1 8 MARKET ABLE BRITISH MARINE FISHES chap. 



institution— the present writer and Mr. Henderson in zoology, 

 Mr. Rattray in botany, and Dr. Mill in chemistry and physics. 



The work of the Granton Station was of a more academic 

 and less practical character than the work at that time carried 

 on by the Scottish Fishery Board. I was engaged in the in- 

 vesti"-ation of the eggs and development of sea-fishes, including 

 food-fishes. In the summer of the same year I described for 

 the first time in this country a pelagic egg and larva, afterwards 

 proved to belong to the sprat. In the autumn I artificially 

 fertilised herring eggs on the coast of Northumberland, and 

 published a contribution to the knowledge of their development 

 in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science. In 1885 I 

 published a paper on the pelagic eggs of the cod, haddock, 

 whiting, and gurnard, the first account with exact measurements 

 and figures of the pelagic eggs of these fishes in this country. 

 Professor Mcintosh described pelagic eggs of these and other 

 fishes in the Trawling Commission's Report in 1885, and a short 

 note in 1884, but without figures. In 1886 I published a com- 

 prehensive survey of the work done up to that time in the 

 development of marine fishes. In the same year I also pub- 

 lished the discovery of the hermaphroditism and the nature of 

 the eo-cr capsule in Myxine glutinosa, the hag-fish, which is so 

 troublesome an enemy to fish and line fishermen on the north- 

 east coast. 



In 1887, I transferred my services to the Marine Biological 

 Association at Plymouth, and since then little work of direct 

 utility to the fisheries has been done by the Scottish Marine 

 Station, the other members of the staff having been already 

 oblio-ed to seek more remunerative posts in 1885 and 1886. 

 The work of the Medusa has, however, been continued on the 

 west coast of Scotland by Dr. Murray and many men of science 

 who have co-operated with him ; and research has been con- 

 tinued from time to time both at Granton, where a laboratory 

 on shore was obtained, and at Millport on the Cl}'de, to which 

 place the floating laboratory was transferred ; these researches 

 have resulted in large additions to the knowledge of the marine 

 fauna of the Clyde and to other branches of marine science. 



A considerable amount of work was accomplished under the 

 auspices of the Scottish Fishery Board in the year 1885-86, the 

 principal contributors being Mr. Brook, Professor Ewart, Pro- 



