Il 



November 29, 1894] 



NATURE 



115 



chloride being likewise formed. The chloride is reduced by 

 ' ammonium sulphide to a compound of the constitution : 

 ^N— NHPh 

 HC,; , a substance which Prof. v. Pechmann has 



\n NPh 

 previously described, and which is interesting as forming the 

 starting-point for the preparation of the new series. For the 

 chloride may at once be prepared from this latter substance by 

 oxidation with amyl nitrite and hydrochloric acid. The sub- 

 stance is readily prepared by the action of diazobenzene chloride 

 upon malonic acid, constituting the insoluble product of the 

 reaction. It is of considerable interest to observe that the 

 main product of the dry distillation of diphenyl tetrazolium 

 chloride is azobenzene. 



THE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGA TIONS OF THE 

 SCOTTISH FISHERY BOARD. 



•yHE Twelth .Vnnual Report of the Fishery Board for Scot- 

 ■'■ land (Part III. Scientific Investigations for 1893) con- 

 tains a quantity of new information upon fishery problems, 

 and marks an important stage in the history of the Board, 

 lowing to the successful inauguration during the past year of a 

 hatchery at Dunbar for the artificial propagation of ma-ine 

 focjd-fishes. 



.\ number of important conclusions are formulated by the 



rd upon various matters. In the first place, the closure of 



territorial waters to beam-trawling is admitted to have had 



ippreciable effect towards arresting the continued decline in 



supply of flat-fishes, although the interdicted area has been 



very large. The greater part of the territorial waters of the 



K:ist Coast, the Firlh of Forth, and St. Andrews Bay have 



been protected (except for experimental purposes) since l885, 



and this area was greatly extended in 18S3, when practically 



the whole of the territorial waters and several extensive bays 



i (the Firth of Clyde and the Moray Firth) were closed against 



I the operations of the beam-trawler. The reason for the failure 



I of this method of protectiDn is sought for in the fact that the 



I present protected area does not embrace the spawning grounds 



"f fojd-fishes, except in the case of the Moray Firth. It is 



-t unfortunate that, from lack of a safficiently seaworthy 



^il, the Board has been unable to devote the same attention 



I) the Moray Firth as to the Firth of Forth and St. .A.ndrews 



I'.ay, for statistics upon the condition of the Moray Firth 



lughout the year would have been invaluable. But it can 



lefinitely asserted that the mere protection of areas that do 



iiui include spawning grounds is practically useless to prevent 



[depletion of the home fisheries. The recommendation of ihe 



! recent Parliamentary Committee that the present territorial 



: limit should be considerably extended, is accordingly endorsed ; 



and, in order to ensure the enclosure of the more important 



breeding-grounds, the Board emphasises its recommendation of 



the previous year, that the limit of jurisdiction should be ex- 



, tended to ten or twelve miles from shore. 



i Experiments have been made upon the effects of alteration in 

 I the size of the mesh of the beam-trawl upon the capture of im- 

 i mature fish. It was found that, contrary to the opinion of most 

 ' practical men at the recent Parliamentary inquiry, the size of 

 I the mesh has a moit appreciable influence in determining the 

 'size of the fish captured. Dr. Fulton's effective experimental 

 trawlings show that the proportion of fishes that escape through 

 the cod-end of the trawl increases greatly as the width of the 

 J meshes is enlarged. 



I Prof. M'Intosh gives an interesting review of the trawling 

 I question in general, and includes a valuable sketch of the 

 changes which have taken place during the past ten years in 

 trawling-vessels and their apparatus. Reasons are adduced 

 which tend to show that line-fishing is quite as destructive as 

 trawling to immature round fishes, such as cod and haddock ; 

 and it is maintained that the perennial abundance of the floating 

 , fauna, of which larval stages of bjttoin-animals form so large a 

 proportion, is sufficient to prevent the trawling-grounds from 

 being depleted of fish-food to any serious extent. 



The volume includes a number of papers of a more purely 

 biological character upon the development of fishes, on the in- 

 vertebrate fauna of the Firth of Forth and certain inland lochs, 

 on the oviposition and rate of growth of the sand-eel and certain 

 other fishes, and on some seasonal changes in the histology of 



NO. 1309. VOL. 5 l] 



fishes. Two papers on the osteology of the tunny and on the 

 anatomy of the pectoral arch in the gurnard seem to us to be 

 completely out of place in an official publication ostensibly 

 devoted to fishery investigations, with which they have nothing 

 to do. 



Turning to Prof M'Intosh's "Remarks on Trawling," 

 justifiable as his general position appears to be, he has, never- 

 theless, left himself open to criticism on a number of minor 

 points. It is difficult to reconcile with the statistics of the 

 f7a;7i!«(/ trawlings the Professor's remark that "the closure 

 of the inshore waters — e.g. St. Andrews Bay — must have 

 conduced to the prosperity of the turbot and the brill of 

 that neighbourhood, most of the turbot (ranging from 9 to II 

 inches) which formerly ivcrc captured by the trawler^ now being 

 unmolested " (p. 167). ForinDr. Fulton's introductory report 

 on the work of the CarlaiiJ it is stated that in St. Andrews 

 Bay, as in the Firth of Forth, there was an actual decrease in 

 1S93 of "turbot and brill" in the closed areas as compared 

 with 1892 (p. 26) ; and the decrease of flat-fishes in general 

 during the eight years of closure is demonstrated on p. 33. 

 Moreover, out of the twenty-four experimental trawlings con- 

 ducted by the Garland in the closed waters of St. Andrews 

 Bay in 1893 only two turbot, and no brill at all, were obtained. 

 Indeed, the average take of turbot was twice as great in the un- 

 protected as in the protected areas of the Bay (p. 42). 



In one of the most interesting sections of his "Remarks" 

 (p. 1S4), Prof. M'Intosh discusses the "effect of trawling on 

 the invertebrate fauna of the sea-bottom (forming fish-food)." 

 It is full of valuable observations from the rich stores of the 

 Professor's experience, but, as an argument, seems to us to be 

 vitiated by a very questionable assumption which underlies it, 

 viz. that'all invertebrate life on the sea-bottom furnishes food 

 for fishes. Half the groups, at least, which are mentioned by 

 the Professor in this connection should, in our opinion, be 

 eliminated, viz. sponges, hydroids, anemones, alcyonaria, star- 

 fishes, balani, and ascidians, although we are quite prepared to 

 allow that now and then, in exceptional cases, particular species 

 of some of these groups may be swallowed by fishes. Therefore 

 the Professor's argument that the trawl causes little impoverish- 

 ment of the supply of fish-food, owing to the rapid powers of 

 growth and repair which the above groups (among some others) 

 possess, is seriously impaired. 



In Mr. Harald Dannevig's Report (p. 21 1) we notice the 

 interesting observation that fishes which spawn during the night 

 in open ponds will do so during the day also if the pond be 

 darkened. 



Coming to the biological investigations, we observe that Prof. 

 M'Intosh has overlooked (p. 227) the fact that the Norwegian 

 Topknot (Zeiigopterus norvegieiis) has been recorded by Mr. 

 Cunningham as occurring in considerable numbers at Plymouth 

 {Jour. M.B.A. ii. 1892, p. 325). In connection with Mr. 

 Sandeman's investigations on seasonal changes in the histology 

 of fishes, attention may be drawn to another paper by Air. 

 Cunningham (your. M.B.A. ii. 1891, pp. 16-421, in which a 

 number of remarkable histological changes are shown to take 

 place in the female conger during the period of the maturation 

 of her eggs. 



The main results of Mr. Dickson's physical investigations 

 in the Faroe-Shetland seas seem to us to be of profound im- 

 portance. If, as he contends, a mass of .Atlantic water is every 

 year admitted through the Fanie-Shetland Channel, winds 

 round the Shetlands, and bores its way down the eastern coasts 

 of Scotland in the summer months, guided by a bank of dense 

 water in the upper regions of the North Sea, it is clear that we 

 have at once an explanation of numbers of isolated facts of 

 occasional or periodic distribution of pelagic animals in those 

 regions, which have hitherto seemed merely freaks of Neptune 

 or .Eolus. .And it cannot be doubted that a further exiensi.>n 

 of such investigations as Mr. Dickson has been carrying out 

 in H. M. S. Jaekal, if coupled with a corresponding survey of 

 the pelagic fauna, will provide the long-sought solution of the 

 migralions of the herring and other nomad fishes round our coasts. 

 In congratulating the Board upon its scientific achievemenis 

 for the year, we cannot help expressing our intense regret that 

 the recently vacant chairmanship was not offered by the Govern- 

 ment to Dr. John Murray. His experience and energy would 

 at all limes be invaluable, but at the present juncture, when so 

 many import.ant fishery problems of a physico-biological nature 

 are pressing for solution, the loss to the Board and (o the 

 country of his counsel and aid is incalculable. W. G. 



