646 



NATURE 



[August 21, 191, 



THE LANCASHIRE SEA FISHERIES 

 LABORATORY. 

 ^THE twenty-first annual report of this laboratory 

 -*■ contains an interesting record of the routine 

 work and investigations carried on during 1912. The 

 usual four classes for fishermen were held at Piel 

 during the spring ; fifty-two fishermen received in- 

 struction in marine biology, with special reference to 

 the life-history and habits of fishes and the more 

 common invertebrates captured in the trawl-net, and 

 thirty-nine of the men attended also the course in 

 navigation. 



Mr. Johnstone continues his records of diseased 

 conditions of fishes. He describes and figures a 

 fibromatous tumour from a halibut, melanotic sar- 

 comata in skate, and tubercular lesions in a cod. 

 Piscine tubercle has been known hitherto only in fresh- 

 water fishes, and it is therefore of interest to find the 

 present typical lesions in a fish living in the open 

 and not likely to have become infected by land- 

 drainage. Dr. Alexander contributes a review of 

 piscine tubercle, and gives a description of an acid- 

 fast bacillus found in the cod above-mentioned. The 

 lesions were skin infections, resembling lupus, and 

 containing typical tubercles. The organism was found 

 to be non-pathogenic for the guinea-pig. 



Mr. Johnstone gives a detailed report on the more 

 important mussel-beds in Lancashire and North 

 Wales in regard to their liability to sewage con- 

 tamination. His investigations show that the mussels 

 from certain areas, e.g. parts of the Conway and 

 Lune estuaries, are objectionable as articles of food, 

 and he urges the necessity for supervision of natural 

 shellfish beds, in the interests not only of public 

 health, but of the shellfish industry. 



In his account of the measurements and variations 

 in the condition of plaice, Mr. Johnstone suggests 

 that the main cause of the periodic migrations made 

 by plaice is change of temperature. The migration 

 is of the nature of an adaptation to a change in the 

 environment, the plaice responding by so moving that 

 the temperature-change becomes minimal. 



Mr. Riddell gives an account of the plankton col- 

 lections obtained during 1912 in the Irish Sea. Prof. 

 Bassett, in reporting on the water samples taken 

 at the same time, points out that very high salinities 

 prevailed throughout the year 1912, especially at 

 certain stations on the line from Holyhead to the 

 Calf of Man, due to the flooding of the English 

 Channel and Irish Sea by water of • Mediterranean 

 origin. He briefly discusses the types of oceanic 

 circulation in the North Atlantic, and concludes that 

 there are corresponding' meteorological conditions, and 

 that the latter, in so far as they affect the succeeding 

 summer, can be foreseen from the value and time of 

 occurrence of the maximum salinities in the Irish 

 Sea. 



The intensive study of the plankton around the 

 south end of the Isle of Man has been continued. 

 The maxima of the diatoms and most other plankton 

 groups were earlier in 1912 than 191 1. Examination 

 of the various forms of the diatom Biddulphia leads 

 Prof. Herdman and his collaborators to regard B. 

 sinensis and B. regia as two forms of the original 

 species B. mobiliensis. Mr. Scott reports on the 

 pelagic fish-eggs of this area, and Mr Jackson on 

 the decapod larva;. 



Prof. Herdman and Mr. Riddell, in their report on 

 the plankton of the west coast of Scotland, state that 

 the phytoplankton, which was so widespread in July, 

 innQ and toil especially round Mull, seems in the 

 last two summers, and particularly in August, IQ12, 

 to have become pushed back or restricted to the more 



land-locked waters by an unusual influx of character- 

 istically oceanic organisms from the Atlantic, e.g. 

 the copepods Metridia lucens and Candacia armata. 

 It is suggested that in the Hebrides there is a definite 

 connection between the presence of oceanic water 

 containing the copepod Calanus in quantity and shoals 

 of herrings, for large hauls of Calanus were, on 

 several occasions, obtained at places where, either 

 the night before or the night after, good catches of 

 herrings were reported. 



BRITISH FORESTRY. 1 



THE useful publication before us (though foresters 

 have to mourn the death of its long-time editor) 

 retains its high standard of excellence. At the annual 

 general meeting of the society, instead of a formal 

 address there was a discussion on the relation of 

 forestry to agriculture, &c. It is sufficient to follow 

 this discussion to see what a strong body of opinion 

 exists amongst practical men — forest owners and 

 foresters — in favour of a comprehensive scheme of 

 national forestry. The conclusions arrived at in this 

 discussion vary little from those expressed in the 

 Coast Erosion report of 1908, and in the similar 

 Committee reports that preceded it. 



The average rental of hill grazing ground suitable 

 for forest planting in the north-east of Scotland is 

 not more than is. per acre. This fact opens up a 

 great national question of the more profitable use of 

 the land in these islands, which are themselves one 

 of the most fertile and productive countries of the 

 world. Then there is the question of small holdings. 

 These are linked with forestry in the sense that they 

 cannot generally exist under present conditions with- 

 out the help afforded from winter labour in the 

 forest. Looked at from a national point of view, the 

 labour question means, in the case of grazing and 

 shooting, two or three men employed per 1000 acres, 

 against about 10s. per acre per year wages in forestry. 

 The careful Prussian statistics give us. qd. per acre 

 per year as the average forest wages bill. About 

 one man to fifteen is the grazing-i>ersi/s-forest ratio 

 given in the Coast Erosion Committee's report. 



This rural labour, priceless from a national well- 

 being point of view, is being lost to the country, and 

 some 30,000,000/. is being sent out of the country 

 yearly for timber and forest products which might be 

 produced in these islands. 



Savs Mr. Munro Ferguson, commenting on the last 

 forest Blue-book (Rept. of Advisory Com. on Forestry, 

 Cd. 6713) : — " While the Administration gropes its 

 way in the dark, and while the paramount national 

 interest of silviculture fas affording the widest scope 

 for additional skilled labour on the land) is neglected, 

 1000 emigrants leave the Clyde weekly." Mr. Munro 

 Ferguson was the first large forest owner in Scotland 

 to bring his own woodlands under scientific manage- 

 ment, and he has since then represented forestry in 

 almost every capacity. 



The full text is given of the address of Sir John 

 Sterling Maxwell fthe retiring president of the Royal 

 Scottish Arboricultural Societv) to the Aberdeen 

 branch. This was summarised in the April number of 

 the Quarterly Journal of the English Arboricultural 

 Societv. It may be looked on as the most important 

 pronouncement, in favour of a comprehensive scheme 

 of State forestry, that has vet been made by an 

 influential owner of forests in these islands : It is 

 well termed, "The Place of Forestry in the Economic 

 Development of Scotland." No lover of trees, no one 



1 Trans: 



, July, 



of the Roval Scottish Arhoricultural So 

 3. II, li burgli : Douglas and Foulis.) 



NO. 2286, VOL. 91] 



