Fishery Board for Scotland. 



XY 



long neglected and equally important investigations. In the mean- steam Tender 



time, it is even more important that a small steam tender should piace^of*" 



take the place of the ' Daisy.' It is extremely desirable to determine 'Daisy.' 



the migration of the Loch Fyne herring. This question has been 



long under consideration, and on it many other problems depend — 



problems which, at the present moment, force themselves to the 



front, owing to the agitation of the Loch Fyne and other fishermen, 



for a close time being enforced in the Firth of Clyde from January 



until May. For following the herring shoals, the ' Daisy ' is as 



unfit as she is for superintendence, simply because, for want of 



steam, she is for days at a time unable to move from one part of 



Loch Fyne to another. While the boat service is unsatisfactory 



on the West Coast, it is right to add that a small steamer has 



been provided for the trawling experiments and other work which 



the Board is required to undertake on the East Coast. 



On the West Coast, Rothesay aquarium was the chief centre of Work at 

 work during the spring. Some of the investigations made were Aquarium 

 referred to in the last Keport. The spawning of the cod was 

 studied by Professor Ewart and Mr Brook, who generally con- 

 firmed the observations of Sars, and gained further information 

 as to the natural and artificial fertilisation of the eggs, and their 

 buoyancy before and after fertilisation in different kinds of water. 

 Mr Brook, by studying the spawning process in the whiting, was 

 able to determine, as was expected, that the eggs behave in exactly 

 the same manner as those of the cod. A large amount of material 

 was collected for studying the development of the herring. A 

 paper on this subject by Mr Brook will be found in the Appendix, 

 page 31 ; and a more complete account of the early stages of the 

 development of the herring was communicated, with the permission 

 of the Board, to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 



During the summer and autumn, the recently erected laboratory Work at 

 at Tarbert served for continuing the investigations. At Tarbert '^^^^6^*- 

 considerable attention was directed to the food of the herring. In 

 order to throw light on this and other subjects, a collection was 

 begun of the Loch Fyne fauna. A list of the forms already identified 

 will be found in the Appendix (page 231). This list includes the 

 fishes, mollusca, echinoderms, and several groups of the Crustacea. List of fauna 

 The species in the list, which are known to serve as food for fishes, of Loch Fyne 

 are marked with an asterisk, in order to indicate the forms avail- 

 able for food in Loch Fyne. Amongst the Crustacea enumerated 

 there is one (Siriella Brooki) new to science, and there are others 

 which have not hitherto been recorded as British. A paper on 

 the new and interesting Crustacea, collected during the year, has 

 been prepared by the Rev. Canon A. M. ISTorman (see Appendix, 

 page 155). Several of these Crustacea are of peculiar interest, owing 

 to their forming the chief part of the food of the herring during a 

 considerable portion of the year. 



Another group of Crustacea, the Copepoda group, also enters 

 largely into the food of the herring, especially during the summer 

 months A note of the copepods collected in Loch Fyne has been 

 prepared by Mr Calderwood (see Appendix, page 147). Out of 

 the twenty-seven species enumerated, seven have been found in 

 the stomachs of herring captured on the West Coast. 



