JO MAKK1 TAIM.]: P.KITISH MAKINK IISH1.S 



Fulton. The hatching work was directed by Mr. Harald 



i of the Captain Danncvig, of Arcndal, who has 



,1 hatching of sea-fish his special study for so 



, n , im ; \\x-iity- -even million plaice eggs were 



:ied from the spawners, and over twenty-six million fry 



obtained and " planted " in the sea. The arrangements of 

 the Dunbar hatchery are interesting, and the chief features arc 

 as follows: There is a spawning pond forty and a half feet 

 long, eighteen to twenty-six and a half feet broad, eleven 



deep. This is on a higher level than the hatching 

 house. Water is supplied to it by means of steam pumps, 

 and ' the overflow passes through a filtering chamber, where 

 the floating eggs arc retained, and then down a shoot on 

 to a water-wheel, which works certain simple machinery for 

 agitating the hatching boxes. The pumps supply also water 

 from the sea to the hatching boxes, the water being filtered on its 

 way. The fish arc placed in the spawning pond when nearly 

 ripe, and allowed to spawn of their own accord. 



The remainder of the scientific part of the Twelfth Report, 

 although valuable and important, does not indicate any great 

 novelties in the operations of the Board. Prof. Mclntosh and 

 his pupils and assistants describe as usual the results of various 

 studies of problems connected with the life histories of the more 

 valuable fishes in their natural condition in the sea, and these 

 indicate steady progress in the investigations carried on at the 

 Laboratory. Dr. Fulton gives a report of some 

 definite and precise experiments on the effect of the size of the 

 mesh of the trawl on the sizes of the fish captured. These 

 experiments were carried out by the Garland, and consisted in 

 fastening outside the trawl net, round its end, a net having 

 meshes of only half an inch square. The fish which escaped through 

 the trawl were retained by the outer net, and the comparison of 

 :nd in the trawl and outside it is very interesting. 

 Trawls with meshes of various sizes were tested in this way. 



It will be seen from the above summary that the organisa- 

 tion of the scientific department of the Scottish Board in the 



1 894 consisted of (i) The Superintendent in Edinburgh and 

 the steamer Garland employed for special experimental inquiries 



.i, and for the examination of the closed and unclosed 

 trawling grou the hatchery at Dunbar under the control 



