of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



47 



APPENDIX F. — No. II. 



NOTE from the Marine Station, St Andrews. By W. C. M'Intosh, 

 M.D., F.K.S., Professor of Civil History and Natural History in the 

 University of St Andrews. 



Marine Station, 

 St Andrews, 1st June 1844. 



A brief note only can be supplied from the station at present, since it 

 is not yet fitted up and organised. The gas-engine, pipes, tanks, and 

 other apparatus will, however, soon be in position. 



Advantage was taken of the proximity of the station to the sea to carry 

 sea-water, and conduct several preliminary ^observations on the ova of 

 various food-fishes, and on some invertebrates. The ova of the fishes 

 were procured for the most part from the trawling expeditions carried on 

 for Her Majesty's Trawling Commission. 



Amongst others, the ova of the cod were specially examined, and various 

 experiments in regard to their buoyancy, the action of deleterious water 

 (due to metallic pipes), and the effects of changes of temperature, carried 

 on. In regard to development, the observations confirmed those so ably 

 conducted by Professor G, 0. Sars in the Norwegian waters some years 

 ago. The effects of impure water or a very little spirit are marked — the 

 buoyant ova at once sinking to the bottom and remaining there. All 

 dead ova invariably sink ; and as for some time little change in external 

 or internal structure is discernible, fishermen and others may be excused 

 for various mistakes on this head, especially when it is recollected that 

 unripe ova also sink. There is no difficulty in hatching the ova of cod 

 brought, for instance, from the great fishing bank (Smith Bank) off the 

 coast of Caithness, even in jars having many dead eggs at the bottom 

 of the water, and which remained unchanged for several days. The 

 small size of the yolk-sac of this and other fishes shows that very soon the 

 minute creatures must take in nourishment from without, as indeed their 

 activity from the first indicates. The ova of the haddock and whiting 

 were also similarly examined ; but in the case of the latter, the paucity 

 and immaturity of the males rendered most of the experiments in regard 

 to development uncertain. 



The ova of the common flounder were fertilised, and placed in the sta- 

 tion. They are as buoyant as those of the foregoing forms. Several had 

 been isolated for temperature-experiments in a test-tube, and heated to 

 98° Fahr. The ova in this instance floated about with the currents, and 

 showed no tendency to sink ; and in a few days they hatched as if nothing 

 had happened. About a week elapses between fertilisation and extrusion 

 from the egg. The shape of these embryos agreed with that represented 

 by Professor Alexander Agassiz.* The movements of the young fluke in 

 its symmetrical condition are quite different from those of the young cod 

 or haddock, f 



The ova of the grey gurnard were fertilised at sea, and developed at the 

 station almost to the period of extrusion, when impure water again proved 

 fatal. These appear to develop almost as rapidly as the preceding. 



Other forms examined and experimented with were the long rough 

 dab, turbot, Cyclopterus, Cothus, herring, &c. 



* The colour of the pigment, which is a peculiar pale olive brown (brownish yellow 

 by transmitted light), quite distinguishes them from the young of the gadoid fishes. 

 The pigment-cells also seem to be less branched. In the young stages the pulsations 

 of the apparently empty heart are interesting physiologically. 



t They often hang in the water with the head either perpendicularly or obliquely 

 downwards, slowly descend, and again wriggle upwards to repeat the desceut as 

 before. 



