8 



on the appendages during the embryonic stages, and were 

 hatched out as larvae. 



These numbers of successfully hatched fish and lobsters 

 compare favourably with the proportions given by other 

 similar institutions abroad and in America ; and with an 

 adequate supply of spawn — which the absence of a spawn- 

 ing pond has prevented us from having in the past — there 

 could be no difficulty in rivalling the grand totals of Capt. 

 Dannevig in Norway and of the United States Fish Com- 

 mission. 



We have not, however, been content with merely 

 hatching the ova, and setting free the larvae, but have 

 endeavoured to keep them for a time with the view of 

 tiding over the younger and more defenceless stages. It 

 is in this second attempt — the rearing, not the hatching — 

 that we have had as yet poor success. The larval fish 

 have lived with us for a short time, and have continued to 

 grow and develop up to a certain stage. But there has 

 been no evidence that they have fed systematically upon 

 what we have supplied, and eventually all have died off 

 before reaching the period of metamorphosis into small 

 flat fish. 



In regard to the rearing of the young lobsters, although 

 Mr. Scott took great pains to try to supply them with 

 various kinds of food, and kept them under varied condi- 

 tions in the hope of hitting upon the environment they 

 required, the larvae seemed unable to get over the succes- 

 sive periods of ecdysis, or casting of the shell — always a 

 critical period in the life of a Crustacean. Some lived as 

 long as three weeks after being hatched, but none survived 

 the third moult. However, the matter will be tried 

 again with further variations in the food and surrounding 

 conditions. 



With a view of seeing what was done elsewhere with 



