18 
THE MARINE LABORATORY AT 
CULLERCOATS. 
I have much pleasure in submitting a first report on the 
laboratory and the work we have so far been enabled to accomplish. 
In doing so, l cannot help saying, in a word, that this Committee, 
the College of Science, and all who have an interest in our fisheries 
or a love for marine zoology, can never adequately thank Mr. Dent 
for his gift to the district. He has for many years, as you well 
know, strongly identified himself with fishery questions, and his 
earlier efforts are now yielding the important information which I 
have just had the honour of laying before you. That this work 
should be still further successful, that a centre should he formed 
for local fishery research, that this district should have an 
opportunity of joining in general marine natural history, has long 
been Mr. Dent’s desire. 
This desire led to certain preliminary interviews and enquiries, 
which finally resolved themselves into selecting a site. We 
determined upon Cullercoats — a place already famous m the annals 
of natural history as the scene of much of the work done by many 
of our well-known local naturalists. An arrangement was made for 
a site beside the baths there, and a supply of sea water. The 
building erected is a small one, measuring 80 feet x 10 feet, and 
the tanks which have been fitted up are made to occupy a 10 feet x 
10 feet space, thus leaving 20 feet x 10 feet as a workroom. These 
tanks are (1) a storage tank, measuring 7x3 feet and 25 inches 
deep; (2) four tanks, measuring 4 x 8 feet and 12 inches deep, one 
of which lias one of the sides made of glass; (3) a large tank, 
6 x 3 feet and 25 inches deep. 
The top tank is fitted with a tap by which the supply of water 
through the rest can lie regulated, and the other tanks simply pour 
into one another in succession through tubes of bamboo. Each, 
however, is provided with a sand trap, such as has been 
recommended by Prof. Herd man, and thus they can he used not 
only for general zoological work, but for the investigation of the 
development of fish and other forms, without danger of the contents 
of one tank, however minute, being carried over into the next. The 
lower, large tank was so made for two reasons, (1) that a sufficient 
