Fishery Board for Scotland. 



xxix 



' at all, and if it is to be of any service to the valuable interests Scientific 

 ' committed to its charge, it is impossible to avoid incurring expen- Investlgations - 

 1 diture of a new character.' 



In reply to this communication, the Lords of the Treasury again Special grant 

 declined to grant a special vote, stating, in a letter dated the 10th 

 March, that they c were not prepared to ask Parliament for a special 

 ' grant of £1000 for the investigations of 1884-85, or to sanction 

 ' any expenditure upon them which will cause an excess on the 

 ' estimate of the Fishery Board for that year than what has already 

 ' been approved by this department.' 



While this correspondence was going on, and without the cogni- Appeals for 

 sance of the Board, the interest of those practically engaged in the J 10 ^^"JJjJjjg 

 fisheries in securing the continuance of scientific investigation was Fishermen, ' 

 so great, that they spontaneously organised and addressed to the^ n ^J BuThs 

 Treasury direct appeals for an adequate grant to the Board, and and Chambers 

 also urged that a suitable steam vessel might be placed at its of Commerce, 

 disposal in place of the present sailing cruiser. As the result of this 

 movement, the Board understands that petitions to the Treasury 

 in support of these aids have been adopted and presented, not only 

 by leading fish-curers and fishermen at upwards of twenty of the 

 most important fishing centres on the Scottish coast, but also by 

 such influential bodies as the Convention of the Boyal Burghs of 

 Scotland ; and it is believed the whole of the Chambers of Com- 

 merce in Scotland have adopted a like course. 



By a reference to the letters addressed to you as to the expendi- statement of 

 ture on these investigations, it will be seen that what was asked ^"^a™" 

 for was £300 to meet the expenses already incurred; £300 to received 1 and 

 enable the Board to continue the work in the meantime, and in what is further 

 addition a special grant of £1000 for future investigations. What lequiml 

 the Lords of the Treasury have been pleased to sanction for scien- 

 tific work is (I) the surplus out of the ordinary vote for the Fishery 

 Board for the year 1883-84, amounting to £115 ; and (2) the trans- 

 ference of £785 from the surplus brand fees, i.e., £900 in all. Of 

 this £900 a sum of £300 was required to meet the expenditure of 

 1883-84, and a sum of £335 must be expended upon the laboratory 

 at St Andrews, so that only a sum of £265 is left for other scien- 

 tific work during 1884-85. No special grant for the scientific No special 

 work of the Board having thus been made, the Board has unfor- grant made ' 

 tunately been compelled to suspend the investigations which it 

 had instituted on the West Coast. 



From the statements made above in Section C, it will be seen 

 that the principal investigations in which the Board has hitherto 

 engaged are as follow : — 



1. The examination of the more important spawning beds of the Work in which 

 herring in the Moray Firth, and experiments as to the best method J^^J ed 

 of artificially fertilising and hatching herring eggs. 



2. The collection of material all round the Scottish coast, by 

 means of the fishery officers, for determining the food of the 

 herring throughout the year. 



3. The investigation of the percentage of immature herring 

 taken as sprats on the east coast during the winter fishing, 



4. The study of the process of spawning of the herring, and the, 

 riature of the Ballantrae spawning ground, 



