82 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Some matters that can be treated briefly I shall 

 remark upon in this introductory part of the Report ; the 

 others will be discussed more fully in the special articles 

 that follow. 



1 am glad to say that the very full account of the Fisher- 

 man's " Lugworm," which Dr. J. H. Ashworth. (formerly 

 of Owens College, Manchester, now at the University of 

 Edinburgh) has been preparing for some years, is now 

 finished, and I am able to add it as an Appendix to this 

 Report. The expense of lithographing the beautiful 

 plates that illustrate this Memoir has been largely met 

 from an outside source. 



The Piel Hatchery. 



Mr. Scott's account of the Sea-Fish Hatching at Piel 

 will be found in the next section of the Report. As on 

 former occasions, the fish dealt with were the Plaice and 

 the Flounder, and out of close on seventeen millions of 

 eggs obtained nearly fifteen millions were hatched and 

 distributed in the sea as fry. The total loss from all 

 causes during the operations was just under 11 per cent. 

 It can scarcely be doubted that the natural mortality in 

 the sea during the corresponding period in the life of the 

 young fish embryo must be enormously greater than this. 

 The benefit of protection would be, however, still further 

 increased if we had the accommodation necessary for 

 keeping and rearing the larvse to still later stages. This 

 is impossible without a fish pond ; and Mr. Scott points 

 out that he cannot, with his present small tanks deal with 

 much larger numbers than those that passed through his 

 hands this year. An open-air fish pond has proved a 

 success elsewhere. An American fish-culturist, Professor 

 Mead, of Brown University, who visited the Port Erin 

 Biological Station last summer, expressed his satisfaction 



