[The herring fishery is carried on at Plymouth during the winter months, when the adult herring seek the inshore waters for spawning. Besides these, however, the so-called “harbour herring” are taken in the summer and autumn; these appear to be the produce of the last spawning season, i.e. six months to a year old. Mr. Cunningham has shown me specimens taken in the Cattewater in May, 1889, which vary from 3½ to 5 inches in length. Those which are at present being brought to the Laboratory (September, 1890) are 9 or 10 inches in length, but their reproductive organs are still at an extremely early stage of development. Further observations on these harbour herring are much needed, and are being gradually made.

Among the questions on sea fishing which are periodically and pertinaciously brought forward by some people, there is none which is more persistently paraded before the public than the wholesale destruction by trawling and other means of immature food-fishes. When questions of this kind are brought forward they are invariably accompanied with demands for legislative interference, and in this instance it is demanded by some that beam trawling should be prohibited within the three-mile limit; by others that it should be prohibited altogether at certain seasons; by others, again, that shrimp trawling should be forbidden; and a fourth party, with some show of reason, requires that certain specified areas should be closed against trawling for a number of years.

The mackerel fishery began off Plymouth in January, and boats from Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Newhaven, Brighton, Eastbourne, Hastings, Plymouth, together with a considerable number of Mount's Bay boats (Porthleven, Newlyn, and Mousehole) were engaged in the above fishery. Fish were found about the 13th January fifteen to twenty-five miles south-west of the Start Point, of a very fine quality, and were caught in considerable quantities for some few nights, catches from two lasts (20,000) down to few hundreds per boat. Westerly and south-west winds prevailing (strong breezes), very stormy weather set in, and fishing operations were interrupted for three weeks, when the boats got to work again, meeting only with light catches for some weeks, February and March were not very successful months, easterly winds set in and continued throughout above months, and practically nothing was done till latter part of March and beginning of April, when boats fell in with fish south-west of Eddystone fifteen to twenty-five miles. There fish were not so fine in quality as those of January, and appeared to be quite distinct from the latter. Some good hauls were secured, one last (being about the largest catch) to few hundreds per boat. The fishing continued up to May, and boats did fairly well, a good average earnings was obtained, prices kept up, especially during Lent.

A Government grant by the Royal Society enabled me to spend the months of August and September of 1889, in the investigation of unknown or obscure points in the marine algæ, in the Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association, Plymouth. One of my chief objects was to obtain such material of the various members of the Gigartinaceæ, of Spyridia, Stenogramme, and other genera, as would permit me to make a detailed examination of the development of the fruit (cystoearp) from the earliest stage to maturity. Several of the genera required were very rare or of unknown locality, and in many cases only to be found by dredging. In searching for these, new weeds, or new localities for known weeds, were met with, and it seemed to me the notes I made would be of use to algologists. Cocks, Hore, Boswarva, Gatcombe, &c, and of late years Holmes, have combined in their work to give a very full account of the marine algæ to be met with without the use of the dredge. For twenty years Cocks, I am told, did not miss a single low tide at Plymouth (or, if not, Falmouth). Up to the present our knowledge of the weeds of Plymouth has been derived almost entirely from shore-hunting, some of the rarest weeds being described as washed ashore, so that it was a question as to whether such weeds were locally established or merely “drift” specimens. In 1867 Boswarva published his Flora of Plymouth Sound in the Transactions of the Plymouth Athenaeum, his catalogue being compiled from the discoveries of himself, Cocks, &c. This list appears word for word in the Marine Biological Association Journal, No. 2, 1888. I am permitted by Mr. Holmes to say that through a misunderstanding he is stated to give the names of eight additional species.

The cruise, of which the zoological results are given in this report, was undertaken at the suggestion of Capt. Wharton, R.N., F.R.S. hydrographer to the Admiralty, who kindly advised me that H.M.S. “Research” was to make a fresh series of soundings off the entrance to the Channel, and put me in communication with the captain of the ship. To Capt. Aldrich I am indebted for unbounded hospitality. and attention whilst I was on board, and I take this opportunity of expressing my most hearty thanks both to him and to the officers on board for the hospitality and kindness which they afforded me, and, for the help which they gave me in the trawling operations. The “Eesearch” is a paddle vessel of 520 tons register, built last year for the express purpose of surveying, and provided with a steam winch, deep-sea trawls and dredges, and 1000 fathoms of wire rope, with accumulators and accessory tackle. The available space on board was limited; there was no separate cabin at my disposal, so Capt. Aldrich most kindly made me his guest and gave me a berth in his own cabin, and I was given as much room, as could possibly be allowed for storing my bottles and other apparatus.

During the two years which I spent at Plymouth I collected a number of notes on the occurrence and distribution of the Hydroidea of the district, with the intention of giving a full account of the representatives of the group in the Plymouth area. My unexpected departure has prevented my carrying out this intention, but it has seemed to me worth while to publish my notes, fragmentary as they are, in the hope that they may be useful to my successors, and particularly because the list of the Hydroidea given in Part ii of the first series of this Journal is very imperfect. The list of species now given is incomplete, and had I had the time to search more closely for the inconspicuous and deep-water forms I should have been able to add largely to it. One species, which I only succeeded in obtaining twice, appears to be new to science.

During the month of September, 1888, we availed ourselves of the facilities afforded by the Laboratory for the purpose of continuing the investigations began by us the year before, of the function of the electrical organ of the skate. In the record of the work done by us in 1887 at St. Andrews, published in the Journal of Physiology, vol. ix, p. 137, we indicated several new lines of investigation which we hoped to pursue if the opportunity offered. Two of these indications we have now been able to fulfil satisfactorily, namely, those relating to the electromotive force of the shock, and to the way in which the function of the electric organ is controlled and influenced by the central nervous system. In the first of these inquiries, we used apparatus which was brought from the Oxford Physiological Laboratory, and temporarily fitted up in the room at Plymouth, which is set apart for physiological researches, and which we found well adapted for this purpose. For the second, a large number of experiments and consequently a considerable number of fish were requisite. Forty skates of various species (Raia Batis, R. clavata, R. microcellata, and R. maculata) were supplied to us and used in our researches, of which the result will shortly be ready for publication.

We desire to express in the strongest terms our appreciation of the advantages afforded by the Laboratory for physiological researches. We would also record our personal obligation to the Director for his uniform courtesy and untiring zeal in obtaining for us, in spite of considerable difficulties, the material required for our work.

The accepted accounts of the excretory organs of the Decapod Crustacea are based chiefly upon the investigations of those numerous observers who have studied Astacus fluviatilis ; the only recent memoir which attempts to deal with the arrangement of this system of organs in any other genus being the well-known work of Grobben.

This paper is intended to furnish a complete list of all the species of Opisthobranchiate Mollusca found up to this time by the Marine Biological Association at Plymouth, together with various notes upon their morphology and natural history. The Nudibranchiate section of the group has, however, already formed the subject of a preceding report published in this Journal, so that species which have not since been taken are recorded here by their names only, a fuller account of them being given in the previous report. All the species there recorded are distinguished in this paper by asterisks (*) affixed to their names. I have had the advantage of several works upon the classification of the group which have recently appeared, notably Carus's excellent Prodromus Faunæ Mediterraneæ, vol. ii, part 1, 1889; Bergh's Die cladohepatischen Nudibranchien (Zoolog. Jahrbüch., v, 1890; for a copy of this admirable work I am indebted to the author); and Norman's Revision of British Mollusca (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., VI, vol. vi, No. 31, 1890, pp. 60—91). I must also mention Vayssière's Recherches Zoologiques sur les Mollusques Opistobranches du Golfe de Marseille—I. Tectibranches (Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. Marseille, Zool., II, 1885, Mém. No. 3) as having been of great service; and I regret that up to the time of going to press the second part of M. Vayssière's work has not arrived at the Laboratory, and I have been unable to refer to it.

Anyone who has examined the so-called “protective” spines of the various Zoæa larvæ must have been struck by their great tendency to develop in one straight line, parallel to the long axis of the body. Among the Macrura this is the case in the Zooæ of Peneus, in the larva attributed by Claus to Hippolyte, and in the Galatheidé. In the Brachyura the same result is attained in a slightly different way.

Up to 1882 the control of the Scottish Fisheries was vested in the Commissioners of British White Herring Fishery. This body, which was instituted in 1808, had for its functions the general superintendence of the herring fishery, the branding of herring barrels, the collection of trade statistics, and the administration of an annual grant from the Government for th construction and repair of fishery harbours. Later on, the cod and ling fisheries were also brought under its care. But the duties of the Commissioners were strictly limited to the fish cured, no cognisance being taken of the fish landed and used in a fresh state.

Mr. Bourne has been good enough to submit to me most of the interesting specimens of Echinoderms which he obtained during his short stay on board H.M.S. “Research.” Coming so soon after the important collection made by the Rev. W. S. Green in neighbouring waters and at greater depths, it will, I think, suffice for me to treat this collection as an appendix to that, and to refer for a general discussion of such points as appeared worth noting to my report in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History for December last.

The anchovy belongs to the same family of fishes as the herring, pilchard, and sprat, the family Clupeidæ. But whereas the herring, pilchard, and sprat have so many structural features in common that they are placed in a single genus, namely Clupea, the anchovy is in many respects so peculiar that it is placed in the distinct genus Engraulis. There are many species of Engraulis in various parts of the world, but only one on the coasts of Europe, and that one, commonly known as the ancovy, is called by zoologists Engraulis encrasicholus. The origin of these names dates back to a very early period. Both are used by ancient classical Greek authors.

The Delesserias, a genus of red seaweeds, six species of which inhabit the shores of the British Isles, have the thallus differentiated into a well-marked foliar expansion and a cylindrical portion; these we may respectively term the leaf and the stalk. Descriptions of this thallus are given in all books on seaweeds, for instance, in Harvey's (Phycologia Britannica), or Hauck's (Die Meeresalgen), but as far as I am aware no detailed, account has been given of these structures.

The species included in the present report have all, with one exception, been taken since the opening of the Laboratory in June, 1888. Twenty-four genera and thirty-six species will be found recorded, and those afford a considerable addition to the previously known Nudibranchiate Fauna of the Sound.

Probable Relation between Temperature and the Annual Catch of Anchovies in the Schelde District (with Pl. XXIV).—Mr. C. J. Bottemanne, of Bergen-op-Zoom, the Inspector of Fisheries for Holland, has expressed in tables published in extenso in the Verslag omtrent den Toestand der Visscherijen in de Schelde en Zeeuwsche. Stroomen for 1888, some very interesting statistics which have been condensed in Pl. XXIV of this journal. The temperature observations were made on the Rinkelaar guardship of the Ijerseke Bank of the Eastern Schelde (see Map, Pl. XXI); the amounts of the annual catch are taken from the official returns. It appears probable from these statistics that the extent of the catch of anchovies in the Schelde district in any year is (at least largely) dependent on the temperature of the water during the midsummer months of the preceding year. The curves in Pl. XXIV exhibit the temperature on the Ijerseke Bank during the months June to September from 1883 to 1888, the shaded blocks below them represent graphically the mass of anchovies taken in the succeeding year, i. e. 1884—1889 (the figures in the bottom line placed after the year indicate the total number of barrels). The only apparent exception is 1886, but, though the highest recorded temperature of this year is not great, the mean temperature in July to September was extremely and unusually high, as will readily be seen in the diagram. As an example of the valuable information which scientific observers may give to those interested in fisheries, Mr. Bottemanne, on receiving the statistics of temperature for 1888, warned the fishermen of the district last year not to go to trouble orexpense about the anchovy, fishery; they persisted, however, and justified his advice by realising 12 barrels as against 730 barrels of the previous year.

On Plates I—VIII, for Journal Mar. Biol. ass. read Journal Mar. Biol. Ass.; for Planche read Plate; on Plates I—VI, for G. C. Bourne del read J. T. C. del.

Page 115, line 12, for Gadus æglefinus read Gadus merlangus.

Page 365, line 15 for Treorgy read Treorky.