THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



TO THE EIGHT HONOURABLE 



LORD BALFOUR of BURLEIGH. 



Her Majesty s Secretary for Scotland. 



Office of The Fishery Board 

 for Scotland, 

 Edinburgh, 18^ July 1895. 



My Lord, 



In continuation of our Thirteenth Annual Eeport, we 

 have the honour to submit — 



PART III. — SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS. 



GENERAL STATEMENT. 



This part of the Thirteenth Annual Eeport deals with the principal 

 scientific investigations carried on by the Board in 1894, in con- 

 nection with the sea fisheries under their charge. An account is 

 also given of the scientific fishery work and the condition and 

 regulation of the sea fisheries in other countries possessing sea 

 fisheries, and of the principal means being employed to protect and 

 develop them. 



In the course of 1894, the investigations, which were carried out 

 under the supervision of Dr T. Wemyss Fulton, the Superintendent 

 of Scientific Investigations, were prosecuted on the same general 

 lines as in previous years, and have resulted in further extensions 

 of knowledge respecting the life-histories and habits of the fishes 

 which form the basis of the fishing industry, and of the operation 

 of certain methods of fishing in relation to the food supply. 

 Besides such inquiries, which are necessary for the proper conser- 

 vation and regulation of sea fisheries, the operations in the hatching 

 and artificial propagation of some of the more important food 

 fishes have been continued at Dunbar Marine Hatchery, which was 

 completed last year, and which have resulted in the addition of 

 over forty-five millions of the fry of plaice, turbot and cod to the 

 fishing-grounds along the neighbouring coast. Similar establish- 

 ments are now in operation in the United States, Canada, New- 

 foundland and Norway, and others are in process of being formed 

 in France and in Lancashire. 



As in previous years a large part of the scientific inquiries, both 

 biological and physical, have been carried on or rendered possible 

 by means of the ' Garland,' the small steamer obtained by the Board 

 for this work ; but as has been mentioned in previous reports her 

 small size has curtailed the extent and usefulness of the investiga- 

 tions. The registered tonnage of the 'Garland' is 36*4 tons, her 

 length 84 feet 7 inches between perpendiculars, breadth 15 feet, and 

 depth 8 feet 5 inches ; her utmost speed is between eight and nine 



