MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 



45 



placed on sale. Seven hundred and eighty copies in all 

 were sold, making an increase of 80 compared with the 

 sales of the previous year. The Curator still occasionally 

 receives from persons resident in far distant parts of the 

 Kingdom orders for copies, in terms which show that 

 the little work is regarded as possessing permanent 

 value, especially to teachers in elementary schools. 



"The success of the hatchery work was seriously 

 impaired this year by the prevalence of disease amongst 

 the spawning plaice, and the number of fry set free — 

 1,667,500 — was very disappointing. The work of the 

 spawning pond and hatchery was efficiently undertaken 

 by the Assistant Curator, who thoroughly skimmed the 

 pond almost every day during the spawning season and 

 made the most of the greatly reduced quantity of eggs. 



" The numbers of eggs collected and of larvae set 

 free during the past season were as follows: — 



Eggs collected. 



Date. 



Larvse set free. 



Date. 



54,600 ... 



March 9 to 16 



50,000 .. 



April 1 



37,800 ... 



„ 18 to 21 



31,500 .. 



„ 4 



224,700 ... 



„ 22 to 26 



150,000 .. 





, 5 



130,200 ... 



„ 27 to April 1 



115,500 .. 





, 13 



230,200 ... 



April 2 and 3 



185,000 .. 





, 16 



161,800 ... 



„ 4 and 5 



137,300 .. 





, 17 



237,300 ... 



6 and 9 



208,000 .. 





, 18 



225,700 ... 



„ 10 and 11 - 



204,700 .. 





, 20 



428,300 ... 



„ 12 to 17 



374,500 .. 





, 22 



120,700 ... 



„ 18 and 19 



83,000 .. 





, 24 



195,400 ... 



„ 20 to 24 



120,000 .. 



. May 4 



18,800 ... 



„ 27 and May 1 



8,000 .. 



6 



2,065,500 



1,667,500 





"The young fish were, as usual, set free out at sea, 

 off the S. and W. of the Isle of Man, by Professor 

 Herdman from his yacht ' Runa.' 



" The experiments in lobster culture were this year 

 conducted by Mr. W. A. Gunn, of the Zoology Depart- 



