SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 147 



ahead}' added so mucli to the knowledge of pelagic fishes, 

 their life, habits, and the causes affecting their migra- 

 tions, that, with the means now at his disposal, a con- 

 siderable amount of valuable information will probably 

 be gained which will prove of service to the fishing 

 industry of all nations." 



What Norway can do, surely the whole western sea- 

 board of England, from Cumberland to South Wales, now 

 united in one Sea-Fishery District, ought to be supplied 

 with, or be able to aiford. Surely we may hope to see in 

 the immediate future a steamer, at least of the size and 

 equipment of a modern steam trawler, devoted solely to 

 that combination of scientific and economic oceano- 

 graphic investigations in the Irish Sea of which every 

 conference of Fisheries Authorities, Commissions and 

 Select Committees of recent years has had to deplore the 

 absence. 



In addition to the investigation of the bottom by 

 dredging and trawling, the plankton in the surface and 

 other waters of the sea would require periodic examina- 

 tion. This matter has been discussed fully during 

 the past summer, both at Port Erin and Liverpool, 

 amongst our local naturalists, some of whom have had 

 much experience of late years in plankton work. In 

 order to get an adequate idea of the distribution of the 

 minute floating organisms of our seas, we should certainly 

 require to have weekly observations (or possibly even 

 twice a week) taken, at both surface and bottom, at 

 certain specified stations round the coast, of which we 

 should recognise four as being necessary in the Irish Sea, 

 and about 15 round the whole British Coast. The 

 Lancashire Naturalists are willing to play their part in 

 any such general scheme, but in the meantime we are 

 going on with the work in our own district. Mr, Isaac 



