of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



471 



glass bottles of good quality, the mere determination of their chlorines 

 and densities will almost certainly lead to results of the highest value. 



Of course the determinations must be made with a degree of accuracy 

 corresponding to the very slight differences to be detected. I do not there- 

 fore think that it would be advisable to attempt these determinations on 

 board ship. 



The question may be asked — What bearing have these researches on 

 the important problems, practical and scientific, connected with our fisheries'? 

 It is beyond my province to approach this subject either from a biological 

 or statistical point of view, but there are certain deductions which 

 I may be permitted to make, especially as they point towards certain lines 

 along which these researches should be prosecuted in the future if they 

 are to lead to the important practical results which I believe there is good 

 ground for expecting from them. It has been often pointed out that the 

 temperature of the sea waters along our coasts is intimately connected 

 with meteorological conditions. The observations of Mr Dickson clearly 

 show that upwelling of cold water from the bottom does take place along 

 our coasts, and that this is due in part at least to the action of the wind 

 blowing off shore is rendered almost certain by his observations, especially 

 when considered in the light of the observations of Dr John Murray and 

 the earlier observations of Mr J. Y. Buchanan. 



The discovery, however interesting and important, of differences in 

 chemical composition between the waters which come and go along 

 our coasts, does not at first sight seem to tend in any way to simplify 

 the task of following their movements and of endeavouring to find out 

 the causes which bring them about. But when it is remembered that 

 these chemical differences not merely make it possible to detect the coming 

 and going of these different waters with a degree of certainty and exactness 

 quite unattainable hitherto, but also to draw conclusions which have at 

 least a very bigh degree of probability attaching to them as to the origin 

 of these waters both in an immediate and in a remoter sense of the word, 

 it appears to me that the systematic application of the method which I 

 have described, although it will involve a very great deal of laborious 

 analytical work, is none the less certain to lead more rapidly to conclusions 

 of practical value than the purely physical means usually employed 

 hitherto. If, for example, systematic observations be made as to the times 

 and seasons at which the water from the bottom of the North Sea on the 

 one hand and the surface Atlantic water on the other, enter and leave the 

 Moray Firth, and if these observations are considered along with the pre- 

 vailing meteorological conditions which proceed or accompany these move- 

 ments and with the statistics of the relative takes of herring compared 

 with that of large haddock and other bottom feeding fish generally, I am 

 confident that results of real practical value will be attained before very 

 long. 



I am not sure that the observations already made do not even now point 

 to a connection between the presence of Atlantic water in the Moray Firth 

 as a condition of successful inshore herring fishing. In the summer of 

 1883 when surface Atlantic water filled the Moray Firth, the inshore 

 herring fishings in this firth are reported to have been unusually produc- 

 tive; while on the other hand, in the summer of 1886, when water from the 

 bottom of the North Sea filled the firth during the month of August at 

 any rate, it is reported that more than one half of the entire season's catch 

 in the inshore waters was made during one single week, and that all the 

 rest of the season these inshore waters were comparatively unproductive. 



It appears to me not improbable that the plaice which were found spawn- 

 ing at Smith Bank very shortly before Mr King's observations were made 



