of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
373 
in sea fisheries, 55,343 men, women, and children engaged in shore 
fisheries, and 201 foreign fishermen. The number of French boats was 
24,196 (an increase of 316 over 1886), and there were 83 foreign boats, 
the total value of boats, nets and gear was 63,264,395 francs. In 1887, 
as compared with 1886, there was an increase in the catch of cod, herrings, 
and especially sardines, and an increased yield of oysters. There was a 
great decrease in anchovies, a decrease in mackerel, flat-fish (soles, turbot 
&c), lobsters and mussels. 
The Prince of Monaco has published an account of a new apparatus for 
the collection of pelagic organisms at great depths.* It consists of a 
specially constructed tow-net, fixed to a rectangular frame, which can be 
opened and closed at any depths by means of 1 messengers.' 
The Prince of Monaco who makes the improvement and invention of 
appliances for marine research a speciality has also given a description! of 
the special tow-nets and other apparatus employed on board his yacht 
" l'Hirondelle," in his marine researches, together with some of the results. 
The object was to obviate some of the disadvantages of the appliances 
generally used to obtain collections of the marine fauna. The descrip- 
tions are amply illustrated. , 
Concameau. — In the Report for 1888, J to the Minister of Public Instruc- 
tion, Professor Pouchet gives an account of the work done at the labora- 
tory during that year, especially in relation to the sardine, which has for 
some years been made a special object of study in France. The investi- 
gations relating to its life-history and habits have been continued on the 
same lines as before.§ 
In 1887, Professor Pouchet expressed the opinion, from the investiga- 
tions made, that the sardine would probably be found in abundance in 
1888, and this opinion was justified by the result. These investigations 
on the sardine, as in the similar investigations carried on by the Scotch 
Board, necessitate the measurement of the fish got at different places at 
different times of the season, and also an examination of the reproductive 
organs to ascertain the degree of maturity. Lists are given of the results. 
It has been shown that the so-called sardine de rogue is not a mature 
sardine ready to spawn, but a young one which disappears from French 
waters before the ovaries reach maturity. Professor Pouchet points out 
that among sardines the development of the testes and ovaries is very 
unequal, both among those of the same size taken at various periods of 
the season, and among individuals of different sizes captured at the same 
time of the year. This has also been observed with other fishes during 
the investigations of the Scotch Board (vide, p. 259). 
As among most other fishes also, the testes are much more developed 
than the ovaries at the beginning of the season. An account, illustrated 
by figures, is given of the ova and ovaries of the sardine. The ova are 
from 1*20 to P30 mm. in diameter (thus larger than those of the herring, 
and about the size of the eggs of the whiting) and are transparent; those 
pressed from the female sink in sea water. After fertilisation they may 
possibly float ; but M. Bietrix never obtained any pelagic eggs of the 
sardine in his tow-nettings during the time the females were ripe. The 
vitelline membrane is externally smooth, but on its inner surface it pre- 
sents short projecting ribs, at various angles, giving it a general appearance 
* Comptes rendus des stances de la Soc. de Biologic, Stance du 29 Juin 1889. 
t Comptes rendus des seances du Congres international de Zoologie. Paris, 1889, p. 
133. 
% Rapport au Ministre de V Instruction publique sur le fonctionnemcnt du Laboratoirc 
de Concarneau en 1888, et sur le sardine, 1889. 
§ Seventh Ann. Kept., Fishery Board Scot, part iii. p. 390. 
