July i, 1922] 



NA TURE 



17 



E. W. L. Holt. 



It is with deep regret that we record the death in 

 London on June 10, at the age of fifty-seven, of 

 Mr. Ernest William Lyons Holt. Chief Inspector of 

 Irish Fisheries. Educated at Eton, where he won 

 the Biological Prize, he entered the Army through 

 Sandhurst and joined the Duke of Cornwall's Light 

 Infantry, with whom he served in the Nile Campaign 

 of 1884-5 an d afterwards in the Burmah War 1886-7, 

 during which his health broke down and he was 

 invalided home. 



Retiring from the Army, Holt took up the study 

 of natural history, in which he had always been 

 interested. His first zoological research was carried 

 out at the St. Andrews Marine Laboratory, and 

 resulted in a paper on the morphology of the brain 

 of fishes, especially of the herring, which was com- 

 municated in 1890 to the Royal Society of London. 

 In the same year he was appointed assistant-naturalist 

 for the survey of fishing grounds on the west coast of 

 Ireland, which was being carried out by the Royal 

 Dublin Society. As the result of cruises carried out 

 in 1890 and 1891 a valuable series of papers was 

 published, the most important of which dealt with 

 the eggs and larvae of fishes, while in others the 

 economic aspects of scientific fisherv investigation were 

 ably dealt with. 



In 1892 Mr. Holt was appointed by the Marine 

 Biological Association to take charge of a laboratory 

 which was opened near Grimsby for the purpose of 

 studying the fishery problems of the North Sea. Here 

 for three years he successfully carried out investiga- 

 tions dealing with all aspects of fish life in their relation 

 to commercial fisheries, paying special attention to the 

 destruction of immature fish by trawling, a question 

 which was thought at that time to be of the greatest 

 practical importance. On leaving Grimsby, he spent 

 some time in the south of France, where he resumed 

 his studies on eggs and larval stages, publishing 

 a finely illustrated memoir on this aspect of the natural 

 history of Mediterranean fishes. Following this, three 

 years were spent at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, 

 where he not only continued and extended his work 

 on fishes, but took up the study of several groups of 

 invertebrates which are largely used as food by fishes. 



In 1900 Mr. Holt returned to Ireland, where he 

 became scientific adviser to the fisheries branch of the 



Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, 

 succeeding the Rev. W. Spotswood Green as chief 

 inspector of fisheries in 1914. Under his direction 

 an important survey of the fishing grounds, especially 

 to the west and south-west of Ireland, was organised 

 and carried on for a number of years, the deep 

 water of the Atlantic slope receiving a large share 

 of attention. Mr. Holt gathered around him a 

 brilliant staff of young naturalists, and an excellent 

 series of reports was published. He continued 

 to devote himself personally to the study of fishes, 

 and included fresh-water fishes, especially the salmon, 

 in his studies. His personal knowledge of fish life in 

 all its aspects was probably greater than that of any 

 other British naturalist, and at the same time he was 

 a keen student of the literature of the subject. In his 

 earlier years he had great facility as a draughts- 

 man, and his papers were beautifully illustrated with 

 his own drawings. He possessed an acute and critical 

 intellect, a sound sense of proportion, and a quick eye 

 for the things that really mattered in connexion with 

 any question he took up. His work was greatly helped 

 by a gift of rapid literary expression, accompanied by 

 a quiet humour, which always made his writings 

 interesting. His mind was essentially honest, he 

 suffered from no illusions, and did his best to destroy 

 what he thought were illusions in others. 



E. J. A. 



We much regret to announce the death, on June 26, 

 at the age of seventy-three years, of Albert, Prince of 

 Monaco, well known for his oceanographical research 

 work. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death, on 

 Tune 22."of Sir Alexander M'Robert, at the age of sixty- 

 eight years. After acting for a time as a lecturer in 

 experimental physics and in chemistry, in Aberdeen, 

 Sir Alexander went to India, where he passed the 

 greater part of his life, closely associated with technical 

 education. He was made a fellow of the University 

 of Allahabad in the Faculty of Science, served on the 

 committee of management of the Government Engineer- 

 ing College, Roorkee, and also as governor of the 

 Agricultural College, Cawnpore. Sir Alexander had 

 travelled extensively in many parts of the world, and 

 received knighthood for his services in 1910, being 

 created K.B.E. in 1919. 



Current Topics and Events. 



The Council of the Zoological Society of London 

 has approved a scheme for the establishment of an 

 aquarium at the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park. 

 The aquarium is to be built under the Mappin Terraces, 

 but so installed as to be invisible from the front, and 

 will not interfere with the panorama of the Terraces. 

 ft will consist of a crescentic gallery, 400 ft. long, lined 

 with tanks on both sides. Those on the outer curve 

 will have both daylight and electric illumination, 

 while those on the inner curve will be lighted by 

 electricity only, a method used at the Berlin Aquarium 

 with complete success. The gallery will be divided 

 into three parts — fresh water, marine, and tropical 



NO. 2748, VOL. I IO] 



aquaria — with special ponds for seals, diving birds, 

 and trout. The tanks are to be constructed with the 

 bottoms, sides, and backs of slate, and the fronts of 

 polished plate glass set in a framework of white 

 marble. They will be provided with rock-work 

 arranged to suit the needs of their inhabitants. The 

 water will be kept constantly circulating, Mowing into 

 the tanks from high - level reservoirs and thence 

 through a series of underground filter-beds, on the 

 plan of those in use at the New York Aquarium, to 

 low-level reservoirs, from which it will be pumped by 

 electric pumps to the high-level reservoirs again. 

 Special arrangements are to be installed for heating 



