DISCOVERY INVESTIGATIONS 

 STATION LIST 



R.R.S. 'WILLIAM SCORESBY' 



1950 



(Plates XI, XII) 



INTRODUCTION 



This list contains particulars of the observations made by the R.R.S. 'William Scoresby ' during 

 her eighth commission, between January and November 1950. Station Lists including the earlier 

 observations made by the same ship have already appeared in vols. I, 11, iv and xxv of the Discovery 

 Reports, and the present stations (WS 960-1 107), although separated from the pre-war work by a gap 

 of twelve years, are numerically continuous with it. 



It was intended that the eighth commission of the ' William Scoresby ' should mainly be devoted 

 to whale-marking in tropical and sub-tropical waters, but a limited amount of oceanographical work 

 and experimental fishing was also planned. 



The first four stations (WS 960-963) were worked on the continental shelf and slope south-west of 

 Ireland, in co-operation with the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. Following 

 this, a survey of the waters off the coast of South-West Africa (WS 964-1002) was made. After some 

 fishing experiments (WS 1003-1012) off East London, a few oceanographical stations were worked 

 in the central Indian Ocean (WS 1013-1020). Shore collections (WS 1021) were made at Mauritius, 

 and two trawling stations (WS 1022, 1023) were worked south of Madagascar. 



Unavoidable modifications in programme increased the amount of time available for oceano- 

 graphical work, and made it possible to work two lines of stations across the Mozambique Current 

 (WS 1024-1030) and the Agulhas Current (WS 1031-1040) in addition to the repetition of the 

 survey off the South-West African coast (WS 1043-1107). 



Salinity samples were analysed subsequently ashore, as on previous commissions of the R.R.S. 

 'William Scoresby', a necessity in view of the limited laboratory accommodation on so small a ship, 

 but special arrangements were made for the estimation of phosphate and dissolved oxygen content on 

 board. All such determinations were made within 10-20 hours of the collection of the samples. 



Phosphate analysis was done by the Atkins-Deniges molybdenum blue method, and the colour 

 comparison made in a Lovibond-type colorimeter with a series of thirty-three specially made glass 

 slides, with colours flashed on to them, representing a range of 0-03-3-00 mg. atoms P/m 3 . These 

 slides were precalibrated in a shore laboratory with standard phosphate solutions made up in phos- 

 phate-free sea water, obviating the need for salt-error correction. Dissolved oxygen content was 

 determined by the usual Winkler method. 



During the second survey off South-West Africa, a number of wire soundings were made to 

 ascertain the nature of the bottom. These have been given station numbers, and the abbreviations 

 denoting the nature of the bottom are those used by the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty, 

 1946. 1 The following appear in this Station List: 



bl black 



br brown 



c coarse 



Co coral 



d dark 



S sand 



Sh shells 



sk speckled 



St stones 



y yellow 



