5 GEORGE V. SESSIONAL PAPER No. 39b A. 1915 



PREFACE. 



By Professor Edward E. Prince, Commissioner of Fisheries, Chairman of the 

 Biological Board of Canada, Canadian Representative on the International 

 Fisheries Commission, and Member of the Advisory Fishery Board of the 

 Dominion. 



When the last series of Biological papers was published two years ago, I 

 stated, in my introductory note appearing as the preface to the publication, that 

 some memoirs were nearly in shape for publication, but could not be included in 

 the volume issued in 1912. 



These papers were subsequently placed in my hands, and others have been 

 completed, so that no less than twenty-two important original contributions 

 to the Biology of Canadian waters, marine and fresh-water, are now ready for 

 publication. 



This series is indeed more voluminous than had been anticipated, and it has 

 been found desirable to issue them in two parts, — One, Fasciculus I. composed of 

 papers dealing with sea-fisheries and marine subjects, and Fasciculus II. issued 

 separately, including papers which refer to the interior fresh-water fisheries, and 

 to subjects relating to the Great Lakes. 



The researches, embodied in the first series of papers, were conducted chiefly 

 at the St. Andrews Biological Station, on the Atlantic Coast, while the second 

 series of papers embraces work done by the members of the staff at the Georgian 

 Bay Station on the Great Lakes. Many papers representing work done at the three 

 Biological Stations, and authorized by the Biological Board, and indeed carried 

 on under the direction and auspices of the Board, have been published elsewhere 

 or the present series would have been much more extended. Credit should be given 

 to the Biological Board, and to the Biological Stations, for such investigations 

 published in reports issued elsewhere or appearing in journals or magazines in 

 Canada or abroad. 



Thus it may be mentioned that Dr. Stafford, who has practically carried on 

 all his marine biological studies under the Board, and who commenced his fishery 

 investigations when the Atlantic Station was opened at St. Andrews in 1899, and 

 has continued until recently a member of the staff of workers, has published 

 two papers on the Canadian oyster, its life-history, conservation etc., in the reports 

 of the Commission of Conservation,* while Mr. F. A. Potts of Cambridge, Eng., 

 Professor McMurrich of Toronto, Miss Katherine Haddon and others, have pub- 

 lished their results in various scientific journals on this continent and in Europe. f 



The present series includes two important papers on the minute floating life 



in the sea, a source of food for fishes, especially in the early stages of their life, 



and an important part of the food of the oyster and other shell-fish. 



* See Fisheries of Eastern Canada, Comm. of Cons. Report, 1912, pp. 26 to 49, and the 

 Canadian oyster, Comm. of Cons. Report 1913, pp. 1 to 158. 



t Spengel's Zoologisches Jahrb. 1912, pp. 575 to 594; Roy. Soc. of Canada 1913,etc. 



