Manchester Memoirs^ Vol. Iviii. (19 14), No. 8. 



VIII. Faunal Survey of Rostherne Mere. 

 I. Introduction and Methods. 



By W. M. Tattersall, D.Sc. 



AND 



T. A. Coward, F.Z.S., F.E.S. 



(Read March s^tk, 1(^14. Received for publication March 31st, igi4.) 



During the last twenty years a considerable amount 

 of attention has been paid by biologists on the Continent 

 and in America to the study of the fauna of fresh-water 

 lakes and rivers, more especially to the plankton, its 

 constituents and periodicity. It is only necessary here to 

 refer to the classical works of Forel on Lake Geneva, 

 of Wesenburg-Lund on the lakes of Denmark and of 

 Kofoid on the Illinois River in America, to indicate the 

 thoroughness with which the study of Limnology has 

 been prosecuted in these countries. 



Owing mainly to the comparative inaccessibility of 

 the British lakes and to the consequent difficulty of 

 collecting samples regularly, the fauna and flora of our 

 lakes have not received the attention they deserve. We 

 owe to Messrs. W. and G. S. West a large series of observa- 

 tions on the phytoplankton of the British lakes, mainly 

 from the lakes of Scotland and the Lake District of 

 England. The late Sir John Murray, some fifteen years 

 ago, instituted a bathymetric survey of the Scottish lakes 

 and paid considerable attention to the fauna and flora, 

 while Dakin and Latarche have recently published an 

 account of the plankton of Lough Neagh, in Ireland, with 



Mav jot/i, igi4. 



