94 BRITISH FISHERIES 



class of facts belong the determination of the 

 bottom and pelagic faunas of the fishing grounds ; 

 and as an instance of this kind of work I may 

 mention the long series of papers by Dr T. Scott 

 on the crustacean fauna of the Firth of Forth 

 and other areas. 



We understand by the life-history of a fish 

 or other marine animal the knowledge of the 

 series of stages through which it passes, from the 

 time when it is spawned until the time when 

 it becomes a sexually mature creature. The 

 initiation of this department of ichthyological 

 research is usually credited to Professor G. O. 

 Sars of Christiania, who made out the life-history 

 of the cod about 1864; but some facts of this 

 kind were known, with respect to the herring, 

 at the beginning of the nineteenth century. 

 Very little, however, had been done at the time, 

 when the scientific work of the Scottish Fishery 

 Board commenced, and the pioneer worker was 

 Professor M'Intosh of St Andrews, who carried 

 on investigations for the Board after its formation 

 in 1882, and who was its scientific member from 

 1893 till 1895. It is not too much to say that 

 to him and his pupils we are indebted for a very 

 large part of our knowledge of this subject. 



Physical and chemical research at sea, that is, 

 the determination of the periodic changes in the 

 temperature, salinity, specific gravity, etc., of sea- 

 water, the direction and causes of ocean currents 



