SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 179 



In the States I visited the head-quarters of the Fish 

 Commission at Washington, and had the advantage of 

 discussing their operations with a number of members of 

 the staff. I then went to the celebrated hatchery at 

 Wood's Holl, where I spent a couple of days with the 

 Superintendent of the Hatchery, with the Collector (Mr. 

 Vinal Edwards), and the Captain of the "Grampus," 

 learning all I could of the details of their w T ork, both 

 as to sea-fish eggs and as to lobsters. Lastly, I went 

 to Gloucester, the chief centre of the fishing industries 

 of the American coast, and said to be the greatest fishing 

 port in the world. There is a sea-fish hatchery here also, 

 belonging to the Fish Commission, which has just recently 

 been enlarged in order to increase the output. At both 

 these hatcheries I saw the working of the McDonald 

 hatching jar for lobster eggs, which w 7 e propose to try 

 experimentally at Piel. It w r as interesting to learn at 

 Gloucester that when the Fish Commission proposed 

 lately to remove the hatchery from there to another 

 part of the coast, the fishermen objected to the removal 

 from their midst of what they regarded as a valuable 

 institution. 



Many of the details of information which I was able to 

 learn on this tour of inspection will, I have no doubt, be 

 of use in our local operations, and some of these points 

 will be alluded to later on in this Report. 



The chief additional matters I have to report upon this 

 year are : — 



1st. — A scheme which we started a year ago for the 

 simultaneous observation of the "plankton," or floating- 

 fish food, &c, in the sea round our district, taken weekly 

 throughout the year, at half a dozen stations. We are 

 continuing the observations this year on an improved plan. 



