434 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 171 



form of a committee, it should be placed on the 

 same footing as the Meteorological council. The 

 person or persons so appointed should be responsi- 

 ble for all the operations of the department, and 

 of such scientific training and capacity as to be 

 likely to devise the most useful lines of inquiry 

 and administration. 



The ' naturalist-inspectors ' should be six in 

 number, but operations might be commenced 

 with a smaller staff. They should be thoroughly 

 competent observers, and, under the direction of 

 the chief scientific authority, they would be 

 variously employed, either on the surveying-ship, 

 at the chief laboratory, or in local laboratories, 

 hatching-stations, or in the London office and 

 museum. 



The naturalists thus employed would become 

 specialists in all matters relating to the life-history 

 of fishes and their food : they w T ould acquire a skill 

 and knowledge far beyond that which it is possi- 

 ble to find among existing naturalists, who oc- 

 casionally are requested to make hurried reports 

 on such matters as salmon-disease, or the supposed 

 injury of the herring-fisheries by trawlers. 



One of the naturalist-inspectors should be a 

 chemist and physicist, in order to report on the 

 composition of the water and the nature of the 

 bottom in the areas investigated. 



' Clerks ' would be required in the London office 

 to tabulate statistics and carry on correspondence. 

 These gentlemen need not necessarily have any 

 scientific knowledge. It would probably be neces- 

 sary to have a correspondent or agent of the de- 

 partment in every large fishing-centre. Probably 

 the coast-guard officials might be taken into this 

 service. 



With regard to material equipment, it appears 

 to be necessary that a scientific fisheries depart- 

 ment should have at its London office a museum 

 of fishing-apparatus for reference and instruction, 

 and also complete collections illustrative of the 

 fishes, their food, enemies, and other surround- 

 ings. In the same building would be exhibited 

 maps showing the distribution and migrations of 

 food-fishes, the coast temperature and its varia- 

 tions, the varying character of the sea-bottom, 

 sea-water, etc. 



The surveying ship or ships would be provided 

 by the admiralty. 



A central laboratory is in course of erection 

 upon Plymouth Sound by the Marine biological 

 association. Her Majesty's government has 

 promised to contribute £5,000, and £500 a year, to 

 this institution, on condition that its resources are 

 available for the purpose here indicated. Certain 

 of the ' naturalist-inspectors ' (probably three at 

 any one time) would be stationed at the Plymouth 



laboratory in order to carry on special studies of 

 the development and food of particular species 

 of fish. 



The smaller movable laboratories, steam-yacht, 

 and other appliances would not be costly. 



Bay Lankester. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



"VVe learn from a letter of Professor Holden's, 

 in the last number (2724-25) of the Astronomische 

 nachriehten, just received, that the Lick trustees 

 have decided to purchase from Messrs. Feil & 

 Mantois a 36-inch crown disk, which was made 

 by them at the same time with the crown disk of 

 the objective now in the hands of the Clarks. 

 The Clarks "have received the order to figure 

 this disk as a third (photographic) lens for the 

 large objective." 



— The work of the U. S. fish commission shows 

 most gratifying results in the artificial propaga- 

 tion of shad. An unprecedented abundance of 

 these fish is noticed this season in all the rivers 

 which have been supplied with young fish by the 

 commission. This increase is noticed especially 

 in the waters of the Pacific coast, where shad 

 were unknown previous to their introduction by 

 the U. S. fish commission. 



— The New T York assembly has passed the bill pro- 

 viding for the appropriation of twenty thousand 

 dollars annually to the Merropolitan'museum of art 

 and the American museum of natural history, in 

 order that they may be kept open to the public, 

 free of charge, on Sundays. It is expected that 

 it will soon be favorably reported by the senate 

 committee, and become a law. 



— The house committee on agriculture has re- 

 ported favorably the bill to establish agricultural 

 experimental stations in connection with the col- 

 leges established in the several states ; also the 

 bill to enlarge the powers and duties of the de- 

 partment of agriculture, making it an executive 

 department. 



— The U. S. coast survey has issued the follow- 

 ing charts, which are now ready for the public : 

 Topographical sheets of the re-survey of the har- 

 bors of New York, Brooklyn, and Jersey City. It 

 is intended to combine these sheets with the hy- 

 drographic work already executed, and thus to 

 give an extended and accurate map of all the 

 waters lying around New York City. 



— An international maritime exhibition will be 

 held in Havre, May 1 of next year, to be devoted 

 to all kinds of sailing or steam ships, engines, 

 life-saving contrivances, fisheries, and the prod- 

 ducts of the French colonies. Applications to 



