The Council of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom has determined to issue to its members notes and reports concerning the work of the Association in the form of a Journal, which will appear at intervals, determined by the amount of material ready for publication. It is not proposed to limit the contents of this Journal to formal reports, nor to publish in it lengthy scientific memoirs, but to include within its pages, besides the official statements of the Council, brief records of observations relating to the marine biology and fisheries of the coasts of the United Kingdom which may appear to have a definite bearing upon the work actually in progress under the auspices of the Association. With this object in view the Council of the Association invite communications from fishermen and naturalists, which may either be printed in full in this Journal or form the subject of a note.

In the ‘Times,’ March 31st, 1884, appeared the following article:

Biological station, some may be inclined to think, is simply Aquarium “writ large.” The two certainly do coincide to some extent j a biological station aa a rule implies an aquarium, but it includes a great deal more. In the early days of public aquaria, some twenty-five years ago, and down indeed to more recent times, attempts were made to utilise these institutions for scientific purposes, and biologists hoped that great results would follow from their establishment. It was in 1860 that the late Mr. Lloyd designed an aquarium for Paris, and two years later a similar one for Hamburg. Others soon followed, both in this country and on the Continent, nearly all of them constructed on the method devised by Mr. Lloyd, and several of them under his direct superintendence. Probably the earliest on a large scale in this country was the well-known establishment at the Crystal Palace, to the management of which Mr. Lloyd succeeded on the death of Mr. J. K. Lord.

In the following Notes on the Fishing Industry of Plymouth the information obtained is divided into three sections, which are again subdivided as follows:

I.—Methods of fishing, localities fished, and fish caught. There are eleven different methods of fishing carried on in Plymouth:

1. Beam trawling. 2. Drift-net fishing. 3. Moored-net fishing. 4. Seine fishing. 5. Bultering, or long-line fishing. 6. Hand-line fishing. 7. Eel spearing. 8. Mullet trapping. 9. Crab and lobster fishing. 10. Shrimp and prawn fishing. 11. Oyster, mussel, and cockle fishing.

The Laboratory which ia now in the course of erection at Plymouth for the Marine Biological Association, is situated between the south wall of the “Citadel” and the Sound, at a height of 95 feet above the level of the sea. The site, which has been granted to the Association by the War Office, occupies the whole length of King Charles's Curtain, 265 feet, and extends southwards from the Citadel wall 240 ft., giving a surface of, say, 63,600 feet.