of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 181 
expectation of being fed, and gather together when the attendant 
appears ; they even take food from one’s hands. They are fed nearly 
entirely on common mussels and thrive upon this diet. During most 
of the year two or three pecks a day suffice, but in the autumn, some 
months before the spawning season, they receive a more liberal allow- 
ance, up to four pecks, and soon get into very good condition. 
In the process of incubation in the hatching apparatus, 16,630,000, 
or nearly twenty-three per cent, of the eggs died, a slightly higher 
percentage than in the previous year, when it was a little below 
twenty-one per cent., and which was probably owing to rather much 
overcrowding at times, and particularly when the burst of spawning 
occurred in the early part of March. The estimated number of fry 
produced was 55,700,000, and they were put into the sea partly in 
Lochfyne and mostly off the coast of Aberdeen; -The Table giving the 
particulars from day to day is appended. It was prepared by Mr. H. 
Dannevig, who was in charge of the hatching work, and who was 
appointed at the end of the season to the newly-created office of 
Superintendent of Pisciculture under the Government of New South 
Wales, a Marine Hatchery, partly stocked with European fishes, which 
Mr. Dannevig took to Australia with him, being in course of erection 
near Sydney. 
The tidal spawning-pond continues to give satisfaction, and has 
enabled the expense of the work to be very considerably reduced, since 
comparatively little pumping is required, except during the few months 
the hatching work is going on. It measures ninety feet in length by 
thirty-five in breadth, and has an average depth of nearly eight feet, 
one end being ten feet deep. The tide is admitted by a twelve-inch 
pipe controlled by valves. A still larger tidal-pond on the same 
principle has been constructed in connection with the new Marine 
Hatchery built at Port Erin by the Manx Government, which is 
nearly 100 feet long by 50 feet in breadth and from three to ten feet 
deep. 
ie will be seen from the Table the specific gravity of the water 
remained high and pretty uniform throughout the season, never sinking 
below 1027-°3 and usually ranging about 1027-7. 
Later in the summer, at the request of fishermen on the coast of 
Aberdeen, and Mr. Maconochie, M.P., the hatching of lobsters and 
edible crabs was undertaken at the hatchery by Dr. Williamson, the 
larval crabs and young lobsters being liberated at the northern part of 
the coast and in the Moray Firth. The number of larvai crabs thus 
dealt with was about 4,500,000, and that of young lobsters, most of 
which were reared through several stages and in some cases had very 
nearly assumed the form of the adult, was about three thousand. 
From the combination of the hatchery with the marine laboratory, 
and the provision of a large tidal pond, the expense of the hatching 
work is much diminished, the annual expenditure amounting to a little 
over £100, the principal items being the maintenance of the apparatus 
and plant, food for the fishes, and coals. 
M | TABLEs. 
