16 
vailing winds and by exceptional gales, it is evident that 
its condition in our area of the Irish Sea must be affected 
somewhat, from time to time, by that of the west coast 
of Scotland, of the Irish coasts, and of the Atlantic. As 
the plankton is a very important element of the food of 
many of our fishes in their younger stages and of some 
even when full grown, it can scarcely be doubted that a 
detailed knowledge of the condition and movements of the 
plankton throughout the year will give us important in- 
formation as to the distribution of fish. 
For the last ten years the Liverpool Marine Biological 
Committee have been paying more or less attention to the 
plankton during their numerous dredging expeditions in 
the Irish Sea, and in the Eleventh Report of that Com- 
mittee, just published, a summary is given of the chief 
observations which have been made up to the present.* 
A year ago, with the help of Mr. Andrew Scott, I 
organised a scheme for the weekly collection of surface 
plankton throughout 1897 at six stations in our district. 
The localities were Port Erin (I. of Man), New Brighton 
(near Liverpool), Lytham and mouth of Ribble (coast 
of Laneashire), Piel (Barrow Channel), and from the 
Fisheries steamer, at sea, wherever she happened to 
be. The collections were taken, preserved, and sent to 
the Laboratory at Liverpool, where they were measured 
by Mr. Scott and then examined in detail. The scheme 
was started towards the end of January, and was kept 
up as regularly as possible—perfect regularity is not 
possible, first, on account of the weather, and secondly, 
because the bailiffs who take the gatherings are hable to 
* Prof. M‘Intosh had carried out similar investigations for the Scottish 
Fishery Board in 1888 (see Seventh Ann. Rep, Fish. Bd., Scot., p. 259, 1889). 
More recently Messrs. Bourne, Bles, Garstang, and others at Plymouth have 
recorded the variations in the plankton at different times of the year, 
