In the present essay I have endeavoured to bring together the most precise and reliable evidences available as to the recent and present condition of the great trawl and line fisheries of England and Wales. Both these fisheries depend for their success upon the same fundamental conditions, viz. the abundance of fish upon the bed of the sea. They may rightly, therefore, be grouped together under the single head of “bottom fisheries,” in contrast to the fisheries for herrings, mackerel, and pilchards, which are “surface fisheries.” From the nature of the case, even great fluctuations in the annual produce of the latter fisheries scarcely excite surprise, but a fairly constant yield is tacitly expected of the bottom fisheries, when the same apparatus is employed, owing to the greater uniformity in the conditions of life on the sea-floor.

The present paper contains an account of experiments made at the Plymouth Laboratory in the summer of 1899 with the object of determining the conditions necessary for the artificial rearing of seafish larvæ through the critical stages of their development. As is well known, the majority of the attempts which have hitherto been made in this direction have proved abortive, and such success as has been obtained has been limited to the survival of a very small proportion of the original stock of fry. There was therefore ample scope for new work upon the subject, especially for experiments based on comparative methods which should aim more particularly to elucidate the habits of fish larvæ under clearly contrasted conditions. In this way only did it appear possible to make further progress in our knowledge of the physiological peculiarities of the delicate fry and of the conditions which are essential to their healthy development in confinement. The successful issue of the present experiments is entirely attributable, I think, to the fact that they were not undertaken until practically undivided attention could be given to them, which enabled me to watch long and closely the habits of individual larvæ under different conditions, and under the guidance of these observations to modify and perfect the simple apparatus employed until the mortality became reduced to reasonable proportions.

The problem of successfully rearing the larvæ of Echinoidea until they had completed their metamorphosis, has been solved by several naturalists. Agassiz was able, for three weeks, to keep plutei alive which he had fished from the sea, at the end of which time they sank to the bottom and became young echini. Bury was able also to rear a few of the plutei of one of the Neapolitan species through the whole of their larval life, and finally Théel has published an account of how he obtained all stages in the development of Echninocyamus pusillus from the result of artificial fertilisation.

It is a pity that there should be any doubt as to the legitimacy of the generic and specific names of one of the longest Chaetopoda inhabiting Plymouth Sound, and it seems worth while to devote a special note to its synonymy and identification.

On the invitation of the Swedish Government an International Conference met at Stockholm, in June, 1899, for the purpose of formulating a scheme for a combined investigation of the Northern Atlantic, the North Sea, and the Baltic in the interests of the sea-fisheries.

The following list has been classified, so far as practicable, according to subjects, in order that it may be useful for purposes of reference. The list does not include publications recording the results of observations made on material supplied by the Association to workers in different parts of the country, of which a considerable amount is sent out each year.

There have been four ordinary meetings of the Council during the year, at which the average attendance has been 8. As in previous years, the meetings have been held at the rooms of the Royal Society, and the Council has again to express its thanks for the courtesy thus extended.

The Council has to record with regret the death of Professor G. J. Allman, F.R.S., who has been one of the Vice-Presidents of the Association since its foundation in 1884.

After the completion of the investigation of the fauna and bottom-deposits of the outlying grounds extending from the neighbourhood of the Eddystone to Start Point, a detailed account of which was given in the last number of the Journal of the Association, a systematic investigation upon a similar plan was undertaken of the inshore grounds. The general area originally contemplated for detailed charting may be roughly described as lying between the 30-fathom line and the shore, and extending from the neighbourhood of Bolt Tail to Looe. In such an area the conditions are necessarily much more complicated than those which were met with on the Eddystone to Start grounds, where the depths varied but little from 30 fathoms, and where any effect upon the bottom fauna due to wave action was very slight. A further unfortunate complication has been introduced by the fact that immense quantities of refuse have been deposited all over the grounds immediately to the south and west of Plymouth Sound, by barges working in connection with the harbour improvement schemes in the Hamoaze and at Keyham, as well as by the barges belonging to the Plymouth Corporation, which discharge the refuse from the town. To such an extent has this deposit taken place that many of the most fruitful dredging and trawling grounds in the immediate neighbourhood have been rendered practically unworkable, and we have been compelled to abandon any serious systematic investigation of a considerable portion of the area originally contemplated.