S25 



@riginal ^rticlx^. 



DREDGING ON THE DOGGER BANK. 



By George H. Parke. 



To many it may seem superfluous to chronicle the results of dredgin^" 

 operations on this ground, so well known as the scene of the labours of 

 our Natural-history friends, Messrs. W. Bean and J. Leckenby, F.G.S., of 

 Scarborough, whose researches on the North-East coast of Yorkshire 

 have extended over many years, resulting, as is well known, in many in- 

 teresting additions to our knowledge of the British Invertebrate Animals, 

 and in the addition of many new species to our Fauna. But when we 

 consider that the comparatively small space of the sea-bed traversed by the 

 dredge, can furnish but a very imperfect record of its nature, and of the 

 varied forms of animal life which inhabit it, the very fact of these defici- 

 encies must lead us to the conclusion that dredging even on a compara- 

 tively well-worked ground, cannot be too often practised. Every expedi- 

 tion, nay every haul of the dredge, may bring to light facts which 

 will tend in some way or other to benefit the world of science, bearing 

 in mind " that no scientific truth can possibly be too trifling or unimpor- 

 tant to be worthy of preservation." 



Having waited some weeks for a favourable state of the weather, 

 which had, for an unusually lengthened period, been anything but suitable 

 for dredging — and especially so for this part of the coast, which is noto- 

 rious for its stormy character, — N. E. winds, with a sea sufficiently rouo-h 

 to make it unpleasant if not altogether impracticable, we chartered the 

 " Vigilant," a neat little craft, but of slow coach celebrity, and sailed from 

 Scarborough with a S.W. wind, which promised fair to waft us in good 

 time to the desired ground, which we reached during the night. When 

 some twenty to twenty-five miles N.N.E. off" Whitby (?) we sounded thirty- 

 six fathoms, with a sandy bottom. We threw over the dredges, using in 

 place of the usual net, a sugar-bag, which on a loose sandy ground answers 

 admirably ; our first haul produced nothing but fine sand, with a few speci- 

 mens of Dentalium entails. Several more hauls were made resulting in 

 Natica Marochiensis, Gmelin, (dead), several odd valves of Cyprina 

 Islandica, and a few specimens of Echinus sphcera, the latter were very 

 small, not being more than eight inches in circumference. 

 No. 15, Dec. 1. Q 



