of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



491 



£250,000 per annum. There is a superintendent (Mr R. A. Dawson), 

 three chief sea-fishery officers, and four ordinary sea-fishery officers. 



The officers are provided with boats. There is also a steamer, 85 feet 

 long on the water-line by 17 feet broad, and 8 J feet draught, and of the 

 gross registered tonnage 87, and nett tonnage 15. Engines 12 and 24 x 

 11" stroke, with 120 lbs. steam pressure; the speed is 10 - 2 knots. It is 

 a vrey good sea boat. There is also a sailing-boat of 27-feet keel and 34 

 feet over all, with a 10-feet beam and 9-feet centre board, and likewise 

 another sailing-boat of 22 feet by 8 feet, and with a centre board, and 

 three rowing boats. 



The committee, with the consent of the authorities of University 

 College, Liverpool, have established a laboratory at that place, which 

 Professor Herdman, F.R.S., with his great zeal for marine zoology, 

 gratuitously superintends, having Mr Corbin for his paid assistant. 



The estimate for the year 1893-4 is £2800, included in which is a 

 large payment for the steamer, and £410 for salaries and £825 for wages. 



If the minimum size of fish allowed to be landed was fixed, there is no 

 doubt that the superintendence of the Sea Fishery Committee would be 

 greatly less needed. 



The Report* by Professor Herdman, F.R.S., of the work done at the 

 laboratory above referred to, contains much information of interest. The 

 physical conditions of the district and the chief fishing-grounds are de- 

 scribed, and lists are given of the fauna, surface life, &c. Special investi- 

 gations have been made on the food of fishes, particularly the sole and 

 plaice, and also with the view of determining, for the part of the coast in 

 which the district is situated, the minimum size at which the various 

 species of fish become sexually mature. The Lancashire Committee now 

 possess a steam-vessel, referred to above by Mr Ascroft, which has been 

 specially built and equipped for fishery work, and which is much superior 

 to the one belonging to the Fishery Board for Scotland. By means of 

 this vessel important investigations are being made, the system or plan 

 adopted, as Professor Herdman points out, being similar to that employed 

 on the ' Garland.' 



Professor Herdman also strongly recommends that experiments in sea- 

 fish hatching should be begun on a proper scale, and that a sea-fish 

 hatchery for the district should be established at Port Erin, where the 

 physical conditions seem to be eminently suitable for the purpose. As 

 befits a district in which shrimp fishing is of much importance, expert 

 ments in the culture of this crustacean are recommended by the enclosure 

 of suitable creeks. 



The food of the cockle was investigated by Professor Herdman, and the 

 contents of the stomach were found to consist chiefly of spores and other 

 young stages of lower algse, filamentous algae, fragments and other vegetable 

 debris, diatoms, foraminifera, sponge spicules, fragments of minute crus^ 

 tacean appendages, such as Copepoda, and of the larval stages of higher 

 Crustacea, all mixed with sand grains. The cockle in the neighbourhood 

 spawns in summer, many of those dissected in June and July being mature 

 males and females, with fully-developed ova and spermatozoa. The num- 

 ber of ova produced is very great. Professor Herdman recommends that 

 no cockles should be taken until they are adult and full-sized — about an 

 inch in length ; that the beds should be as little disturbed as possible, 

 and that the young ones should not be removed from the sand or allowed 

 to lie in heaps. 



In the last Quarterly Report of the Superintendent — Mr Robert A, 

 * Eeyort for 1892 on the Lancashire Sea Fisheries Laboratory. 



