MAEINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT POET ERIN. 189 



carried out, was re-appointed* at the Nottingham meeting 

 for another year, with a grant towards expenses of 

 steamers. The appHcation for the re-appointment of this 

 Committee was supported by the Geological section, as 

 well as by the Biological, on the ground that observations 

 of geological importance might be accumulated by pre- 

 serving samples of the various deposits brought up by the 

 dredge. These samples will be sent, at the request of 

 Sir Archibald Geikie, to form a series in the museum of 

 the Geological survey at Jermyn Street, London. It is 

 also of importance to determine if possible whether any 

 of the finer muds in deep water are of glacial origin. We 

 have not as yet brought up any stones with undoubted 

 glacial stpoB from these muds, but we propose to make 

 use in the future of a circular dredge, with a large-meshed 

 wire net, which will dig in more deeply and may possibly 

 bring up some evidence either for or against the views of 

 the modern glacialists that there were two successive 

 stages in the movements of the ice which filled the Irish 

 sea area — an earlier during which there was a convergence 

 of ice from all sides towards the Isle of Man, and a later 

 when the accumulated ice moved outwards from a central 

 area to the east, south and west. The ice to the west of 

 the Isle of Man would meet with little hindrance to its 

 motion, and the deep gulley between the Isle of Man 

 and Ireland may be the expression of the scour which 

 this ice would produce. 



There is one interesting deposit from the sea floor found 

 in our district, and of which a specimen was exhibited 

 before the Geological section at the recent British Associ- 

 ation meeting. It takes the form of irregular calcareous 



* The vacancy on the Committee caused by the sad and sudden death of 

 our friend and colleague Mr. George Brook has been filled up by the appoint- 

 ment of Professor G. B. Howes, who visited Port Erin in July, 



