102 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



more than once during the year, and a report on the work 

 carried out has been furnished, at their request, to the 

 Board. 



A considerable part of the work is of a routine nature 

 and does not differ much from that reported on last year. 

 Mr. Scott has been chiefly occupied at Piel with flat-fish 

 hatching, with the fisheries classes, and with making as 

 complete an estimate as possible of the minute floating life 

 in the sea all over the district. Mr. Johnstone's chief 

 work has been, as usual, the conducting of the fishermen's 

 classes at Piel, the bacteriological examination of samples 

 of shellfish, as required, and the investigation of the 

 parasites and diseases of fish in the Liverpool laboratory. 

 The marked fish experiments, the Hensen net experiments 

 and the collection of the hydrographic samples have also 

 occupied part of the time of both Mr. Johnstone and 

 Mr. Scott. Some of these lines of inquiry will be 

 commented upon now, and others will be found discussed 

 more fully in the sections of the report that follow. 



Flat-Fish Hatching. 



Mr. Scott's report shows that nearly 14 millions of 

 plaice and flounder fry were distributed last season. As 

 I have already pointed out on previous occasions, our 

 numbers in this output do not, and cannot, increase. The 

 really quite inadequate provision of tanks at Piel is 

 strained to the uttermost, as many plaice and as many 

 flounders are accommodated as can possibly be kept 

 healthy. I am satisfied that Mr. Scott is doing all that 

 can be done in the matter, and that until a spawning pond 

 and a better equipment of hatching tanks is provided there 

 is no hope of increasing the output. 



I may remind the Committee that in the Port Erin 

 Hatchery we have a second establishment adding annually 



