MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 15 



small grant to fit up temporary wooden tanks, we under- 

 took, during the last hatching season (Easter 1896), a series 

 of experiments for the Lancashire Sea-Fisheries Com- 

 mittee. As the result of these experiments we success- 

 fully fertilised the eggs (obtained from the parent fish 

 caught with the trawl) of the grey Gurnard (Trigla 

 gurnardus), the lemon Sole (Pleuronectes microcephalics), 

 and the Witch (Pleuronectes cynoglossus) , and kept them 

 in the tanks until they hatched out as young larvae. We 

 were not prepared in this first season to proceed with 

 the rearing ; but we propose, with additional tanks and 

 an improved circulation of water, to carry the experiments 

 a stage further next year. 



Last spring we fitted up, in the lower floor of the 

 Aquarium house, three wooden hatching tanks, each 5 

 ft. by 3 ft. by 1 ft., and so arranged like steps that water 

 could flow by bamboo spouts covered with a fine silk net 

 through the series of tanks. From the lowest wooden tank 

 the water fell into the concrete floor tank, into which 

 dipped an endless chain formed of an india-rubber belt 

 bearing numerous little buckets. This chain of buckets 

 revolved on a drum, octagonal in section, which was kept 

 in motion by india-rubber belting passing from its axle 

 to a pulley on a large water wheel actuated by the fresh 

 water tap.* 



Consequently, by turning the tap the whole apparatus 

 was set in motion, and the sea-water from the concrete 

 floor tank was raised by the little buckets and emptied 

 into a sloping wooden trough which guided it to the upper 

 hatching tank. Thus the same water was used over again, 



* The tanks and the water motor apparatus were made most carefully and 

 ingeniously, from my plans, by Mr. R. Garner, superintendent of the wood- 

 working department at University College, Liverpool, 



