78 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
Mr. Johnstone’s remarks on the subject—both as to 
methods and on results—should be read, but I may call 
attention here to the suggested improvement in method 
for the future, viz., the adoption of a few large 
experiments in the year instead of a large number of 
small series of markings. As Mr. Johnstone points out, 
we now know well enough when and where plaice should 
be marked and liberated in the Irish Sea in order to 
give us the information that is required. 
The results obtained in regard both to the 
migrations and to the growth of the fishes is full of 
interest, and is so important that it must be read in full 
with the help of the six excellent charts which 
Mr. Johnstone has drawn up. 
The general object of the investigation described in 
the ‘‘ Report on Measurements of Plaice’’ is to provide 
data for a study of the utility of trawl-mesh restrictions, 
for a more exact knowledge of the variation in the size 
of the fish on the various grounds and at various seasons, 
and indirectly for a study of the times and routes of 
migration. The importance of carrying out such an 
enquiry must be obvious to all readers, and this is 
one of the lines of investigation that could with great 
advantage be extended, both in area and in the number 
of data, if the resources at the disposal of the Fisheries 
Committee were augmented by a substantial Government 
grant. The research which Mr. Johnstone has under- 
taken is a difficult and a complicated one, as even a 
glance at the pages of his report will show, and one 
which can only be followed with full appreciation by 
those who have already some acquaintance with the 
subject; but it is quite certain that this kind of 
investigation, combined with a study of the statistics of 
the local fisheries, will be of very great value in the 
