AN ENGLISH MAKINE BIOLOGICAL STATION. 163 



possibility of any rivalry or conflict of aims between tlie society 

 to which he had referred and another Society of which His Koyal 

 Highness the Prince of Wales had announced the formation at 

 the Fisheries Exhibition a few days ago. That Society was in 

 the ordinary sense of the word practical. It would have to do 

 •with the condition of fishermen, the collection of statistics and 

 of facts concerning food-fishes, and so forth. He sincerely 

 trusted that when established, as he hoped they would be, so far 

 from one being a hindrance to the other, both Societies would 

 work in concurrence to one common end. 



The Duke of Argyll then moved the following resolution : — 

 " That in the opinion of this meeting there is an urgent want 

 of one or more laboratories on the British coast, similar to those 

 existing in France, Austria, Italy, and America, where accurate 

 researches may be carried on, leading to the improvement of 

 zoological and botanical science, and to an increase in our know- 

 ledge as regards the food, life, conditions, and habits of British 

 food-fishes and molluscs in particular, and the animal and 

 vegetable resources of the sea in general." The fact of their 

 being called together to form a voluntary Society to carry out 

 these objects implied a discovery on the part of those who had 

 taken a leading part in this matter that the work was not likely 

 to be taken up by the Government. He was afraid that in this 

 respect the British Government had always stood rather behind 

 those of other countries, whether Monarchical or Republican. 

 There were other agencies by which facts about food fishes would 

 be obtained, and he instanced the researches of the President of 

 the Royal Society and a valuable paper recently contributed by 

 Professor Ewart upon one of the most important questions con- 

 nected with food-fishes — the spawning of the Herring. Infor- 

 mation so obtained showed the groundless character of the 

 opposition raised by the fishermen of Loch F3aie to a mode of 

 fishing which they called " trawling," which was really the use of 

 the seine net. Believing that there were agencies which would 

 obtain and spread information for economic purposes, he thought 

 that in the main they should in promoting this Society look to 

 the interest of biolog}^ as a science. 



This Resolution was seconded by Sir Lyon Playfair, who in 

 the course of his remarks suggested that it was remarkable that 

 a country so greatly dependent upon the sea as ours should be 



