412 Mr. T. Scott on Crustacea 



XLV. — On some rare and tnteresting Crustacea from the 

 Dogger Bank collected hy Ernest W. L. Holt, Esq. By 

 Thomas Scott, F.L.S., Naturalist to the Fishery Board 

 for Scotland. 



The Crustacea which form the subject of this memoir were 

 presented to me several months ago by my friend Mr. Ernest 

 W. L. Holt. They were collected by him at the south-west 

 end of the Dogger Bank in April 1892, while he was engaged 

 on board the S.S. ' Kesolute ' carrying out a series of 

 fishery investigations for the Marine Biological Association. 

 The collection in which the Crustacea occurred was made 

 by fixing a tow-net to the end of the beam of the trawl, as is 

 done on board tlie Scottish Fishery Steamer ' Garland,' and 

 which is a very effective method for capturing those free- 

 swinmiing marine organisms whose habitat is usually near 

 tlie bottom. The trawl on tliis occasion was down for about 

 eight hours in water the depth of which varied from 20 to 26 

 fathoms. The locality where the collection was made may 

 be given approximately as 70 to 80 miles east by north of 

 Spurn Head at the mouth of the Humber. "When the trawl 

 was hauled up the tow-net fixed to the beam was found to 

 contain a large quantity of living matter consisting chiefly of 

 small Crustacea. In this single tow-net gathering the 

 number of species of Crustacea that have been identified are 

 as follows, viz. : — Three species of Decapoda, four species of 

 Schizopoda, four species of Cumacea, twenty-two species of 

 Amphi))oda, and five species of Copepoda ; a Pteropod, CUone 

 liviocina (rhij)])s) {Clione borealis, Pallas), was also obtained 

 in the same collection. 



Some of the Crustacea obtained in this gathering have not, 

 so far as I know, been previously recorded from the English 

 coasts; indeed the collection as a whole is a very interesting 

 one, and shows how much may be done towards increasing 

 our knowledge of tlu; distribution of the British marine fauna 

 by the adoption of ])ropcr methods of investigation, and also 

 thereby tending to throw additional light on obscure fishery 

 questions. Some remarks of the Eev. A. M. Norman on the 

 imjiortance of a knowledge of the Crustacea in connexion 

 with iishery investigations may be appropriately quoted here. 

 Dr. Norman says: — "No real ])rogress can be maile with 

 respect to the food of fishes until investigators are familar 

 with those Crustacea wliich constitute so large a portion of 

 that food " *. 



* 'Fourth Aiuiual IJopdil of (lie Fisliory Boiuxi for Scotlnnd," y. liV) 



