June, 1908. The Irish Naturalist, 105 



DUBLIN MARINE BIOLOGICAL COMMITTEE. 



GENERAL ACCOUNT OF DREDGING OPERATIONvS, 1907. 



With Spkcial Notks on the Mollusca. 

 by nathaniel colo an, mr. i. a. 



The Dublin Marine Biological Committee was formed in the 

 Spring of 1907 at the instance of Mr. J. Bayley Butler, v/ith 

 the object of promoting further exploration of the County 

 Dublin sea-fauna. In addition to Mr. Butler and the writer 

 of the present report, who were appointed respectively Secre- 

 tary' and Treasurer, the Committee was made up of the 

 following members : — Miss M. C. Knowles, Miss J. Stephens, 

 Dr. Scharff, Professor Carpenter, Messrs. J. Adams, J. A. 

 Clarke, J. N. Halbert, J. de W. Hinch, A. R. Nichols, and 

 R. Southern. A small grant was obtained from the Royal 

 Irish Academy Fauna and Flora Committee, and with this 

 the Marine Committee began its operations in May, 1907. 

 Eight dredging trips were made in the course of the j-ear, the 

 field of exploration stretching from Lambay in the north to 

 Killiney Bay in the south. With the exception of a couple 

 of scrapes made off Lambay Head, the dredgings were strictly 

 confined within a limit of three miles from the shores of the 

 county mainland, and within a maximum depth-limit of 20 

 fathoms. A considerable mass of material selected from the 

 various dredgings has been preserved, and, it is hoped, will 

 yield on examination some interesting results in departments 

 of marine zoology which have hitherto been insufficiently ex- 

 plored. The marine Mollusca were allotted to the Treasurer 

 as his special department, and as it has been possible for him 

 to examine his material as, or at all events, soon after, it was 

 collected, it seems best to place the more interesting results 

 on record here without further delay, and, at the same time^ 

 to give a general account of the dredgings made b}^ the Com- 

 mittee. 



May 25.— The Secretary and Mr. Adams opened the year's 

 work by a short dredging trip by row-boat in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Muglins, east of Dalkey Island. An unfortunate 

 accident to the dredging geai brought the day's operations to 



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