of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
5 
at the site, and also the Magistrates and Council of the burgh, had 
given every facility for that object. The Board also expressed the 
hope, which has not yet been fulfJlled, that the Government would 
grant a special sum in order to allow of this work being carried 
out. In many other countries whose sea fisheries are comparatively 
of less importance than are those of Scotland, hatcheries for sea-fish 
and shell-fish have been in operation for a number of years. In the 
United States this branch of fishery work has been developed for 
several years with successful results. Last summer enoruious shoals 
of young cod were present off the Massachusetts coast, which the 
fishermen, who, it is stated, are convinced that the work will be 
vastly beneficial to them, are unanimous in considering to be due to 
the efforts of the Fish Commission. At the Government hatchery 
at Flodevigan, in Norway, during the present year, there were 
hatched and planted on the fishing-grounds along the coast no less 
than 192,000,000 of young cod ; and last year, at the sea fish 
hatchery erected on Dildo Island by the Government of Newfound- 
land, 17,000,000 of cod and over 400,000,000 of lobsters were 
hatched and subsequently distributed in the inshore waters. The 
Government of Canada, after sending a special Commissioner to 
inquire into the Newfoundland hatchery, have lost no time in 
erecting one in Nova Scotia, which will be in operation during the 
present year. In Denmark the Minister of the Interior has given 
special instructions that experiments on as large a scale as possible 
in the hatching of sea-fish should be made; and the Belgian 
Government, on the representation of the Maritime Association 
that there had occurred a great diminution of fish along the coasts, 
have requested the Eoyal Piscicultural Society to investigate the 
matt^jr, with the view of taking remedial measures by artificial 
propagation. 
Under the above circumstances, the Board again desire to express 
the hope that a special sum may be provided to enable the hatch- 
ing and rearing of sea-fish and shell- fish to stock the territorial 
waters to be begun on a large scale. It is understood that a sum 
of £1500 would be sufficient to enclose the natural creeks at 
Dunbar, described in last year's Eeport, and which further experi- 
ence on the spot has shown to be admirably adapted for the 
purpose. 
Under present conditions, the Board have begun operations on a 
limited scale for the hatching of lobsters. A natural creek at 
Brodick, in Arran, has been enclosed and covered in, and is now 
stocked with ripe lobsters, and hatching will begin in the course 
of the summer. At Dunbar large tanks have been provided, and 
as far as possible also stocked with ripe lobsters ; but this work 
cannot be carried on satisfactorily, or on any adequate scale, until 
the creeks at Dunbar are closed in. 
The attention of tlie Board has also been directed to the absence 
of lobster-fishing in the Shetland Isles. In the neighbouring 
Orkney Islands a valuable lobster fishery exists, which, during the 
past five years, has yielded to the fishermen there a sum of over 
£20,000. Inquiries which have been made at Shetlanil show that 
on the west coast lobsters used to be fished very successfully by 
