Haddon — Survey of Fishing Grounds, West Coast of Ireland. 223 



" Harlequin " only for a fortnight at Easter, and I was followed 

 for another fortnight by my colleague, Professor T. Johnson, who 

 studied the seaweeds brought up by the trawl. 



Since the conclusion of the cruise Mr. Holt has remained in 

 Dublin in order to work out the Zoological results of the Survey, 

 and I placed my private room at the Royal College of Science at 

 his disposal. During this time Mr. Holt has worked indefatigably, 

 as the accompanying voluminous Reports will prove. In addition 

 to these Mr. Holt has made some most important investigations on 

 the larval and post-larval stages of fishes collected during the 

 Survey, and some of his results are about to be published in the 

 Society's Transactions. They will form a valuable and interesting 

 addition to our knowledge of the life-history of British Fishes. 

 There still remains a considerable amount of material of high 

 scientific and practical interest which I hope Mr. Holt will find 

 time to work up in the immediate future. The map accompanying 

 the Reports was prepared by Mr. G. H. T. Beamish, C. E., to 

 whom the naturalists of the Survey are indebted for every possible 

 assistance. 



In addition to the economic details here presented to the 

 Society and the life-histories of numerous fish which the Society is 

 publishing, there is a very large collection of Marine Invertebrates 

 which it will take some time to classify. Some of the material is 

 already in the hands of experts, and all of it will, I hope, be 

 eventually worked over, and the reports published by the Society. 

 The time must now have passed when it can be asked What is 

 the good of such knowledge ? An acquaintance with the Marine 

 Invertebrate fauna is as necessary to a right apprehension of 

 fishery questions as is a knowledge of pasturage and root crops to 

 the cattle-raiser. It is impossible to study the economics of 

 animals without taking their food into consideration. The opera- 

 tions of the Survey were so arranged as to obtain the maximum 

 amount of information on all the aspects of the fisheries that was 

 possible with the time and resources at our disposal. 



In the following Reports will be found that portion of the 

 scientific results which have a more immediate economic aspect, and 

 there, for the first time, we have accurate data which will assist 

 towards the formation of a trustworthy knowledge of the state of 

 the Fisheries of our Western sea-board. The narrative of the 



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