4 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



It is experiences such as these, during a summer like 

 the one we have just encountered, which unpleasantly 

 emphasize the inconvenience of having the biological 

 station at a somewhat inaccessible spot ; and which are 

 causing the Committee to consider the advisability, now 

 that we have had five years work at Puffin Island, of 

 moving the centre of operations to some suitable spot 

 nearer home. Although a marine fauna seems practically 

 inexhaustible, still we have certainly now found and 

 recorded the great majority of the animals and plants of 

 the Menai Straits, and have investigated to some extent 

 the more characteristic and interesting forms of life, and 

 some of the problems they present to us for solution. So 

 it might well be found more profitable to break ground in 

 some new part of our area, and if a suitable local habita- 

 tion could be obtained somewhere in the neighbourhood 

 of Hoy lake. West Kirby, or Hilbre, although the fauna 

 would not be so rich and varied as at Puffin, still the 

 proximity to Liverpool would greatly facilitate work. 

 Then again, with our biological station near a fishing 

 centre like Hoylake, we would also be able to carry on 

 investigations with a practical bearing which might be of 

 importance to the fishermen, and so help our friends on 

 the Sea Fisheries Committee of the County Council in 

 their most necessary and valuable work for the benefit of 

 the local fisheries. Several of the lines of investigation 

 started by our L.M.B. Committee during the last few 

 years — such as the distribution and composition of the 

 surface life of the sea and its relation to the food of fishes, 

 statistics in regard to the life-history of shrimps, and 

 habits, growth, &c., of young mussels — have opened up 

 avenues leading to practical results, and which ought to be 

 pursued further ; while many other problems and lines of 

 inquiry of equal biological interest and economic import- 

 ance still await investigation. 



