■894 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



board, after dragging slowly for an hour, they contained a 

 great quantity of tlie same Alga which was obtained in Lerwick 

 Harbour and Bressa Sound, and with the exception of a 

 few Copepods no other animal life was noticed amongst 

 it. 



From the 25th of June till the 12th July, the "Energy" 

 fished with herring nets, lines, dredge, swabs, and tow-nets, 

 down the east coast, round the extreme north end of the 

 islands, and up again off the west side of Foula and Fair 

 islands, from 10 to 80 miles off land, which is shown by 

 reference to the accompanying chart. Our greatest catch of 

 herring was taken midway between Fair and Foula Islands, 

 with a surface temperature of 52°-5, and the bottom water 

 at 50° Fahr. 



My daily routine of work was as follows, viz., at 4.30 a.m. 

 the herring nets were hauled on board, and the herring 

 gutted, their viscera thrown into a tub set aside for that 

 purpose, and afterwards carefully examined by me, notes 

 taken, and contents preserved for future examination ; at 9 

 A.M., 12 noon, and 9 p.m. meteorological observations,^ a 

 sounding, temperature of surface and bottom water was taken 

 and noted. The tow-nets were kept working continually 

 night and day at the surface and intermediate depths, notes 

 taken, and their contents preserved. When weather per- 

 mitted the dredge, or several swabs attached to a rod of iron 

 and weighted with sounding leads, was worked, and the 

 animals from the bottom obtained ; specimens of the deposits 

 of each sounding were also preserved. In this manner the 

 nature of the surface and bottom at each station was deter- 

 mined. At 9 P.M. the herring nets were again laid out for 

 the night, after which the hand lines were worked with good 

 results often to well nigh midnight, the fish taken in this 

 manner consisting of cod, ling, saith, tusk, haddock, and 

 innumerable piked dogfish (Acanthias vulgaris), also a shark 

 {Scynmus horealis), all of which were carefully examined, and 

 the contents of their stomachs noted and preserved. During 

 the cruise no absolutely full herring were caught, although I 



^ The meteorological observations will be found in the Proceedings of the 

 Meteorological Society's Journal for 1885, 



