34 



circumstances, at the request of your Committee, in my 

 capacity of Honorary Director of your Scientific work, I 

 draw up the following suggested scheme of observations : — 



" Memoeandum sent by "W. A. Herdman to the Chairman 

 of the Lancashire Sea-Fisheries Committee on August 

 19th, 1896, in regard to the uses that could be made 

 of Bouchots, Lobster tank, and Branch Laboratory, 

 Piel Island. 



I. Bouchots. 



" The chief object, it seem to me, of these experimental 

 Bouchots is to enable us to institute a comparison between 

 the two methods of rearing mussels : — on Beds, and on 

 Bouchots. We already have the mussels growing in beds 

 in our neighbourhood. AVhat we want to know is : — 



(1) Can we usefully supplement the beds by Bouchots ? 



(2) Can we erect Bouchots where beds will not flourish? 



(3) Can we raise and fatten the mussels more rapidly 



on the Bouchots than in the beds ? 

 " In order to ascertain these points, Mr. Scott and the 

 Bailiffs in the neighbourhood of Piel should familiarise 

 themselves as thoroughly as possible with the conditions 

 of the mussels, young and old, on the different parts of 

 the beds, and should as far as possible ascertain the rate 

 of growth on the different parts of different beds. Then 

 samples of young mussels of different ages, some very 

 young, others half grown, should be put in the wattling on 

 the Bouchots, and carefully observed from time to time, 

 and samples should be opened say once a month in order 

 to ascertain their condition and rate of growth. In this 

 way a direct comparison could be instituted between the 

 Bouchot grown mussels and those on the beds. 



