158 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
but also when in storage, markets, cellars, and shops—in 
short, until they reach the consumer. 
4°, Foreign oysters, unless imported direct from layings 
which are periodically inspected and certified by an 
authority approved of by, say, the Fisheries Department 
of the Board of Trade, must be relaid or subjected to 
quarantine before entering our markets. Many foreign 
oyster layings are situated in pure water, others are not. 
The reasons given, in the evidence taken by the Select 
Committee, for regarding all Dutch oysters as being free 
from any sewage contamination will not bear careful ex- 
amination. 
5°. Finally, shell-fish industries should not be forced, 
in all cases, to give way to sewage schemes. There ought 
to be power given in the Bill to consider in each case 
whether, in the interests of the general public, it is the 
oyster laying or the sewage that should be removed. 
SEA-FISHERIES CONFERENCES AND THE NEED OF A 
‘‘ CRNSUS OF OUR SEAS.”’ 
(W. A. HERDMAN.) 
During the last few years there have been a large 
number of conferences, congresses, and other meetings, | 
which have dealt either formally or informally with the 
subject of Sea-Fisheries, and especially their control and 
scientific investigation. At several recent meetings of the 
British Association discussions have taken place in the 
section of Zoology bearing upon artificial hatching, the 
life and growth of sea-fishes, and the closure of areas of 
territorial water ; in July, 1898, an International Fisheries 
Congress was held at Bergen under the auspices 
of the Society for the Encouragement of Norwegian 
Fisheries; in September, 1898, a Conference met at 
