I9IO- SCHARFF. — Advanres hi Irish Marine Zoology. 75 



floats having been distributed on the surface of the sea, about 

 one half of them were rediscovered, and the enclosed post-card 

 returned to headquarters. Some of the floats drifted north of 

 Trondjhem in Norway, others went to the coast of Holland 

 and France. The great majoritj- travelled to the British 

 coast, showing that the surface currents are chiefly dependent 

 on the prevailing winds. 



A very useful index to the scientific literature, published by 

 the Fisheries Branch of the Department, was written by Mr. 

 C. Green.^ 



Fishes. — The reports on fishes are partly of a systematic 

 nature, but most of them deal with economic problems. In 

 the second report on the fishes of the Irish Atlantic slope, 

 Messrs, Holt and Byrne ^ supply us with very valuable illus- 

 trations of some of the rarer kinds which inhabit the deep 

 water off our west coast. Some species are also figured and 

 described which have not been taken in the Irish area, and it 

 would have been better perhaps if this fact had bten more 

 clearly indicated b}" placing the name of the fish in less pro- 

 minent type or within brackets. 



The fishes figured belong to the Scorpaenidae and Alepo- 

 cephalidae, but the authors state that 19 species new to the 

 Irish deep sea area have been recognised since the first report 

 was issued. Of these, four were new to science. They have 

 been described and mostly ^%wx^dL\VLW\^ Anjiah and Magazine 

 of Natural History. The type specimens have presumably 

 been deposited in the British Museum, although the authors 

 do not make a statement to this eff"ect 



So as to enable those who derive financial benefit from the 

 capture of eels, to understand the life history of that valuable 

 fish, Mr. Holt^ supplies us with a useful summary of the latest 

 contributions elucidating this problem. Fresh-water eels 



5 Green, Charles. — Index to the scientific publications of the 

 Fisheries Branch of the Department of Agriculture and Technical In- 

 struction for Ireland. Fisheries, Ireland, Sci. Invest., 1906, vi. [190S]. 



* Holt, E. W. Iv. and L. W. Byrne. — Second report on the fishes of 

 the Irish Atlantic Slope. Fisheries, Ireland^ Set. Invest., 1906, v. [^908]. 



On a species of Lyconus from the north-east Atlantic. Ann. and 

 Mag. Nat. Hist. (7) Vol. xviii. [1906J. 



New deep sea fishes from the coast — south-west coast of Ireland, 

 Ann. and Mag. Nat Hist. (8), vol. i. [1908]. 

 ■^ Holt, E. W. L. — The fresh-water Eel. Fisheries, Ireland, Set. Invest., 

 1907, viii. [1909]. 



