SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 109 
measuring and recording large numbers of the fish caught 
on our steamer and the sailing cutters. The importance 
of this information, bearing upon the working of the 
bye-laws in our district, scarcely requires to be pointed 
out. It is only by such statistics that we can hope to 
ascertain whether the change in the trawling restrictions 
is having any recognisable effect on the size of the fish 
caught in our area. 
Mr. Johnstone’s article on the diseased conditions of 
fishes that have been sent to us for report from the Board 
of Agriculture and Fisheries, and elsewhere, is a useful 
contribution to a large subject, including questions of 
human food, but needs no further comment now. 
Dr. H. Bassett has very kindly continued his 
investigation of our samples of sea-water collected on the 
hydrographic cruises, and has furnished us with a 
valuable report which will be found below. On _ the 
whole, Dr. Bassett finds that this year’s work supports 
conclusions he drew in last year’s report, but he now 
shows, further, that our observations demonstrate that a 
narrow tongue of so-called “Gulf Stream ” water runs 
up the centre of the Irish Sea to our district, and this 
invasion appears to have been rather stronger in 1908 
than in the previous year. Mr. Johnstone adds another 
hydrographic paper dealing with the recorded tempera- 
tures in the Irish Sea in their relations to the probable 
movements of the water and the migrations of fishes. 
In regard to further work, still in progress, I may 
add that:—The hydrographic investigations are being 
actively carried on as usual, with some recent improve- 
ments, and it is very desirable, if it could be managed, 
that these investigations should be made even more 
extensive in the future. 
The difficult questions in connection with the 
condition of the shell-fish beds up and down the coast, and 
