18 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



which many animals were attached, including large num- 

 bers of the small red Ascidian Styela arossularia. The 

 " Hyaena" then passed on into Carnarvon Bay and com- 

 menced working along the southern coast of Anglesea. 

 The dredges and various kinds of tow-nets, surface and 

 bottom, were used at intervals. A very large midwater 

 net, attached to a triangular wooden frame was used for 

 the first time and worked satisfactorily, but did not catch 

 much, probably on account of the large size of mesh of the 

 strong material of which it was made. 



Mr. W. E. Hoyle's deep-water closing net has 7iow 

 been modified in the direction indicated in last year's 

 report, so that it can be opened and closed not by the 

 agency of sliding weights, but by an electric current. 

 The " Hyaena," with its powerful dynamo, affords special 

 facilities for experiment with this novel form of tow-net, 

 which was used frequently during the cruise, not so much 

 with the object of collecting specimens as for the purpose 

 of detecting and remedying any possible defects in the con- 

 struction, and of guarding against conditions which might 

 interfere with the proper action of the apparatus. On the 

 whole the net worked satisfactorily, the causes of occasional 

 failures were discovered, and when an improved form of 

 frame, made according to the design advocated by Pro- 

 fessor Hensen, of Kiel, has been incorporated, the appara- 

 tus will, no doubt, be a most useful addition to the imple- 

 ments of the marine biologist. The mechanical details 

 for working this tow-net may be described as follows : * — 



The mode of opening and closing the net by tlie suc- 

 cessive detachment of two cords, or links, has been re- 

 tained ; but these are now looped round the shorter arms 

 of two bell-crank levers, the longer extremities of which 



* See Report of Committee on this Tow-net, laid before Section D of the 

 British Association, at the Leeds Meeting in September, 1890, 



