MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 3 



purposes, while our own Edward Forbes, most closely 

 associated by birth, training, and in his after work with 

 the Isle of Man, started his pioneer explorations round 

 our coasts quite sixty years ago, yet there is still abundance 

 of work left — an apparently inexhaustible field lies before 

 the skilled observer. In all groups of marine animals 

 investigations of all kinds, faunistic, anatomical, embry- 

 ological, are urgently needed. Even in the collecting and 

 naming of specimens from our most frequented hunting 

 grounds much remains to be done. To take a recent 

 instance as an example : — a couple of weeks ago when 

 Mr. Thompson and I went for a day's dredging to Port 

 Erin, as w^e were approaching land we took two last hauls 

 of the small mud dredge close to the shore, the one within 

 a few yards of the biological station the other just along 

 the base of the breakwater, and the contents of the net 

 when examined yielded numerous interesting Cumacea, 

 Amphipoda and Copepoda, three of which latter {Stenhelia 

 denticidata, Laophonte spinosa and Ameira attenuata) 

 are new to science, while several others are rare and 

 interesting forms. 



So much for the general question of marine investigation : 

 Biological Stations are a comparatively recent development 

 which were unknown to the older naturalists. Any plan 

 by which actual work on or close to the sea, so that the 

 animals may be examined alive and in their natural sur- 

 roundings, can be combined with the conveniences and 

 exact methods of a laboratory is obviously a great advan- 

 tage, and that is precisely what a biological station offers. 

 It is a sea-side laboratory where the observer can conve- 

 niently apply the refinements of modern apparatus and 

 re-ao-ents to the work of the field-naturalist. Different 

 stations may specialize in various directions, but an insti- 

 tution like our Biological Station at Port Erin has I 



