SEA FISHERIES LABORATORY. 101 



bottles were probably found almost immediately after 

 being stranded. The shores are so regularly patrolled by 

 the people living in the immediate neighbourhood, that 

 there is little chance of any unusual object being long 

 over-looked. One or two of the finders stated that the 

 bottles came ashore during the previous tide, and one 

 was picked up at sea, five miles from Blackpool, by a 

 fisherman, after it had been 23 days in the water. 



In all probability the bottles would float slightly higher 

 in the water of the open sea than they did in the bucket 

 at Piel, as the specific gravity of the water at the various 

 stations ranged from 1*00268 to L0027, so that there would 

 be little chance of their going towards the bottom of the 

 sea till they entered the estuaries of rivers. 



The table shows that out of the 101 bottles set free, 

 fully 30'6% have been stranded on the Cheshire, Lanca- 

 shire, and Cumberland coasts, and therefore the result of 

 this experiment, even with weighted bottles in place of 

 light ones, confirms, in a striking maimer, the conclusion 

 arrived at by Professor Herdman* when summing up the 

 results of the first series of experiments, i.e., " That the 

 embryos of fish spawning in the deep water on the eastern 

 side of the Isle of Man would go to supply the nurseries 

 in the shallow Lancashire and Cheshire Bays." 



Fish eggs and larvae were found in all the tow-nettings 

 made during the experiment. 



[Table over page. 



Rep. Lane. Sea-Fish. Lab., 1895, pp. 20—21. 



