57 



Report on the Investigations carried on in 1893 

 in connection with the Lancashire Sea-Fisheries 

 Laboratory at University College, Liverpool. 



By Professor W. A. Herdman, D.Sc, F.R.S. ; 

 assisted by Mr. P. F. J. Corbin. 



The last Report besides treating of the work carried on 

 in the Fisheries laboratory down to the end of 1892, gave 

 an account of the establishment and fittings of the 

 laboratory, and a certain amount of preliminary informa- 

 tion in regard to the physical and biological features of 

 our district of the Irish Sea, and the need of scientific 

 investigations therein in regard to Fishery matters. 

 There is therefore no need to give again any such general 

 introduction, and the present report will deal merely 

 with the work carried out in the laboratory and at sea 

 during 1893 and the discussion of any results arising from 

 it. Some of this work is merely a continuation of that 

 undertaken last year, such as the investigation of the foods 

 of our various edible fishes and of some inedible ones 

 which frequent the same grounds and so may enter into 

 competition with marketable species ; while on the other 

 hand some new questions have been opened up, such as 

 the limits of size of the various species in this district at 

 sexual maturity, the relative amount of vitality in in- 

 dividuals both large and small caught by various nets, the 

 position and physical conditions of the spawning grounds, 

 and the further extension of the food investigations to very 

 young individuals of the edible fishes. 



A few notes on faunistic investigations of the feeding 

 grounds, on parasites, and on abnormalities of fish are also 

 given ; and a preliminary statement is made as to the 



