SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 341 



Zoological Laboratory at Liverpool University, intending to 

 continue this portion of the work mainly until November, in 

 order to gather a large amount of data regarding the actual 

 food of the fishes before beginning the more detailed study of 

 the bottom-deposits and the fauna found burrowing in and 

 associated with these. Up to now, I have examined the 

 stomachs of over 1,600 fish, but have done little to the deposits 

 beyond collecting and preserving them and noting their general 

 characters. This report can, then, only be looked upon as a 

 preliminary account of the research, which would not have been 

 published at this time were it not that I have had to give up 

 this work in Liverpool on receiving an appointment in the 

 University at Cape Town. It is in the hope that some future 

 investigator in Liverpool will take up and complete this work 

 that I think it desirable to make available the following record 

 of what I have been enabled to do under the peculiarly advan- 

 tageous circumstances, which obtain in the University of 

 Liverpool, for the successful pursuit of marine biological 

 investigation. 



Previous Records. 



Before proceeding to the results of my own work it may 

 be well to refer, briefly, to similar work which has been done in 

 the past, and especially to that carried on by the naturalists of 

 the Liverpool Marine Biology Committee and of the Lancashire 

 and Western Sea Fisheries Committee in the Irish Sea. 



Much important work has been done in connection with 

 the food-fishes, their food, and the fauna in general associated 

 with certain fishing grounds around our coasts by many 

 distinguished naturalists, such as the carefully prepared reports 

 drawn up by Professor Mcintosh in his book " The Resources 

 of the Sea" (1899), in which investigations of the greatest 

 value to the Fisheries of Scotland are described and the results 

 tabulated. It is probable, however, that dealing as I am with 



