The littoral zone abounds in animal life; most all of the littoral animals of the Baltic region are here represented. In the depths of the lake we find the relict fauna of the Baltic lakes, Mysis relicta, etc. Diatoms predominate in the plankton in the greater part of the year, but at the highest summer temperatures, Anabæna and Lyngbya are common. Plankton rotifers and Cladocera are the main

forms of the zooplankton.

CENTRAL BUREAU OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE SEA.

(Conseil Permanent International Pour l'Exploration de la Mer.)

General secretary, Commissioner C. F. Drechsel.

Hydrographical assistant, Mr. M. Knudsen.

Biological assistant, Dr. H. M. Kyle.

Office, Jens Koefoedgade 21, Copenhagen, Denmark.

This bureau, established in 1902 as the central office, has for its function the coordination of the work of the various governmental bureaus and the publication of their joint investigations. The general business of the commission is conducted through joint meetings of the members of the several bureaus of the different cooperating States at which the programmes of work are outlined and discussed and the reports of committees having charge of joint investigations are discussed and approved before publication. The central office disburses the funds for general administrative purposes and publications only, and for the time, those supporting the central laboratory at Christiania, now discontinued.

The cooperating countries in 1909 are Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain and Ireland, Norway, Holland, Russia, and Sweden. The annual budget for 1908-9 was 103,803 kronen.

The publications consist of a series of "Rapports et Procès-verbaux des Réunions," Vols. I-XI, 1903-1909, a "Bulletin trimestriel des résultats croisières périodiques," Année 1902-3 to 1907–8, 7 volumes to date; a series of "Publications de circonstance," Nos. 1-46, 19031909; and a "Bulletin Statistique," vols. 1-3.

The work of the biological assistant is mainly in connection with fishery matters and fisheries statistics. The central bureau is now the source from which the standard sea water is supplied to the cooperating bureaus and others.

DANISH DEEP-SEA COMMISSION.

(Kommissionen for Havundersögelser.)

Chairman, Commissioner C. F. Drechsel. Members: Dr. A. C. Johansen, Mr. Martin Knudsen; Dr. F. Mortensen, inspector of fisheries; Dr. Johs. Schmidt, Dr. C. H. Ostenfeld.

Office, Jens Koefoedgade II2, Copenhagen.

The operations of the Danish bureau include seasonal cruises to the Faroes and Iceland, the Belts and Kattegat. Especial attention has been given by this bureau to the life history of the eel, to the early stages of the various species of cod, to hydrographic and to plankton work. The publications include a series of "Skrifter" (1904) and a "Meddelelser" (1904+), with subseries, "Fiskeri Hydrographi, and Plankton," The bureau maintains a fisheries laboratory in charge of Dr. Johs. Schmidt, where the ichthyological work is done. This laboratory contains a remarkably fine collection of the young (pelagic) stages of North Atlantic fish. There is also a plankton laboratory in charge of Prof. C. H. Ostenfeld, and a hydrographical laboratory under Mr. Martin Knudsen equipped for salinity determinations and gas analysis. A specially devised Knudsen water bottle may be seen at this laboratory.

The field equipment of the station consists of the Thor, of the English steam-trawler type, a two-masted schooner-rigged steamer of 205 gross (75.6 net) tonnage, length 115 feet, beam 21 feet, draft 14 feet, with triple expansion compound condensing engines of 325 indicated horsepower, capable of making 8 knots per hour on a coal consumption of 6 tons per day. Her bunkers carry 70 tons of coal. She carries a powerful steam winch with 2,000 fathoms of steel cable 1 inches in circumference for dredging and trawling and has a remarkably efficient equipment of otter trawls for bottom and pelagic work, eel trawls, and Petersen young-fish trawl, pelagic nets, seines, long lines, etc., as well as a complete outfit for plankton and hydrographic work.

Literature: Schmidt (1904).

CHAPTER VIII.

OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.

HOLLAND.

The tiny country of Holland has maintained since 1876 a vigorous station at Helder, to which was attached, in 1902, the Dutch branch of the International Commission. One of the finest aquaria in Europe, with research features attached thereto, has been maintained at Amsterdam since 1886. Although the pioneer summer seaside laboratory was opened at Ostend by Prof. Van Beneden in 1843, no permanent marine laboratory exists to-day in that country, though a fresh-water station on a private foundation was opened in 1900 by Doctor Rousseau at Overmeire.

STATION OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF THE NETHERLANDS, HELDER, HOLLAND.

Director, Dr. H. C. Redeke, Het Zoologisch Station der Nederlandsche Dierkundige Vereeniging Helder, Holland.

Assistant director, Dr. J. J. Tesch, Helder, Holland.

In 1875 the Zoological Society of the Netherlands voted unanimously to establish a marine zoological station on the coasts of Holland and appointed a committee consisting of Profs. C. K. Hoffmann, P. P. C. Hoek, and A. A. W. Hubrecht to carry out the enterprise. Being unable to fix upon a site for a permanent location, it was decided to establish for a few years a movable station that could be taken down and re-erected at a new location as seemed desirable. Accordingly a sum of 5,000 florins was raised and in the summer of 1876 a station was opened at Helder, at the mouth of the Zuyder Zee, in a small wooden structure (5 by 8 m.) in which places, with none too ample room, were provided for seven investigators. The building contained a working library, supplied by the society and the Dutch universities, and was equipped with the necessary glassware and chemicals.

For a period of fifteen years the station continued on this basis. The society nominated each year a committee who had charge of the affairs of the station, determined its location, collected and expended the funds, and printed an annual "Jaarverslag" in the "Tijdschrift of the society, in which the operations of the station were related, the funds were accounted for, and occasional notes on the summer's explorations were placed on record.

The station was opened only during the summer months, was used for research by the zoologists of Holland, and had no permanent

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staff. The building was enlarged by the addition of an aquarium (2 by 5 m.) in 1878 and a director's office (2 by 5 m.) in 1880. In 1876 the station was located at Helder; in 1877 at the other end of Holland at Flushing; in 1878-79 at Terschelling; and in 1880 at Nieuwediep. In 1881-1883 it was located at the mouth of the Scheldt and was used in investigations in ostreaculture, returning in 1884 to Flushing and going in 1886 to Delfzyl, in a brackish water bay. In 1886 and 1887 it was again located at Nieuwediep, and in 1887 at Enkhuisen on the brackish Zuyder Zee.

In 1888 Doctor Hoek was appointed counselor to the Government in the matter of the fisheries and became permanent director and resident at the station.

A legacy of 5,000 florins gave the initiative to the construction of a permanent building which was located at Helder and completed in 1889 at a cost of 20,270 florins for building and equipment. Scientific societies and friends of the enterprise contributed 5,250 florins and the balance was secured by loan. The movable laboratory served as an annex for five years, when it was replaced in 1894 by an addition to the building costing 10,000 florins, made possible by a gift of 2,000 florins and a new loan, together with an increased annual allotment from the Government.

In 1902 Doctor Hoek was called to the secretaryship of the newly established International Commission for the Investigation of the Sea at Copenhagen, and the directorship of the station fell to the hands of Dr. H. C. Redeke, its present director.

The Helder station has been from its inception primarily a research institution for the staffs of the zoological departments of the Dutch universities and their research students. It has not undertaken to provide for formal instruction of any grade. It has received from time to time some government aid, and official investigations into questions of the fisheries have been carried on within its walls. Since 1888 its director has been intimately associated with the official fisheries work of the Dutch Government.

Investigations carried on at the station are published in the "Tijdschrift der Neederlandsche Dierkundige Vereeniging," the organ of the society in charge of the station.

The station is supported by annual grants from this society and others in Holland, by private gifts, and small annual grants from the Government or local authorities.

The station is open to members of the society on application to the director, and to other competent investigators when the limited facilities permit. No charge is made for the privileges of the station. Glassware and reagents are supplied, but investigators bring their own instruments. The station is open throughout the year.

Helder is a small city located at the northern extremity of the peninsula of North Holland, at the entrance of the Zuyder Zee. It is reached by rail (61 miles) or by steamer from Amsterdam. The building stands in a small park on the great dike of Nieuwediep. It is a neat stone building of two stories, containing the laboratories and the residence of the director. The original building of cruciform outline with extreme dimensions of 12 by 23 m. has received at one corner a rectangular addition 8 by 16.5 m. The ground floor is given over entirely to the purposes of the station and contains a vestibule (5 by 6 m.), from which a hall leads to the aquarium room (6 by 8 m.), the office (6 by 5 m.) and laboratory (4 by 5 m.) of the director, the library (6 by 8 m.), and the two laboratories (6 by 5 and 4 by 5 m.), and stairs to the director's quarters above. In the wing, in addition to the aquarium room, there are to be found four small rooms serving as storeroom (3 by 3.5 m.), machine room (3 by 5 m.), clerk's office (3 by 4 m.), and service vestibule (4 by 4.5 m.). From this wing stairs lead to two laboratories (each 4.5 by 5 m.) and a storeroom (3 by 3.5 m.) in the second story. Owing to this disposition and arrangement of the rooms and windows in the building the available space for research tables is relatively small, there being room for but five to eight investigators in addition to the director.

The shallow waters and sandy shores of Holland do not afford either the quantity or variety of life that occurs in the tide-swept English Channel or the rocky shores of Normandy. The Helder station is, however, unique in its location at the entrance to a large body of brackish water, the specific gravity of the Zuyder Zee being 1.005 to 1.013, as compared with 1.024 in the North Sea. The great rush of the tidal currents past Helder keeps open a deeper channel to the sea, and provides for a more abundant local fauna upon the rocks of the great dike and the piles of the harbor constructions. In general the marine flora (other than pelagic) is very poor, though Helder is the only point on the coast of Holland where Laminaria

occurs.

Α very full account of the fauna and flora of the Zuyder Zee is to be found in the paper of Van Breeman and Redeke (1908) in the "Zuyder Zee Rapport."

Literature: Hubrecht (1890), Dean (1894), Sand (1897), Dollfuss (1888), Hoek (1885, 1895), MacLeod (1884), and Verslag in the "Tijdschrift" (1876-1908).

DUTCH SEA FISHERIES SCIENTIFIC BUREAU.

Scientific adviser, Dr. P. P. C. Hoek, Haarlem, Holland.

Director, Dr. H. C. Redeke, Ryksinstitut voor het Onderzook der Zee, Het Zoologisch Station, Helder, Holland.

Assistants, Drs. J. J. Tesch, F. Liebert, H. C. Delsman.

Commander, First Lieut. D. A. v. d. Laan.