has been largely met 
from an outside source. 
Dive. Piel, Matebe sya 
Mr. Scott’s account of the Sea-Fish Hatching at Piel 
will be found in the next section of the Report. As on 
former occasions, the fish dealt with were the Plaice and 
the Flounder, and out of close on seventeen millions of 
eggs obtained nearly fifteen millions were hatched and 
distributed in the sea as fry. The total loss from all 
causes during the operations was just under 11 per cent. 
It can scarcely be doubted that the natural mortality in 
the sea during the corresponding period in the life of the 
young fish embryo must be enormously greater than this. 
The benefit of protection would be, however, still further 
increased if we had the accommodation necessary for 
keeping and rearing the larve to still later stages. This 
is impossible without a fish pond; and Mr. Scott points 
out that he cannot, with his present small tanks deal with 
much larger numbers than those that passed through his 
hands this year. An open-air fish pond has proved a 
success elsewhere. An American fish-culturist, Professor 
Mead, of Brown University, who visited the Port Krin 
Biological Station last summer, expressed his satisfaction 
