MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT TORT ERIN. 38 



impossible, especially in the absence of capable assistance. 



" Nearly 500 visitors were admitted to the Aquarium 

 during the season-r-a fairly large number when the 

 secluded situation of the building and the comparatively 

 small lodging capacity of the town are considered. 



" The projected Fish Hatchery has greatly increased 

 the interest of fishermen and visitors in our work, and 

 probably accounts for the marked increase in the number 

 of the latter as compared with last year. Increased 

 experience has enabled me to keep the animals in health 

 for a much longer period than formerly, and the mortality 

 amongst them at the time when the summer temperature 

 was highest was much less than in former years. The 

 conger noticed in last year's Report is still alive and 

 healthy. It takes food greedily whenever offered, and 

 will snap at a hand held over the edge of the tank ; but, 

 though fed liberally at intervals, it does not appear to 

 have grown appreciably. Another conger has occupied 

 the same tank for some months past, but has only quite 

 recently begun to feed. The lobsters have attracted an 

 extraordinary amount of attention on the part of visitors, 

 and I have been able to make some further observations 

 on their habits. I find that the carapace does not 

 invariably split along the median line when the shell is 

 cast. The shallow wood tanks have not been disturbed 

 since their establishment in the early spring of 1898, and 

 now contain an interesting collection of well acclimatised 

 anemones. In addition to these, such Molluscs as Trivea, 

 Tapes, Pectunculus, and various species of Venus have 

 lived therein for months, the first-named for over a year, 

 and a specimen of Linens marinus, that longest of long 

 worms, has lurked under a stone since the early spring, 

 always ready to display its sinuous length on the intro- 

 duction of a few morsels of fish, which it swallows in a 



