336 ST ANDREWS AND SCIENTIFIC 



ST ANDREWS FURNISHED FIRST BASIS FOR LATER WORK 



Elaborate notes on the food of fishes collected during a 

 long period, chiefly by the head of the Marine Laboratory, 

 and supplemented by the additions made by successive 

 workers at St Andrews, have formed the basis of all subse- 

 quent work in this important line of study. Reference to 

 a well-known paper, read at the Fisheries Exhibition Con- 

 ference, London, 1883, by the late Dr Francis Day, upon the 

 subject of the food of fishes, shows clearly how much Professor 

 M'Intosh's published researches were depended upon, indeed 

 it may be said that the pioneer work in this important branch 

 of study was commenced long ago at St. Andrews. Further, 

 the systematic study of ' Plankton ' or the minute floating 

 life in St Andrews Bay, month by month, for a lengthy 

 period, constituted the groundwork of later labours in that 

 important field of investigation. From St Andrews numerous 

 papers on the surface fauna of the sea, and also of the deeper 

 regions, in successive seasons, testify to an incredible amount 

 of toil and close observation. The importance of this work 

 can only be realised when it is remembered that the illimit- 

 able swarms of living organisms, scattered through the various 

 strata of the sea, constitute the food of all our important 

 fishes during their early life, and largely form the food of the 

 invertebrates upon which the fishes mainly feed in their 

 full-grown condition. 



One great advantage that sea fishery investigators have 

 had at St Andrews, arises from the fact that St Andrews Bay 

 is a compact and definite area in which the extent of fishing 

 operations can be approximately determined and checked, 

 in contrast to the outside waters where difficulty arises owing 

 to the extent of fishing operations and to the conditions in 

 the open sea. Indeed, a unique grasp of the situation was 

 afforded by a long period of sixty years' actual experience of 



