of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



181 



expectation of being fed, and gather together when the attendant 

 appears ; they even take food from one's hands. They are fed nearly 

 entirely on common mussels and thrive upon this diet. During most 

 of the year two or three pecks a day suffice, but in the autumn, some 

 months before the spawning season, they receive a more libenil allow- 

 ance, up to four pecks, and soon get into very good condition. 



In the process of incubation in the hatching apparatus, 16,630,000, 

 or nearly twenty- three per cent , of the eggs died, a slightly higher 

 percentage than in the previous year, when it was a little below 

 twenty-one per cent., and which was probably owing to rather much 

 overcrowding at times, and particularly when the burst of spawning 

 occurred in the early part of March. The estimated number of fry 

 produced was 55,700,000, and they were put into the sea partly in 

 Lochfyne and mostly off the coast of Aberdeen. The Table giving the 

 particulars from day to day is appended. It was prepared by Mr. H. 

 Dannevig, who was in charge of the hatching work, and who was 

 appointed at the end of the season to the newly-created office of 

 Superintendent of Pisciculture under the Government of New South 

 Wales, a Marine Hatchery, partly stocked with European fishes, which 

 Mr. Dannevig took to Australia with him, being in course of erection 

 near Sydney. 



The tidal spawning-pond continues to give satisfaction, and has 

 enabled the expense of the work to be very considerably reduced, since 

 comparatively little pumping is required, except during the few months 

 the hatching work is going on. It measures ninety feet in length by 

 thirty-five in breadth, and has an average depth of nearly eight feet, 

 one end being ten feet deep. The tide is admitted by a twelve-inch 

 pipe controlled by valves. A still larger tidal-pond on the same 

 principle has been constructed in connection with the new Marine 

 Hatchery built at Port Erin by the Manx Government, which is 

 nearly 100 feet long by 50 feet in breadth and from three to ten feet 

 deep. 



As will be seen from the Table the specific gravity of the water 

 remained high and pretty uniform throughout the season, never sinking 

 below 1027"3 and usually ranging about 1027*7. 



Later in the summer, at the request of fishermen on the coast of 

 Aberdeen, and Mr. Maconochie, M.P., the hatching of lobsters and 

 edible crabs was undertaken at the hatchery by Dr. Williamson, the 

 larval crabs and young lobsters being liberated at the northern nart of 

 the coast and in the Moray Firth. The number of larval crabs thus 

 dealt with was about 4,500,000, and that of young lobsters, most of 

 which were reared through several stages and in some cases had very 

 nearly assumed the form of the adult, was about three thousand. 



From the combination of the hatchery with the marine laboratory, 

 and the provision of a large tidal pond, the expense of the hatching 

 work is much diminished, the annual expenditure amounting to a little 

 over c£100, the principal items being the maintenance of the apparatus 

 and plant, food for the fishes, and coals. 



[Tablfs. 



