20 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



having come from South Africa via Tristan da Cunha. At Sts. 9, 10, 11 and 12 (see 

 Fig. u)N7o V nets were used: at St. 9 down to 250 m., and at Sts. 10, 11 and 12 down 

 to 500 m. The N 100 H net was used at the surface only at Sts. 8 and 9. Nearer to South 

 Georgia a continuous plankton record was taken for a distance of 109 miles. 



On account of the unfortunate but unavoidable delays in the start of the expedition, 

 we arrived so late in the whaling season that we could not hope in this first instance to 

 gain more than a provisional knowledge of the plankton of the whaling grounds, and to 

 collect data which would be a guide in planning the more comprehensive survey of the 

 following season. This work was made difficult and was much curtailed by the many 



Fig. 1 1 . Chart showing position of plankton stations taken when approaching South Georgia from Tristan 



da Cunha in February 1926. 



successive gales and the fact that the 'Discovery' was not a full-powered ship. Early 

 in March two lines of stations using N 70 V nets were made in a north-easterly direction 

 from the coast (see Fig. 12): Sts. 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 starting at a point 5 miles from the 

 coast and with intervals of 10 miles between stations, and Sts. 18, 19, 20 and 21 also 

 starting at 5 miles from the coast, but with intervals of only 5 miles between stations. 

 In the middle of March a full station (St. 23) was taken at 5 miles from the coast, 

 followed by another line of stations, 24, 25 and 26, at which the state of the sea made 

 vertical work impossible, N 100 H nets only being used. St. 31 was a full station 13 miles 

 off the coast. 



