80 JOURNAL OF MARINE ZOOLOGY AND MICROSCOPY. 



artificial hatching, &c, of sea-fish and lobsters, the giving of free fishery 

 lectures and demonstrations, the preparation of a fishery exhibition illus- 

 trative of the methods of fishing and fish food, fish enemies, &c, locally 

 and abroad. 



The cost of all this work is about £2,700 per annum, and the increase 

 in the value of catches within the Lancashire sea fisheries district in 1895 

 -was £78,761 over the value of the catches of 1891, the year in which the 

 Committee commenced its labours. From the nature of the case, it is, of 

 course, impossible to say what part of this increase is due to the efforts 

 of the Committee ; but it can fairly claim, I believe, that such have had 

 a really considerable effect in the production of this favourable result. 



I have gone into the foregoing details at considerable length as the 

 scheme of work in the district is definite, has been successful, and the 

 local factors are somewhat analogous to our own. 



At the same time, the work of our English Fishery Committees is 

 at present much behind that of Scotland and of several foreign nations, 

 in one respect, viz., the establishment of sea-hatcheries for fish, 

 lobsters, &c. Scotland, the U.S.A., Newfoundland, Canada, and 

 Norway have all important establishments from which millions of young 

 are annually turned into the sea, whereas in England the Lancashire 

 Committee is the only one making definite preparations for the incep- 

 tion of such work. 



To the U.S.A. we owe the inception of marine fish hatchery, as it 

 was at the Fishing Station at Gloucester (Mass.) in 1878 that the eggs 

 of the cod, the whiting, and the herring, were successfully hatched. 

 Norway very quickly hastened to take the matter up, and from the 

 great hatchery at Flodevigen turns out annually many millions of 

 yoimg cod. Captain G. M. Dannevig, the greatest expert in this work, 

 asserts that it is only the effects of this hatchery that prevent the 

 extinction of a fishery valued at several hundred thousand pounds a 

 year. That the Norwegians themselves are convinced of the practical 

 benefit is best proved by the fact that the yearly grant to the hatchery 

 has always been made with the greatest willingness, notwithstanding 

 the meagre financial resources of the nation ; when last year an adverse 

 motion was introduced in their Parliament it was negatived by 114 

 votes to 11, a conclusive vote of confidence. 



The Dunbar hatchery instituted by the Fishery Board for Scotland, 

 is engaged chiefly in the hatching of plaice. In this work, therefore, 

 we have naturally greater direct interest than in that of the Norway 

 establishment, which is concerned most largely with the culture of 

 codfish. In structure and arrangement the Scottish Fishery Board has 

 followed strictly the model of the Norwegian hatchery, and consists 

 essentially of : — 



1st. A pond subject to the rise and fall of the tides, wherein are 



