XX 



Second Annual Report of the 



Scientific 

 Investigations. 



Board appoints 

 Committee to 

 make investi- 

 gations. 



Gunboat- 

 applied for. 



Investigation 

 begun on 6th 

 August in 

 Moray Firth. 



Nature of 

 Work carried 

 on. 



! Vigilant ' 

 relieves 

 ' Jackal. ' 



Material 

 collected. 



Reports not 

 yet received. 



General results 

 of Autumn's 

 "work, 



history of the food fishes, it would be impossible to submit satis- 

 factory reports to Parliament, either as to the improvement or as to 

 the regulation of the fisheries, and hence it took steps soon after it 

 was constituted to carry on scientific investigations. For this purpose 

 a committee was appointed, consisting of Professor Cossar Ewart, 

 Sir James E. Gibson Maitland, Sheriff' Forbes Irvine, and J. Max- 

 tone Graham, Esq. — Professor Ewart to be Convener. 



To enable the Board to undertake this important work, you were 

 pleased to move the Admiralty to provide a gunboat for carrying 

 on some preliminary inquiries as to the natural history of the 

 herring during the autumn of 1883. Unfortunately, the gunboat 

 was not granted until the great summer herring fishing had begun, 

 and the result was that there was no time left to make the 

 necessary arrangements, either as to obtaining funds or apparatus 

 for carrying on the work. Under the circumstances, it was arranged 

 that the expenses of the inquiry should be met out of the sum 

 voted for travelling, and the use of the Scottish Zoological Station, 

 which Mr G. J. Eomanes, F.E.S., and Professor Cossar Ewart wero 

 good enough to offer, was accepted as a temporary laboratory. As 

 complete arrangements as were possible having been made, Sir 

 James E. Gibson Maitland and Professor Ewart joined the gunboat 

 (H.M.S. 'Jackal,' Lieut. Prickett, E.N., Commander) provided by 

 the Admiralty, at Tnvergordon on the 6th August, and after taking 

 the dredges and other appliances on board, proceeded to examine 

 first the inshore and afterwards some of the offshore spav/ning 

 grounds, in the Moray Firth. 



This work consisted chiefly in examining the various banks 

 where the herring were spawning, or had been known to spawn. 

 At each bank several 'stations' were made which usually meant — 

 (1) noting the depth, and taking the surface and bottom tempera- 

 tures ; (2) collecting a sample of water from the bottom and of the 

 mud and sand brought up with the sounding lead ; (3) noting the 

 nature of the surface fauna, and examining and preserving the 

 characteristic animal and vegetable forms brought up by the trawl 

 dredges and tangles. To assist in this work Mr J. T. Cunningham, 

 B.A., and Mr J. Gibson, D.Sc, were invited to join the expedition. 



At the beginning of September the Board's cruiser ('Vigilant') 

 relieved the ' Jackal,' and continued the investigation as far as the 

 weather would admit until the 6th October. 



During the two months in which the w r ork was prosecuted a 

 considerable number of specimens were collected from the various 

 spawning beds. These were conveyed to the University of Edin- 

 burgh, and arranged into their various groups, and afterwards put 

 into the hands of naturalists for identification. 



It has not been possible to obtain reports of all the specimens 

 collected, and Br Gibson has not completed his elaborate Eeportou 

 the physical and chemical characters of the spawning beds, or of the 

 samples of water or temperature taken, hence an account of the 

 Autumn's work must be held over until next year. It may, however, 

 be mentioned now that the observations made during the expedition 

 clearly showed that the inshore ground of the Moray Firth is 

 remarkably well adapted for serving as spawning beds for the 

 herring; there is an abundance of hard ground^ and the surface 



