By F. J. BARNES. 



(Read December Uth, 1909.) 



LTHOUGH Dorset has about 70 miles of coast- 

 line (representing some 210 square miles of 

 territorial waters), upon which 300 fishermen 

 regularly obtain their livelihood, whilst about 

 400 more follow the same occupation casually, 

 e.g., mackerel fishing in summer, and the total 

 value of fish caught in these waters cannot 

 amount to less than 30,000 annually yet 

 up to this time only two contributions upon 

 subjects connected with fisheries have appeared in the 

 volumes of the Field Club. 



To prove how rich and profitable a field for investigation 

 the sea is, I may give the following figures, deduced from the 

 data given by Mr. Jas. Johnstone, of the Fisheries Laboratory, 

 University of Liverpool, and Hon. Lecturer on Agriculture 

 in the same University, in his deeply fascinating book pub- 

 lished last year by the Cambridge University Press, entitled 

 " Conditions of Life in the Sea," which I have worked 



