MARINE BIOLOGY—WINTER QUARTERS, 
I9II—1913 
By E. W. NELSon 
Berore the collections have been examined it is difficult to say 
much about scientific results. ‘The following is a very brief 
account of the biological work undertaken from the Cape Evans 
shore station during the two years the Expedition wintered there. 
In the late summer of Ig1I a trip was made across the Barne 
Glacier to Cape Royds. 
The lakes in the vicinity of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s winter 
quarters were covered with only a very few inches of ice, showing 
that, with the exception of Blue Lake, they had thawed out that 
summer. Clear Lake was tow-netted by cutting a long slit in the 
ice and dragging the tow-net backwards and forwards. Small 
catches were obtained containing chiefly unicellular alge and 
protozoa. A few rotifers were caught, but no specimens of the 
blood-red species Philodina gregoria, found in such quantity by 
Mr. Murray, could be discovered. The masses of filamentous 
alge described by him are a constant feature of any lake frozen 
or thawed. Contrary to our expectation none of the larger lakes 
thawed out again during our stay. 
On the return to Cape Evans an attempt was made to carry 
out a suggestion made by Mr. E. T. Browne. The sea was not 
yet frozen over, and the idea was to drop a tow-net from a kite 
flown out over the sea and then pull the net in to shore. A kite 
was made and the net dropped about 250 yards out, but unfortu- 
nately small floating ice crystals choked the net and completely 
spoilt the catches. 
After the sea had frozen over the general winter work was 
commenced. A hole was cut through the ice and a wall of ice 
blocks built round to afford some shelter from the wind. This 
hole had to be cut every day, freezing during the night to as 
much as two feet thick. 
