The returns kindly sent in by Mr. Roach have been tabulated in the following pages.

The period during which Mr. Roach made his observations extends from October 23rd, 1889, to September 29th, 1890.

Concerning the particular localities in which the fish have been caught, it may be useful, for those who are not familiar with the coast, to explain that the fish make their appearance on the coast at a considerable distance to the east of Plymouth (18—20 miles). The shoals then appear to travel in a westerly direction, some going off into deeper water, all moving about in a more or less uncertain manner. The head-quarters of the fishery eventually become fixed south of Plymouth and Eddystone Light. Gradually the fish seem t o approach the shore, swimming now in large shoals. Many enter Plymouth Sound and are taken in comparatively shallow water, while others travel west, also in shallow water. The “remarks” for August are instructive. We find that, besides the ordinary and large fish, there are also “small fish about the size of pilchards” in the Sound, that “numerous large shoals” are noticed, and that at a later date the fish “seem to be leaving Plymouth Sound.” On September 1st we find the note that “the mackerel are going off into open water and the shoals breaking up.” On the breaking up of the shoals the mackerel fishing is considered to be at an end.

The data for this paper were again supplied by Mr. Roach, and have all been reduced to tabular form. I shall here state only the general results.

The total number of lobsters taken was 1753. Of these 1226 were males and 527 females, i. e. 699 more males than females.

Before the Laboratory of the Association was built, it had often been observed in other aquaria that female conger after living for some time in captivity, feeding regularly and voraciously, and growing with considerable rapidity, passed into a swollen and apparently gravid condition and then died. Such conger when dissected after death were invariably found to contain enormously developed ovaries or roes, which entirely filled up and distended the abdominal cavity, and pressed the intestine and other abdominal organs into as small a space as possible. The following are the principal records of cases in which this has been observed.

Until the year 1881, when Balfour wrote on the subject, the pronephros was generally believed to be a functional kidney, not only in the larval condition, but also in those adult forms described as possessing the organ.

Balfour, in his more detailed paper, published later, states that in the fishes examined—pike, eel, smelt, and angler—although the pronephros had all the appearance, externally, of a true functional kidney, no uriniferous tubules were present, and that a minute examination only disclosed a degenerate trabecular tissue which he describes as lymphatic.

The angler (Lophius), it may be observed, is generally considered to possess only a head kidney. This organ Balfour found to be in a perfectly functional condition, but he declines to believe that it is a persistent head kidney, and argues from the highly modified structure of the fish that the organ in question is in reality the mesonephros. shifted forward from its normal position. He also maintains that in adult Ganoids the head kidney has no longer a renal function. His general conclusion, therefore, is, that since the pronephros was only supposed to persist in Ganoids and Teloosteans, it must be now considered as non-existent except in the embryonic or larval conditions.

The southern shores of the English Channel have long been famous for the wealth of their Tunicate fauna, having furnished material in abundance for the classical researches of Milne-Edwards, Giard, and Lacaze-Duthiers. The Channel Islands also have been repeatedly visited by English zoologists, and have amply supplied those among them who have been in search of Tunicate treasures. Probably the peculiar tidal conditions of this part of the Channel are especially favourable to a rich development of littoral forms; but, as the work of Montagu, Couch, Clark, Alder, Gosse, Cocks, Bate, and Norman sufficiently testifies, the Devon and Cornish coasts of England can lay claim to an almost equally luxuriant shore fauna, the rocky bays and long sheltered estuaries being especially wealthy in this respect. During my residence at Plymouth I found that the Tunicata were among the best represented groups of the fauna, and, as I devoted considerable attention to the search for rare or new, as well as for well-known forms, I trust that a classified report upon the local representatives of the group will not be without its usefulness to other investigators.

The six drawings reproduced in Plates III and IV were made at sundry times from stages that I succeeded in obtaining in the years 1889 and 1890. The three stages of the common sole were procured after my quarto book on that fish was completed, and they enable me to supplement the account of the life-history of the species given there.