of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



9 



the total number of fry produced and distributed on the fishing 

 grounds in the neighbourhood has amounted to 46,225,000, making 

 a total for the two years of 72,785,000. 



The great majority of the young food-fishes which have been 

 thus propagated have consisted of plaice, of which 44,085,000 eggs 

 were obtained from the spawning pond, yielding 38,615,000 fry. 

 The number of cod hatched numbered 2,760,000, and the number 

 of turbot 3,800,000. It is the first time to our knowledge that 

 the eggs of the turbot have been hatched at any hatchery, and 

 the success in this respect has enabled the development of this 

 important fish to be studied and described by Professor M'Intosh, 

 whose paper dealing with the development of the turbot is included 

 in the present report (p. 224). The output of the hatchery for the 

 two seasons it has been in operation is as follows 



Plaice. Cod. Turbot. Others. Total. 



1894, 26,060,000 500,000 26,560,000 



1895, 38,615,000 2,760,000 3,800,000 1,050,000 46,225,000 



72,785,000 



In fish-hatching operations it is important to collect and 

 acclimatise the adult fishes to be used as spawners some time 

 before the spawning period begins, so that it may be possible on 

 the one hand to select from them the most vigorous and suitable 

 fishes, and to weed out those which may have been injured, and, on 

 the other hand, to accustom them to confinement. 



Such an arrangement is the only one by which the work can be 

 carried out on the largest scale and with the greatest security in 

 regard to the results. Many years' experience at the hatchery in 

 Norway has led to the same conclusion ; there it has always been 

 found that spawners kept in confinement for years are by far the 

 best for breeding purposes. In consequence of this, hundreds of 

 fishes are there constantly retained, although the severe winters 

 cause difficulties that would not be met with in Scotland. 



The space at present available at Dunbar is insufficient to allow 

 this gradual collection to be made on a scale adequate to the 

 requirements of the hatchery, and the collection of the spawners 

 was also interfered with by reason of the stormy weather which 

 prevailed in the early months of the year. The majority of the 

 spawning plaice, when they were procured, had accordingly to be 

 placed in the spawning pond, the rest being transferred to the small 

 tidal creek. At first an irregular emission of unfertilised eggs 

 occurred, but, when the temperature of the water, which, in the 

 early part of the season, was exceptionally low, had risen to the 

 point at which spawning began last year and the fishes had become 

 more accustomed to their new quarters, a regular spawning took 

 place. The unfertilised eggs at first obtained from the pond 

 were separated as much as possible ; but a number were also mixed 

 up with the fertilised eggs when they were measured, and in this 

 way included in the total of eggs collected. This accounts for the 

 higher apparent death-rate in the boxes, or the proportion which 

 succumbed during the process of incubation, — amounting to about 

 fourteen per cent. Last year, when practically no unfertilised eggs 



