MODERN INVESTIGATIONS OF THE SUBJECT 1 3 



nature and depth of the water where fish commonl}- 

 abound. 



(7) The special enemies of useful fishes, and the causes of 

 the disappearance of fish from certain districts. 



As the artificial cultivation of cod or other fish required more 

 appliances than the Board could command, they determined to 

 commence with the investigation of the food and early life- 

 history of the herring. They therefore applied to the Home 

 Secretary to ask the Lords of the Admiralty to grant the use of 

 a steam pinnace. The application was declined. 



From the Second Report of the Board, giving its proceedings 

 in 1883, published in 1884, we learn that in the late summer of 

 1883 the Admiralty consented to the use oi \.\\e Jackal, a steamer 

 usually employed in fishery protection service, for a preliminar}- 

 inquiry into the herring and herring fishery. The expenses of 

 this inquiry were to be met out of the sum voted for travelling 

 expenses, and a small wooden laboratory on the coast of Ross- 

 shire, belonging to Mr. Romanes and Professor Ewart, was lent 

 by them for the work of the Board. 



At the suggestion of Professor Mcintosh, of St. Andrews, 

 who has been all his life a keen student of marine zoology, the 

 Board agreed to co-operate with him in providing for the 

 expense of fitting up a small building on the shore there as a 

 marine laboratory, in which researches on food-fishes could be 

 carried on. With the sanction of the Treasury a sum of ;i^335, 

 was devoted by the Board to this purpose, and Professor 

 Mcintosh commenced experiments and observations on the 

 floating eggs of flat-fishes. The Scientific Appendix to this 

 Report includes a note by Professor Mcintosh on these earliest 

 researches at the St. Andrews Laboratory, consisting of the 

 artificial fertilisation of the eggs of the cod and flounder and a 

 few other fishes. 



In March, 1884, Professor P2wart made an examination of 

 the Ballantrae Bank, reputed to be a herring spawning bed. It 

 was found to be covered with herring spawn, and the results of 

 this examination were the most valuable obtained up to that 

 time by the scientific inquiries of the Board. 



The Treasury only sanctioned ;{^900 for the scientific work 

 from funds already in the hands of the Board, chiefly herring- 

 brand fees. ^300 of this was required to meet expenses alread)- 



