18 
There are, on the other hand, some organisms, such as 
the Alge Halosphera and Tetraspora, the Infusorian 
Noctiluca, and the Copepod Anomalocera, which seem to 
vary greatly in their abundance from year to year; but 
probably when we have a more complete knowledge of 
the plankton of the North Atlantic, and of the relations 
existing between physical conditions and the distribution 
of organisms, we shall be able to assign rational causes 
for these curious irregularities in the floating population 
of our seas. ‘To give an example of such irregular distri- 
bution, one of our very few records of Nocti/uca during the 
year is ‘‘off the Morecambe Bay Light Vessel,” on June 
28th, when it is said there were ‘“‘ miles of this material.” 
The gathering consists entirely of Noctiluca. It was 
taken during a heavy thunderstorm. 
It is interesting, in this connection, to note that of all 
the tow-net gatherings which I took this summer in 
crossing the Atlantic twice, between Liverpool and 
Quebec, once at the beginning of August, and again at 
the end of September, those from the sea around the Isle 
of Man, between Liverpool bar and the north of Ireland, 
were the richest in species. The lists of organisms 
observed in the gatherings in question, are given in full 
in a paper which has been recently published by Mr. 
Thompson, Mr. Scott, and myself.*:— 
We have arranged that during 1898 plankton gatherings 
will be taken weekly at the same six localities as in 1897, 
but a little further out to sea to avoid the disturbing 
influences of the shore. 
EXPERIMENTAL SEA-FISH HATCHING. 
Dourine the last spawning season we continued our 
experiments, commenced the previous year, on the hatch- 
* Trans. L’pool. Biol. Soc., vol. XII., p. 33, 
