6 
locally, and since then investigations have been carried 
on at various points round the British coasts, and for the 
last few years the Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal 
has been taking evidence and deliberating on the subject. 
Both Mr. Dawson and I, in our evidence before the Royal 
Commission, have drawn attention to the very serious 
state of affairs on some parts of the Lancashire and 
Cheshire coasts, and we have lately planned a more 
thorough examination into the condition of the shell-fish 
beds of the district. Mr. Scott has inspected for me 
several of the mussel and cockle producing areas in the 
northern part of Lancashire, and Mr. Johnstone has made 
a bacteriological examination of the samples of shell-fish 
that have been sent to the laboratory. As the Royal 
Commission has also just issued a Report? dealing with 
these same questions, and very much on the lines we have 
adopted, I have thought it appropriate to devote a few 
pages further on to a discussion of the matter. 
A suggestion, made by Mr. Fell, that we should report 
upon the intricate question of the inter-relations between 
shrimps and young flatfish, has led to the preliminary 
statement of the subject which, with Mr. Johnstone's 
help, I have drawn up. It is evident that a great deal of 
exact information is still required. I have tried to focus 
attention upon what is known and what is unknown, upon 
what the essential problems are and what investigations 
are necessary in order to solve them. But it is clear that 
this is one of the matters upon which we cannot get 
wholly satisfactory evidence until we have, on the West 
Coast of England, a steamer devoted solely to scientific 
fisheries work, so that an organised scheme of investiga- 
tion, combined with the collection of statistics, can be 
‘arried out. It would probably require a couple of years 
+ Pollution of Tidal Waters with special reference to contamina- 
tion of Shell-fish. London, 1904. 
