WY, 
be called off occasionally to other duties. During the 
first fourteen weeks the number of gatherings received 
out of the possible six were—5, 6, 4, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3, 3, 
5, 3, 4. 
These gatherings, which have been worked up fully, 
bring the record up to the end of April. The rest of the 
~ collection, which is now in process of being examined, con- 
sists of some sixty tubes, giving an average of nearly 
two a week for the remainder of the year. Taking 
these statistics, along with the many previous less com- 
plete records that we have, extending back for ten or twelve 
years, there are some prominent features of the collections, 
looking at them week by week and month by month, that 
arrest attention—the abundance of Sagitta in January 
and February; the comparative scarcity of Copepoda early 
in the year; the abundance of diatoms, such as Biddul- 
phia, Coscinodiscus, Rhizosolenia, and Chetoceros, in 
February and early spring; the appearance of Nauplei 
and then other larval forms in February and March; 
the comparative scarcity of plankton all round in February 
and March (except when gelatinous Alge sometimes 
swarm in the latter month); its increase in April, 
and especially the increased abundance of pelagic Coel- 
enterates and of Copepoda in early summer ; the appear- 
ance of fish eggs and embryos and larval fish in abundance 
about Easter; the disappearance of Nauplei and other 
larvee as summer goes on, and the great increase in Meduseze 
and Ctenophora; the quantities of Oikopleura which appear 
in the height of the summer; the abundance of Dino- 
flagellates in late summer and autumn ; the great relative 
abundance of life in general during July, August, and 
September; and lastly, the rapid diminution in the 
amount and variety of plankton during the last few 
months of the year. 
