of the Fishery Board for Scotland, 



Iv 



The Natural History of the Lobster. 



As stated in last Annual Report, the Board have had under 

 consideration the question of what might be done to promote the 

 lobster fishery and to increase our knowledge of the life-history of the 

 lobster, and of the conditions under which lobster culture might be 

 initiated with advantage. Attention was directed to the lobster pond 

 at Cullipool, Luing, near Oban, which belongs to the West Highland 

 Lobster Company, and in which from 15,000 to 20,000 lobsters can 

 be accommodated. The manager kindly granted facilities for obser- 

 vations and investigations to be made in connection with the lobsters 

 at the pond, and Dr. H. C. Williamson visited Luing for the purpose 

 in June and November. On the former occasion attention was 

 mainly directed to a comparison of the lobsters from different 

 localities as regards their individual size. In order to test the 

 practical question whether or not the lobsters lost weight during 

 their confinement in the pond, forty-one were weighed and marked 

 and then replaced in the enclosure. Some of these were got later, 

 and the results were somewhat discrepant. Four of them had lost 

 from a quarter of an ounce to four ounces in weight after a confine- 

 ment of from four to seven months, while two, which had been 

 between six and seven months in the pond, had gained one and four 

 ounces in weight respectively. In November efforts were made to 

 capture small lobsters in the inshore waters in specially-constructed 

 traps, but without success. 



The Diseases and Abnormalities of Fishes. 



An investigation on various diseases and abnormalities in fish has 

 been made by Dr. H. C. Williamson, and a report on the subject, 

 illustrated with eight plates, is now in the press. Particular atten- 

 tion was given to a parasitic disease of the haddock, occasionally 

 discovered when the fish is split in preparation for curing, and giving 

 rise to the condition known as "spotted haddock," and also to 

 tumours, including carcinomatous growths. 



The Influence of Temperature on the Development of the Eggs 



OF the Herring. 



It was stated in the Report for last year that, by request of the 

 New Zealand Government, experiments had been made, by Dr. H. C. 

 Williamson, at the Marine Laboratory on the retarding of the develop- 

 ment of the eggs of the herring by the maintenance of a low 

 temperature, with the view of transporting to the Dominion the 

 fertilised eggs. In the latter part of the year the New Zealand 

 Government sent over the Curator of the Marine Laboratory at 

 Portobello, N.Z., to take charge of a trial shipment, and a consignment 

 of herring eggs, together with a large number of small turbot, 

 lobsters, and crabs, left for the Dominion in January last. 



Fishery Investigations in the North Sea. 



Since the 1st April 1910, when the international investigations in 

 the North Sea were placed under the direct control of the Board, the 



