— îâ — 



each sent in a Report on the present condition of the Baltic fisheries. These have 

 been pubhshed together as Nr. 13 A of the "Pubhcations de circonstance". (See 

 the Hst of these pubhcations, p. 5.) 



In order to carry out the scientific and practical investigations in the regions^ 

 to be explored by the different countries, national committees were formed by most 

 of the participating states. The appended list gives a review of the organisation 

 and personalia of these national committees. See List I, p. 8 and 9. 



Means for With regard to the means for carrying out the national investigations, the 



""imernatTolai" -^^^'^^ ^° ^^ mcntioncd are the laboratories and steamers, fitted up for the scientific 

 investigations work, which arc at the disposal of the various countries. As regards the labora- 

 tories, some of which were specially instituted for the present investigations (e. g. 

 the Swedish station of Bornö), others of which had already for manj' years been 

 successfully engaged in marine investigations (e. g. the laboratories of the Kiel 

 Commission, the Danish Biological Station etc.), reference may be made to the 

 papers and annual reports etc. published in the countries concerned. Several of 

 these are not exclusively restricted to the carrying out of the investigations, but 

 are also open and available for the studies of home and foreign scientists, as for 

 the wider treatment of problems concerning marine biology ; of such institutes, the 

 HeHgoland Biological Station, the Zoological Station at Helder and the Marine 

 Laboratory at Plymouth, may be named. In this connection, the course of study 

 founded at Bergen on the initiative of Dr. Joh. Hjort has to be mentioned here. 

 For some years, a course of study extending over several months, on the theory 

 and practice of marine investigations, has been conducted in the laboratories of 

 the Royal Norwegian Fiskeridirektion and in scientific institutes of the town of 

 Bergen by various specialists of the Fiskeridirektion. 



The majority of the steamers have been specially built for this purpose, some 

 have been chartered for longer or shorter periods, others are inspection-steamers 

 etc. belonging to the Navy or other departments. The seasonal cruises, the prac- 

 tical fisheries investigations and the other biological and hydrographical investiga- 

 tions are carried out by means of these steamers. 



The material obtained during the seasonal and other cruises of investigation, 

 is worked up scientifically b)'- the analysts, the ph3'sicists, chemists and biological 

 specialists, according to the program framed by the Conferences at Stockholm and 

 Christiania. See List II, p. 10 and 11. 



Methods With regard to the hydrographical portion of the work, the general method 



followed in the international investigations is to take soundings and water- and 

 plankton-samples from various depths, simultaneously at fixed stations at sea and 

 at different periods of the year. The seasonal cruises are made in the beginning 

 of the months of February, May, August and November. The same stations are 

 visited during each of these seasonal cruises, so far as unfavourable weather- 

 conditions do not prevent it. These stations form an outstretched observation-net 



' Proposals for the hydrographical subdivision of the regions to be investigated were made at 

 the Stockholm Conference, and for the biological and fisheries subdivision at the Christiania Conference. 



