61 



Lakes and their Scientific Investigation. 



By D. J. ScouRFiELD, F.R.M.S. Read Alay Zth, 1902. 



It has been announced that we are this year (1902), for the first 

 time in the history of science in this country, to see the commence- 

 ment of a comprehensive survey of the lakes of the British Isles. 

 Mr. Laurence Pullar, in memory of his son, the late Mr. Fred P. 

 PuUar, has generously placed a sum of money at the disposal of 

 trustees for the prosecution of the survey, and Sir John Murray, well 

 known for his work in connection with the " Challenger " expedition, 

 has undertaken to direct the investigation. 



Hitherto comparatively little has been done, and that only spas- 

 modically, towards elucidating the various scientific problems 

 presented by our lakes. Even the preliminary work of sounding and 

 preparing bathymetrical charts of our lakes is not undertaken by the 

 Ordnance Survey ; and if it had not been for surveys of two or three 

 Scotch lochs made by the Admiralty, and the work of Mr. Grant 

 Wilson in Perthshire, Dr. H. R. Mill in the Lake District, Sir John 

 INIurray and Mr. F. P. Pullar in the Forth and Tay basins, and a few 

 other private investigators, we should not possess any clear idea of 

 the depths and other physical peculiarities of any of our lakes. As 

 regards the biological side of the subject, absolutely nothing of a 

 systematic nature has been done. A large number of lakes have 

 indeed been examined by various specialists for particular groups of 

 organisms, but there has been no attempt at co-ordinated study of 

 the biological problems of lakes. 



This is the more strange when we consider how much attention 

 has been given on the Continent and in the United States to the 

 subject of limnology, or lake-study, in its various aspects. The 

 greatest amount of work on lakes has probably been carried out in 

 Switzerland, due in great measure to the initiative and influence of 

 Professor F. A. Forel, of Lausanne University. But Germany is not 

 far behind in this matter, as is shown by. the publications of the 

 Boden See (Lake Constance) Commission, of Apstein, Zacharias^ 

 and many others. Austria, Italy, Russia, France, and Norway have 

 also produced able limnological investigators, and on the other side 

 of the Atlantic the names of Forbes, Birge, Reighard, Marsh, Ward, 

 Eigenmann, and others are well known in connection with the 

 scientific examination of the great inland fresh-water seas and smaller 

 pieces of water of North America. 



But, it may be asked, why should we want to bother about lakes 

 at all ? What are the jDroblems upon which it is expected to throw 



