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EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



TO THE EIGHT HONOURABLE 



LORD BALFOUR of BURLEIGH. 



Her Majesty's Secretary for Scotland. 



Office of The Fishery Board 

 for Scotland, 

 Edinburgh, 1st May 1900. 



My Lord, 



In continuation of our Eighteenth Annual Eeport, we 

 have the honour to submit — 



PART III.— SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS. 



GENEKAL STATEMENT. 



In this part of the Eighteenth Annual Eeport an account is 

 given of the results of the principal scientific investigations con- 

 ducted by the Board during the year 1899 in connection with the 

 sea fisheries. Besides the researches related to the life-history and 

 habits of the food fishes and on the invertebrate fauna described in 

 the following pages, a number of other inquiries have been in pro- 

 gress but are not yet completed, among which may be mentioned 

 the rate of growth and migration of fishes, the distribution of 

 spawning fishes and of immature fishes, and on the fauna of the 

 Moray Firth. An investigation was also made in the spring on the 

 condition of the clam-bait bed in the Firth of Forth. 



The scientific researches are being conducted at the Board's 

 Marine Laboratory at the Bay of Mgg, Aberdeen, where it is hoped 

 the tanks and apparatus which are necessary for such investiga- 

 tions may be provided in the course of the present year. A con- 

 siderable part of the work has also been carried on by the small 

 steamer the Garland, but, as has been fully explained in preceding 

 Beports, this vessel is not well adapted for the purpose, owing to 

 her small size and considerable age. In consequence of these dis- 

 abilities, the observations are frequently interrupted by stormy 

 weather and the necessity of repairs, so that they cannot be carried 

 out with regularity. This has prejudicially affected, and continues 

 to affect, the trawling experiments, and it has prevented any 

 systematic investigation of the spawning grounds off the coast, as 



