394 
Part III. — Ninth Annual Report 
contains the usual appendices, and also some referring to the District 
Committees. 
The Committee of the Northumberland Sea Fisheries District have 
passed a bye-law, confirmed by the Board of Trade, prohibiting beam 
trawling within the limits of the district, with penalties for contravention 
not exceeding £20, with forfeiture of the fishing gear and sea fish 
taken. 
By the request of the Northumberland Sea Fisheries Committee, Mr 
William King has published, in pamphlet form, a paper on Mussels and 
Mussel Culture, read before that Committee. An experiment made by 
Mr King to transplant the dwarf mussels found in immense quantities 
near low-water mark to deeper water in Buddie Bay failed. The mussels 
were found to spat in July, August, and September, the period varying 
with the temperature. The author estimates that it would take 2000 tons 
of mussels annually to supply bait to the fishermen of the Northumberland 
coast, and he expresses doubt that any one area on the Northumberland 
coast can furni-sh this quantity, the proper course being to form beds at 
each fishing village. He estimates the cost of obtaining mussel bait at 
present at .£7, 12s. 6d. yearly for each fisherman, and calculates that if 
such local beds were formed the fishermen of Northumberland would be 
saved an annual expenditure of £4500. 
Dr J. H. FuUarton, of the Board's Scientific Stafi", recently published a 
paper on the Oyster Fishery of Scotland.* The previous very flourishing 
condition of the native oyster beds, as indicated in Statistical Accounts 
and contemporary literature, is described, and the methods of culture 
used in France and Holland explained. 
2. Ireland. 
In 1887 the Royal Dublin Society appointed a Fisheries Committee, 
and requested Kev. W. Spotswood Green, now one of the Inspectors of 
Irish Fisheries, to report as to how the Society could assist in encouraging 
the fisheries in the South of Ireland. After inquiries and reports, the 
matter was brought to the notice of the Chief Secretary for Ireland at the 
end of 1889, who wrote to the Society, pointing out the utility of an 
inquiry into the amount and distribution of the fish supply on the west 
coast of Ireland. ' So far as I have been able to discover,' he says, ' no 
' survey, even approximately complete, has ever been attempted of these 
* waters, for the purpose of determining how far they are suitable for 
' supporting a large fishing population. In the absence of information on 
' this point, any efforts which may be made to stimulate the industry in 
' the West of Ireland must evidently be carried on in partial ignorance of 
* one of the most important elements of the problem which presses for 
* solution.' t He also added, that if the Society could do something to- 
wards the investigation of this question they would effect a very valuable 
work in the interests of Irish fishing. After conferences between Mr 
Balfour and the Fisheries Committee, it was arranged to undertake the 
proposed survey, the Government and the Royal Dublin Society eacli 
contributing £600 annually for the purpose. Two expeditions have been 
made under the direction of Mr Green, and that gentleman's Report on 
the first of these, in the steamer ' Fingal,' specially equipped for the work, 
was recently published, f Mr Green was accompanied by Professor Had- 
don and Professor Prince (the place of the latter being subsequently taken 
* Proc. Phil. Soc. Glasgow, 1891. 
t Proc. Eoy. Dublin Soc, ' Report of Council,' Appendix E., p. 27, 1890. 
t Op cit , p. 29. 
