146 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
he has now drawn up the exhaustive account of the 
structure of this important economic Mollusc which I 
have put at the end of the present Report. In addition 
to the account of the structure—illustrated by six plates— 
there is an Appendix upon Cockling in the Lancashire 
District, based upon statistics supplied by Mr. Dawson, 
Mr. Ascroft, some of the bailiffs, and the Furness Railway 
Co., and illustrated by a map showing the distribution of 
the cockle beds. 
It is interesting to notice that, from comparison of these 
figures for last year with the Report of the Commissioners 
(Mr. F’. Buckland and Mr. Spencer Walpole) who examined 
the Morecambe Bay fisheries in 1879, we can come to the 
important conclusion that there is no reason to suppose 
that there has been any serious falling off in the produc- 
tiveness of these beds during the 21 years, or, at least, 
that the annual produce of the Morecambe district is 
very much the same now that it was 21 years ago. 
Mr. Johnstone has, however, found it no easy matter to 
get statistics for the two periods that are really comparable. 
It is not easy to realise, until one goes into the matter, 
how difficult it is to get full and reliable statistics in 
regard to any fishery in our own district, even as recently 
as last year, and it is quite exceptional to have any infor- — 
mation in regard to one 20 or 50 years ago. This is 
another example of the necessity for a more perfect system 
of recording the extent, nature, and value of our coast 
fisheries than we at present have, an additional argument 
in favour of the scheme for obtaining an approximate 
census of our territorial waters, which I suggest further 
on in this Report (see p. 158). 
The rest of Mr. Johnstone’s time—in addition to helping 
me with general work, correspondence, the examination of 
any specimens that. arrive, the preparation of “‘memo- 
