SUMMARY OF BIOLOGICAL WORK CARRIED OUT 
ON BOARD THE TERRA NOVA, 1910-1913 
By D. G. LILLIE 
CAPTAIN SCOTT, with his characteristic thoroughness, made it 
possible for scientific work to be carried out by the ship’s party 
not only on their three summer visits to the Antarctic, but also 
during the two winters spent in New Zealand and on the out- 
ward and homeward voyages. As the early publication of this 
book makes it impossible to give any adequate account of the 
various biological results which may have been achieved, it is 
proposed to give here a brief summary of the collections brought 
home, together with a few notes concerning them, in order to 
help the general reader to form some idea of what he will find 
in the Biological Reports of this Expedition when they appear. 
THE OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD VOYAGES 
Whenever opportunities occurred on the outward and home- 
ward voyages between England and New Zealand tow-nets of 
fine mesh and of various sizes were put overboard to catch the 
small animals and plants which drift about in the sea and form 
the staple food of the whalebone whales and of many birds and 
fishes. 
These floating organisms, which include representatives of 
all the larger divisions of the animal kingdom, are spoken of col- 
lectively as the plankton. On some occasions the net was towed 
behind the ship for about half an hour to catch the floating popu- 
lation of the surface waters. Sometimes the ship was kept sta- 
tionary and the net sent down by a sinker to 500 fathoms or less 
and hauled up again; by this means samples of those forms 
which live below the surface were obtained. 
About 70 samples of the plankton were collected. They vary 
greatly in size, one catch hardly covers the bottom of a half- 
