MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 43 



Appendix A. 



Curator's Eeport to the Committee. 



The work of the past year has been marked by a 

 substantial increase in the number of University Students 

 who have visited the Station for the purpose of study and 

 research, and by the successful inauguration of fish hatch- 

 ing. Owing to the large demands made upon my time 

 by the hatchery work, I was unable to conduct the Easter 

 Class for School Teachers, but my place was ably rilled by 

 Mr. F. J. Cole, and the class was quite successful, in spite 

 of the small number of students in attendance. Our 

 laboratory accommodation was somewhat severely taxed 

 during the month of April, which included the Easter 

 vacation, but no serious inconvenience was experienced 

 either by workers or staff. 



The hatching season was practically over by the end 

 of the first week in May, by which time large numbers of 

 plaice larvse were seen swimming actively at or near the 

 surface in the spawning pond. On May 20th some of 

 these larvae were examined under the microscope by Prof. 

 Herdman, and their stomachs were seen to contain 

 Copepoda. By the middle of June many had passed 

 through their metamorphosis, and had made their way to 

 the bottom of the pond, and when the pond was emptied 

 during the last week in September they were found to 

 have attained an average length of 1^ to 2 inches, while 

 some few reached 4 inches. A number of berried lobsters 

 were acquired during the winter months and kept in the 

 large concrete tank, with their eggs intact, until a few 

 weeks before the beginning of the lobster hatching season, 

 when, as has been the case elsewhere, all the eggs dis- 



