iiS 



NATURE 



[Bee. 7, 1876 



logical observations on this part of the German Ocean. 

 A committee, consisting of Prof. Hoffmann, Drs. Hoek and 

 Hubrecht was appointed to take the necessary steps 

 towards the realisation of this scheme, and to provide 

 temporary accommodation during the summer months of 

 1876, where members of the Association might engage in 

 these pursuits. In February, 1876, the Committee was 

 obliged to report that no suitable accommodation was to be 

 found in those localities on the Dutch coast, where the 

 erection of a zoological station might prove a success, and 

 that the funds of the Association would not suffice to 

 carry out the scheme on the scale to which an institution 

 like this ought to aim at from the beginning. The com- 

 mittee proposed to raise the necessary funds by a public 

 subscription as well as by the issue of shares of 10 guilders 

 each, paying no interest, but terminating within a fixed 

 number of years. The Association might thus obtain a 

 building of its own, which, if it were made of wood, might 

 be transportable from one locality on the coast to another 



according to season and varying abundance of the material 

 for study. This proposal was agreed to, and within a few 

 weeks about 400/. were raised, a sum more than sufficient 

 to commence with. 



Accordingly a wooden shed similar to those which had 

 served the Dutch astronomical party for the observation 

 of the transit of Venus in Reunion was constructed. It 

 has four windows on each side with corresponding work- 

 ing tables and a small room adjoining, where the vessels 

 containing marine animals may be kept in darkness, and 

 where an apparatus for oxygenising the sea-water is to be 

 kept in constant working order. This embryo zoological 

 station, more resembling a block-house in the back woods 

 than Dohrn's well-known institution, is, however, fitted 

 out with all the requisites for histological and micro- 

 scopical research prescribed by the different methods ol 

 investigation of the present day. Next to the numerous 

 chemical desiderata a store of glass and crockeryware is 

 kept in readiness, a stock of standard works and othei 



Tiansiortable Zoological Station, 1876. 



books which may in any way prove useful is selected from 

 the library of the Association ; in short, evei7thing pro- 

 vided for, microscopes and steel instruments only ex- 

 cepted. A set of dredges, towing nets, cross-bars with 

 hempen swabs for scraping the bottom (Marion, Lacaze 

 Duthiers), pelagic nets, &c., complete the inventory, and 

 have to serve for the daily renewal of those marine forms 

 which would be the objects of investigation in the station 

 itself. 



In the first week of July all this was transported to 

 Helder, the northern seaport opposite to the Island of 

 Texel, and erected on the top of the great dyke which 

 there protects the Low Countries behind from inroads of 

 the sea. Regular dredging parties were organised, the 

 work being carried on partly in sailing vessels hired for 

 the occasion, partly by means of a small steamer belong- 

 ing to the Navy, which the Minister of the Marine placed 

 at the disposal of the Zoological Association. The work 

 was carried on for eight weeks ; towards the end of 



August, when continual bad weather set in, the station 

 was closed, taken down, and transported back to Leyden, 

 in order to be erected again on another point of the coast 

 next summer. 



During those two months ten members of the Associa- 

 tion availed themselves of the opportunity of studying the 

 marine fauna of that part of the Dutch coast, and in mJiny 

 branches interesting results have been arrived at which 

 will in time be published in the Annual Reports of 

 the Association. The shifting sands, which everywhere 

 form the bottom round the coasts of Holland as well 

 the total absence of rocks and cliffs may explain tl 

 deficiency of many sessile forms which form so consf 

 cuous a part of the fauna of the French and British coasti 

 Crustaceans and Annelids were numerically, perhaps, Uil 

 best represented ; next came the Medusas, the HydroieT 

 polyps, the Polyzoa, and different representatives of the 

 classes of Molluscs and Echinoderms. Gephyreans were 

 not met with, neither were Holothurians. As to Ascidians, 



