118 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



illness has unfortunately stopped — we hope only for a time 

 — this and other good work in connection with fisheries 

 investigations in which he was engaged. 



The work that has been done of recent years by Scandi- 

 navian Hydrographers, and the attention that has been 

 directed to the matter by the International Conferences at 

 Stockholm and at Christiania, and the appointment by the 

 Board of Trade of an Ichthyological Research Committee, 

 all emphasize still further the point that I dealt with in 

 some detail in my last report, viz. : — the need for more 

 exact and detailed knowledge of our coastal waters and their 

 inhabitants. Such knowledge, both scientific and statistical, 

 can only be obtained by some such scheme as I outlined 

 last year, and by the use of a special steamer to supple- 

 ment the information that can be derived from commercial 

 trawlers. I have thought it important in ihe meantime to 

 have some samples of water from different parts of our 

 district examined as to their physical and chemical 

 characters by the most recent hydrographical methods and 

 by a competent chemist (1) with the object of noting what 

 variations exist in the Irish sea, and still more (2) with a 

 view of testing the methods as to their relative importance 

 and practicability for future schemes of work at sea. 

 Mr. Alfred Holt, Junr., B.A., (Cantab.), has kindly under- 

 taken this work, and during the last three months has been 

 examining samples of sea- water in my laboratory. I am 

 glad to have from him the report which is printed at p. 128. 



At the Eleventh Annual Meeting of Representatives of 

 Fisheries Authorities at the Board of Trade in June, 1901, 

 the President, the Bight Honourable Gerald Balfour, M.P., 

 made some interesting observations bearing upon fisheries 

 research which must carry weight, and, it is to be hoped, 

 will receive the attention which they deserve. Speaking 



