president's address. 
159 
were Mr. Preston’s “ Meteorological Notes, 1905,” and 
Mr. Wigg’s “ Herring Fishery, 1905,” which had to be taken 
as read, owing to want of time. 
I have selected to address you this evening on the 
subject of : — 
LIMNOLOGY, 
or, the Study of Fresh Waters. 
The systematic investigation of Lakes is a study of recent 
growth, though of course a great deal has for a long time 
been known about the fauna and flora which inhabit fresh 
water. 
It is a branch of Biology which has been largely neglected 
in favour of marine work, and this is not surprising when 
we compare the extreme beauty and variety of the living 
forms, which inhabit the sea, with the small number and 
sombre colours of fresh water organisms. 
Moreover, in this country, surrounded, as it is, by seas 
teeming with fish, the commercial importance of our fresh 
waters is not so great as in continental countries, in which 
the cultivation of food fishes has become an important 
industry, and is not pursued only for the purpose of furnishing 
sport to the angler. 
In Germany, for example, every attention is paid to the 
rearing of coarse fish in ponds, and to the protection of game 
fishes in running streams, not so much for sport as to provide 
a constant supply of fresh food ; and in order that this may 
be of the best, arrangements are made for keeping the fish 
alive in tanks of running water till required for the table. 
Treatises are written on the industry, and a large part of the 
work of the investigators of Continental fresh waters has 
a bearing upon fish production. 
In the United States the cultivation of Carp is said to be 
