The investigation here described may be regarded as the natural sequel of the observations by which I showed that the plaice of the Brown Ridges, as well as those from the Plymouth grounds, were smaller when they attained to sexual maturity than those of the northern part of the North Sea. Mr. Holt, in 1894, published in this Journal some observations on the dwarfed and ciliated or spinulated plaice of the Baltic; and Dr. Heincke, now Director of the German Biological Station at Heligoland, had suggested as a probability that the plaice of the Heligoland region were a smaller geographical race, distinguishable by special characters from those of other regions. I referred to this subject at the end of my paper on the Physical and Biological Conditions in the North Sea, in the preceding number of this Journal, and mentioned the paper in which Georg Duncker has recorded and discussed the results of an examination of samples of plaice and flounder from various localities.

While engaged in the examination of some vase pictures which have been stated to represent certain parts of the shores of the Bay of Pozzuoli as it existed in Roman times, I was struck by two drawings of Roman Oyster culture grounds, or ostrearia, which seem to me to be of considerable interest, not only as affording us direct information concerning the method of oyster culture employed by the Romans in the neighbourhood of Baiæ, but also because they show clearly that that method was the same as the one which still survives and is still carried on, in common with so many other Roman customs in the same locality, exactly as it was nearly two thousand years ago.

The Effectof The Closureof Inshore Areas Upon The Sizeand Abundanceof The Food - Fishes Which They Contain.—In the Report under consideration Dr. T. Wemyss Fulton, the Scientific Superintendent of the Scottish Fishery Board, publishes an important Review of the Trawling Experiments of the Garland in the Firth of Forth and St. Andrews Bay in the years 1886–1895. As is well known, these areas have been closed to trawlers during the ten years under consideration. The Board's steamboat Garland has from time to time made experimental hauls with a 25 ft. Beam-trawl along certain fixed lines within the areas, the fish captured being measured and recorded, and the results of the experiments published from year to year in the Reports. After ten year's work, Dr. Fulton now gives a general review of the whole investigation, and indicates the conclusions to which, in his opinion, the results of the experiments seem to point.

It has for a long time been known that the sea abounds in microscopic organisms, both animal and vegetable. Among the former are entomostraca, infusoria, radiolarians, foraminifera, as well as larvae of mollusca, radiates, and bryozoa. Among the plant-life the mass consists of diatoms, cilioflagellates, flagellates, and certain unicellular chlorophyllaceous algae. For these pelagic forms Prof. Hensen has proposed the name plankton, which has been universally accepted.

The powers conferred on the Board of Trade, under the Sea Fisheries Regulation Act of 1888, to create, upon the application of a County or Borough Council, a local Fisheries District, and to provide for the constitution of a Local Fisheries Committee for the regulation of the sea fisheries carried on within the district, have been requisitioned by the majority of the Councils of the maritime counties of England and Wales, and at the present time Fisheries Districts and Fisheries Committees are constituted around nearly the whole coast line, the Committees having jurisdiction over all fishing carried on within the three-mile limit. The only portion of coast still unprovided for is that which lies in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, between Happisburg and Dovercourt.

The antero-lateral margins of the carapace in many of the crabs of our own and of foreign coasts are beset with a row of teeth or spines, which vary in character and number in different species and genera. In the Oxyrhyncha (Spider-crabs) the whole surface of the carapace is generally studded with spines and stiff hairs of a peculiar character, but there is no general restriction of these processes of the carapace to the antero-lateral margins of the body. These crabs, moreover, do not adopt burrowing habits. Their armature of spines, tubercles, and hairs is employed, as is well known, for protective purposes: in some cases possibly as an actual defence against attack, in others (i.e., Eurynome aspera) as a means of protective resemblance to their surroundings; but in the great majority as mere pegs and hooks for the fixation of foreign bodies, such as algae, hydroids, polyzoa, and ascidians, for purposes of concealment and disguise.

In the Catometopa (Land-crabs, etc.) the carapace is usually smooth over its whole surface. These animals often burrow in sand, but for the most part their burrows are permanent subterranean tunnels and chambers.

In the Cyclometopa, however—the group which includes most of our commoner British crabs—the back of the carapace is generally smooth, while the antero-lateral margins are in most forms conspicuously serrated. Most of these animals inhabit sandy or gravelly areas, and show a marked propensity towards burrowing habits. Their burrows are never permanent channels or tunnels in the sand, but are mere temporary excavations, the sand, mud, or gravel being in actual contact with their bodies when imbedded.

The crab whose habits I now describe has not previously been recorded as an inhabitant of British seas. I found two specimens, both male, imbedded in a patch of coarse shell sand on the south side of Drake's Island at low water, spring tides: one on August 11th, 1896, and the other on the following day.

In order to endeavour to co-ordinate the work of the many naturalists who make use of the tow-net round the coasts of the British Isles during the year, the following circular has been issued. The list of organisms, upon the presence or absence of which information is desired, contains only such as can be quite easily recognised. The scheme must be regarded as more or less experimental for this year, with a view to finding out what can be done in this direction.

About a year subsequent to the appearance of my paper on the Grimsby Trawl Fishery my attention was directed to certain arithmetical errors in the table on pp. 406 and 407 (pp. 70 and 71 of the Reprint). These errors are in truth, considerable, though fortunately not of a nature to affect the arguments brought forward in the text, as will appear to such of my readers as may be at pains to compare the revised edition with the original.

The number of workers who have occupied tables at the Laboratory during the winter months has not been large. It becomes increasingly evident that the amount of work which can be carried on during this period of the year must depend upon the number of naturalists who can be employed by the Association to undertake general or special investigations. At the present moment our funds will only permit of the employment of one such naturalist, who is engaged in fishery investigations. My own time is so much occupied with administrative and other duties, that comparatively little of it can be devoted to scientific research. It may be worth while to point out once more that whilst the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries is allowed an annual sum of £35,000 for salaries alone, a considerable portion of which is devoted to the payment of naturalists engaged in research, the total income of the Marine Biological Association amounts to only about £2000 a year.