The present list, the result of observations made at intervals in the course of last year, was undertaken with the view of determining for embryological purposes the resources of the Sound with regard to this group. It includes the species obtained during a great part of the year 1892.

I propose in this paper to furnish a list of the marine Turbellaria of Plymouth Sound and the neighbourhood, including all species that have hitherto been recorded from this locality. That such an attempt is in some respects premature I am only too well aware, but I have written it for the convenience of those who are working at, or are interested in, the fauna of Plymouth, and it may serve as a starting-point in our knowledge of the Turbellaria of the Sound. The synonymy and descriptions of the species are given by v. Graff, Lang, Jensen, and recently, together with figures of the new species and the literature, by myself.

By “post-larval stage” I wish to indicate that stage in the developmental history of Arenicola at which the full adult number of somites has appeared, and the body is already distinguishable into (a) an anterior chætigerous region, and (b) a posterior achætous region or tail, but in which the gills are not yet completely formed or have not yet even made their appearance.

It is only eight years since the Royal Commission on beam trawling issued its report, and already a Select Committee of Parliament has been appointed to make a new inquiry into one of the principal subjects investigated by that Commission, namely, the decrease of the fish supply and the advisability of remedial measures. Among the conclusions of the Commission was this one:

I have again so many acknowledgments to make for help received that it would be invidious to select names, whilst to enumerate all would unduly trespass on the space allotted to me.

The work, as before, has been carried on at the Marine Fisheries Society's Laboratory at Cleethorpes.

The four charts produced in this number, showing as nearly as possible the positions of the various fishing boats in the neighbourhood of Plymouth, are a continuation of the series of charts already introduced in Nos. 3 and 4 of vol. ii. They represent the conditions found during last September, October, November, and December, and complete the year's observations.

In the year 1890 I tried an experiment upon young flounders, with the object of discovering what would be the effect upon the lower sides of the fish if these sides were continually exposed to daylight. Under ordinary conditions the upper side of the fish is dark-coloured, the lower side white; and the upper side is exposed to light, while the lower side being usually in contact with the ground, and always turned away from the sky, is protected from the light. A connection between the difference of the two sides in relation to light and in coloration naturally suggests itself. If the difference in coloration is due to the difference in the exposure of the sides to light, when the lower side of the fish is kept exposed to the light it ought to become coloured.