The following is a detailed account of the results of my investigations concerning the breeding and the development, under natural and artificial conditions, of some of the fishes met with at Plymouth. These researches extended over the period from the beginning of August, 1887, to the end of August, 1888. I have given brief preliminary accounts of some of the results in No. II of the ‘Journal,’ issued in August, 1888. As I mentioned there, the laboratory work was carried on from August to November in a small room hired for the purpose near the fish quay; from November to June, 1888, in a single room in the Laboratory without a constant supply of sea-water; after that time the Laboratory being finished all its appliances were available.

The following is a list of the Invertebrates which I had an opportunity of examining. Their pigments were not in all cases thoroughly studied, partly because the Laboratory had been opened but a short time before my arrival, and was not yet fully provided with the necessary chemical apparatus, partly through want of time.

Before 1888 no specimen of Tornaria, the well-known pelagic larva of Balanoglossus, had been taken off the English Coast. But on August 9th of the past year Mr. Weldon, using the surface net near the Eddystone Lighthouse, took several young specimens of Tornaria, and subsequently the same gentleman, during a cruise of a week's duration towards the end of August, captured many larger and more mature specimens of the same larva. Other specimens were taken by us up to September 21st, and in the month of August, Mr. Rupert Vallentin found several specimens in the vicinity of Falmouth.

The specimens taken on these occasions form the subject of the present memoir, and their anatomy is detailed at some length, both because of the interest attached to a form bitherto unknown to England, and because it is in some respects of morphological importance.

The specimens taken by us came from the offing, and were not taken within four miles of theshore; Mr. Vallentin's Tornaria were found close to the shore at Falmouth. As he was able to bring his back alive and preserve them at leisure in his laboratory, they are better preserved than those taken by us, since we were obliged to preserve our catch in a somewhatrough manner out at sea. An examination of Mr. Vallentin's specimens leaves me no doubt that the larva is Tornaria Kröohnii, aspecies found in the Mediterranean. The different forms of Tornariahave not been with certainty referred to their adult forms, but T. Kröohnii must belong to one of the Mediterranean species of Balanoglossus, that is to say, to B. Kowalevsltii, B. minutus, or B. claviger, species which have not hitherto been recorded from the English Channel, unless we suppose that the larva of B. salmoneus v. sarniensis, which occurs in the Channel Islands andat Roscoff, is identical with Tornaria Kröohnii.

The Oligochæta form a division of the Annelida, of which the most familiar type is the common earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris); the group comprises also a great number of smaller worms, which are for the most part inhabitants of ponds and streams, such as the red River worm (Tubifex rivulorum). The Oligochæta were at one time believed to be entirely terrestrial or inhabitants of fresh water, and to be distinguished thus from the Polychæta, which were supposed to be exclusively marine in their habitat. Although the progress of research has not broken down the structural distinctions between these two divisions of the Annelida chætopoda, it has been provedthat no absolute line of demarcation can be drawn between the Oligochæta and the Polychæta as regards their habitat; on the one hand Polychæta have been found in fresh water, and, on the other hand, certain species of Oligochæta are now known to inhabit the mud and gravel of the seashore.

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.

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.

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.