74 LOBSTERS. 



out as nearly as I could to accord with the depths and other 

 circumstances of our Dorset Waters. Underneath each 

 yard super of the surface of our local seas there would probably 

 be found, say, 20,000,000 of macroscopic organisms, in 

 addition to the microscopic ; or presuming, our sea is equal 

 in all respects to the water in Kiel Bay, Germany, then in 

 every drop of water according to Brandt's estimate, made 

 10 years ago we should find 200 diatoms, excluding bacteria ; 

 or, again (to use Johnstone's graphic language), although on 

 land there are numerous and often extensive tracts utterly 

 sterile, or producing organic or inorganic life to a minimum 

 extent, such as deserts, the higher rocky mountainous country, 

 the enormous tracts of land covered almost continually or 

 permanently with snow and ice yet " everywhere in the sea, 

 even under the ice and in hot and cold areas, we find abundant 

 life. No part is sterile, and the variations in productivity 

 are, when compared with those on the land, of little account. 

 If we take equal average areas of land and sea, we will find 

 that the yield of the latter is greater than that of the former. 

 Even the comparatively poor yield in fish per acre of the 

 North Sea is probably greater than the yield per acre of ALL 

 the land in Great Britain and Ireland." Hence, I venture 

 to re-echo the concluding paragraph of Mr. Richardson's 

 paper of 20 years ago and express the hope that the interest- 

 ing paper he then contributed, combined with Mr. Beckford's 

 later paper and the vast amount of further deeply valuable 

 matter to be obtained from the numerous volumes published 

 by the various European and American Nations (including 

 Canada) that have, for the past 40 years or so been systematic- 

 ally and thoroughly investigating the secrets of the sea, 

 together with the few elementary remarks I am about now 

 to make anent the exhibits I am showing to-day, may prove 

 to be a stimulus to the members on our Dorset coast to take 

 some interest in a subject which cannot fail to richly repay 

 one for the time given up to the investigation of the Creator's 

 wonderful handiwork in the teeming sea. As I am exhibiting 

 the cast shell of a lobster, and the lobster that inhabited the 



