ii PREFACE 



5 GEORGE v., A. 1915 



fauna and all available food supplies of the waters in which fish are living or which 

 it is desirable to stock with fish. 



As a matter of fact the Biological Board had already entered upon this field 

 of research and Dr. Walker and Mr. Clemens have completed valuable researches 

 on the very lines indicated, these appearing in the present volume. 



The study of Insect Ecology, and the carrying on of experiments upon May- 

 flies, and the rearing of this valuable fish food have yielded results which have 

 direct practical bearing upon the welfare of our fish and fisheries. 



Mr. A. D. Robertson, in his very detailed paper on the Mollusca of the Georgian 

 Bay, furnishes a study similar in many ways as being a study of an important source 

 of fish food. Sturgeon, for instance, have been found filled with the shells of many 

 species of Mollusca such as Mr. Robertson describes, and it has been established 

 that the spawn and the young of our fresh-water shell-fish are important as a food 

 supply for young fishes, as well as for adults, while many of the larger bivalves have 

 economic value owing to their producing pearls. Similarly Dr. Huntsman's able 

 paper on the Crayfish and shrimp-like creatures of Ontario waters is really a study 

 of fish food, — while the remarkable memoirs on a black-bass parasite {Proteo- 

 cephalus) by Mr. Cooper and Miss Ryerson,the latter treating of leeches (Hirudinea), 

 are of economic importance in relation to parasites, diseases, and enemies of fish, 

 about which fish-culturists desire all the information that can be obtained. 



Mr. White contributes a paper on a series of minute forms of fresh-water life 

 (Lake Bryozoa) which must be also a source of food for small fishes, — while Professor 

 MacClement and Mr. Bissonnette present botanical papers which have an intimate 

 relation to fish studies, the plants and fungi are essential to insect life, and de- 

 caying fungi form an important nidus for insects, which are indeed of great mo- 

 ment to the fish and fisheries. Of similar interest is Mr. Klugh's paper on the Hydro- 

 phytes of Georgian Bay. • 



Such studies as those now collected in the present Biological Fasciculus not 

 only indicate how fully the Great Lakes Station is carrying out the main purpose 

 for which it was founded, (like the Marine Biological Stations), namely the benefit 

 of the fishing industries generally, and the solution of pressing fishery problems, 

 but all have contributed also to give an unequalled opportunity to young Biologists 

 in the various Universities of Canada to carry on original scientific researches. 



At these Stations the opportunity is offered, year by year, to all capable Uni- 

 versity students and members of University staffs, which was formerly wholly 

 lacking, and which could only be supplied by resorting to foreign Biological Sta- 

 tions, — but the generosity of the Dominion Government has amply supplied the 

 means whereby our scientific workers can carry on the highest researches, marine 

 and fresh-water, within the limits of the Dominion and can thus contribute to our 

 knowledge of the valuable fishery and other resources of these waters. 



