116 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
Representatives from the Cumberland Sea-lisheries 
Committee made an inspection of the establishment, and 
the work of the fishermen’s classes, on May 5th. A large 
party, consisting of Members of the Lancashire Sea- 
Fisheries Committee and of the various Education Com- 
mittees of the county visited the Laboratory under the 
leadership of the Chairman, Mr. James Fletcher, on 
May 6th. Short addresses were given to the fishermen who 
were at work in the class, by the Chairman and some of 
the other members of the party. The members of St. 
Matthew's Mutual Improvement Society, Barrow, visited 
the Laboratory during the Easter holiday. Mr. A. 
Harris and Mr. T. S. Dymond, two of H.M. Inspectors of 
evening schools, came to the establishment to inspect and 
report on the work of the classes for fishermen and school 
teachers. Professor C. A. Kofoid, from the University 
of California, spent part of a week-end in July at Piel, 
examining the local plankton and seeing the methods 
employed in carrying out this part of the work. 
After the fish hatching and the fishermen’s classes 
were over, the most of the time throughout the remainder 
of the year was given to the investigation of another 
extensive series of plankton collections taken at the 
south end of the Isle of Man by Professor Herdman. This 
work is a continuation of the research that was begun in 
1906, and it is fully dealt with elsewhere in this report. 
An investigation into the size, age, sex, and food of the 
plaice caught by the fishermen in the vicinity of Piel was 
initiated in 1908. Samples of the plaice taken in the 
stake nets and by the ordinary trawl were bought from 
the men from time to time and examined. Some rather 
interesting results have cropped up, and it is proposed to 
go further into the matter in 1909, by examining about 
200 fish each month. 
