1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 367 



peculiar taste and smell above described. This oily, taste-producing 

 substance is volatile, and cannot be got rid of by distillation. The 

 water itself was found to be colourless, the apparent colour being 

 due to the suspended organisms. The problem of purification of 

 the water is naturally an important one. Filtration was of no 

 avail, and aerating it only tended to aggravate the mischief. The 

 sole remedy that has proved effectual so far is that of excluding 

 the light, and converting the reservoirs into sul)terranean basins ; for 

 Asterionclla cannot live in darkness. 



Sampling the Herring Pond 



During the trip to America in connection with the British 

 Association meeting at Toronto last year, Prof, Herdman made 

 a continuous collection of the little free-swimming organisms con- 

 stituting the plankton, both on the outward and homeward journeys. 

 The method adopted for this purpose was that of placing nets over 

 a tap and over-flow pipe bringing water from the bottom and top 

 respectively of a tank kept full of sea-water by a pump working 

 continuously. The material strained from the water thus passing 

 through the nets was collected twice daily and preserved for detailed 

 study. The examination has since been made and the results 

 published in the Transactions of the Liverpool Biological Society 

 (Vol. xii. pp. 33-90). From the lists of species there given, a very 

 good notion of the more important of the smaller kinds of organisms 

 inhabiting the North Atlantic during the summer may be obtained. 

 One can also perceive the changes which occur in the character of 

 the plankton from point to point, although this would have been 

 much more readily seen if the results had been issued in tabular 

 form. The Copepoda, which form the most important constituent 

 of the collections, have been specially worked out by Messrs I. 0. 

 Thompson and A. Scott, and include three species new to science. 

 These latter, however, were taken not in the open Atlantic, but in the 

 St Lawrence. 



As remarked by Prof. Herdman, this method of collecting 

 samples of the surface fauna, even from an ocean-liner going at full- 

 speed, will enable naturalists to obtain, at very slight expense, a 

 series of gatherings across the great oceans in every direction 

 traversed by passenger or cargo steamers. The ship's surgeon, or 

 any other officer who may be willing to take charge of a net and set 

 of collecting bottles for a marine biologist, can now help in making 

 an interesting series of observations which may lead to important 

 conclusions as to the distribution of oceanic organisms. And as the 

 Copepoda at least are edible (some were actually cooked and eaten 

 during the trip) the cook has here the means of adding a new dish, 

 or at any rate a sauce, to the bill of fare. 



