6 Part III. — Ninth Annual Eeport 
a few crews from the East Coast of Scotland, and small quantities 
are stQl occasionally taken on the east, and especially on the west 
coasts of the islands. Some years ago a Banffshire crew of four 
men, working for two months in the neighbourhood of the Barra 
Isles, are reported to have realised £20 each for the lobsters they 
caught in that time. Experiments are now being made as -to the 
relative abundance of the lobsters on the shores around the Shet- 
lands, which will show whether some such system as that adopted 
in Arran is likely to succeed there. 
The Board's Marine Laboratory at Dunbar has been fully equipped 
for carrying on scientific work, and the plaice, flounder, and other 
sea fishes have been hatched there during the course of the year, 
and their development as far as possible studied. 
At the Board's Marine Laboratory at St Andrews, w^hich is 
under the able direction of Professor M'Intosh, F.E.S., a number 
of important scientific investigations have been made in the 
course of the year, the results of part of which are given in the 
present Eeport. 
The following is an account of the more important Scientific 
Investigations undertaken during the year : — 
1. The Influence of Beam Tkawling. 
The Trawling Exjperiments of the * Garland! 
Throughout the year the trawling experiments of the ' Garland ' 
were made at the regular trawling stations at the various parts 
of the coast, the results of which are dealt with in a special 
Keport under Section A. 
It must be pointed out that the usefulness of these experiments 
is liable to be seriously curtailed by illegal depredations of beam- 
trawlers at certain parts of the territorial waters, where the 
experiments are carried on. Tims, on a single morning recently, 
the 'Garland' detected seven large steam-trawlers working within 
the three-mile limit in Aberdeen Bay, where six of the regular 
trawling stations are situated. It is evident that interference of 
this kind with the 'Garland's' trawling stations must very pre- 
judicially affect the investigations being made as to the increase 
of the fish-supply in waters from which beam- trawling is supposed 
to be excluded. 
During 1890 the stations in the Firth of Forth, St Andrews 
Bay, Montrose Bay, Aberdeen Bay, and the Moray Firth, were 
examined, as were also the stations in the Firth of Clyde, which 
were selected in 1888. In the course of the year, 135 hauls 
were made at the various stations, in addition to a large number 
of special hauls along selected lines, in connection with the 
inquiries into the distribution and capture of immature fish. 
When the weather was fine, occasion was taken to visit once 
or twice an important fishing-ground lying 20 miles off the mouth 
of the Firth of Forth, and some of those in the offshore waters 
of the Moray Firth. But, for the reason already given, the 
'Garland's' work at the great fishing-banks has been limited. 
