184 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Thompson, a well-known local naturalist. On his death 

 last winter I asked Mr. Andrew Scott to take up that part 

 of the work, and for the last year all the tow-net 

 collections made, not only on the " John Fell " but also 

 by the Liverpool Marine Biology Committee at Port Erin, 

 have been sent to Mr. Scott for examination. The result 

 of his work is given in a separate article below. 



The friendly facilities for work given by the Fishery 

 Board for Scotland and by our Committee are mutually 

 beneficial ; and once more we are indebted to the courtesy 

 of our Northern neighbours for permission to trawl for 

 large plaice in their closed waters of Luce Bay. Two 

 trips (three days in all) were made to Luce Bay in 

 October and November, 1904, and our naturalists who 

 accompanied the steamer made a number of successful, 

 hauls and interesting observations. The results are fully 

 discussed by Mr. Johnstone in a special article below. 

 On the whole they confirm the conclusions arrived at last 

 vear, in fact the similarity in results during the three 

 years in which we have made these observations is very 

 satisfactory. 



The cases, to which Mr. Johnstone has drawn 

 attention, of the occasional absence or great scarcity of 

 shrimps upon the Blackpool closed ground (and no doubt 

 elsewhere also) emphasises the need which I have often 

 urged in these reports of a special steamer to conduct 

 scientific fisheries investigations (as distinguished from 

 police-work) on the West coast. Such a steamer would 

 naturally take up a point of this kind, search for and 

 follow the shrimps, if necessary, into dee]) water, and 

 determine where and how they are living. Without a 

 steamer free from other duties it is scarcely possible 1o 

 solve such problems of distribution. With an adminis- 

 trative steamer it is difficult to do more than take 





