SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 93 



the Channel last winter, on the way to Ceylon. Conse- 

 quently during the first night after leaving Liverpool, 

 from the N.W. Lightship onwards, Mr. Hornell and I set 

 free 200 drift bottles, in batches of 10, thrown overboard 

 every half hour or quarter hour, according to the locality, 

 from 1.30 to 10.30 a.m. The experiment was remarkably 

 successful ; 118 out of the 200 bottles were subsequently 

 found, and Mr. Johnstone has worked out the particulars 

 of their probable journeys, and the evidence they give us as 

 to the drift of small objects in that part of the Irish Sea. 

 The experiment seems to prove, what was previously sus- 

 pected, that the> eggs of fish spawning off Carnarvon and 

 Cardigan Bays will probably find their way into 

 Lancashire waters, and by the time they have come to be 

 post-larval will be in a position to recruit the populations 

 of our coastal " nurseries." 



Other Investigations. 



One of our former students of fis'kery matters, Dr. J. 

 Travis Jenkins, now Lecturer in Biology in the Hartley 

 College, Southamptony contributes a paper to this Report 

 upon the question of supposed " spring " and " autumn " 

 races of the Herring. There are undoubtedly two main 

 spawning seasons for the Herring in our seas, the one in 

 spring and the other in autumn, and the German 

 Naturalist, Professor F. Heincke, has contended that it is 

 two distinct races of Herring that spawn at these two 

 seasons. 



Dr. Jenkins' discussion of the known facts, and his 

 careful analysis and criticism of Heincke's figures and 

 arguments, show that we have not yet sufficient evidence 

 to enable us to separate the Herrings of our seas into a 

 " spring " and an " autumn " race. 



Mr. Johnstone gives a translation of Dr. Heincke's table 



