418 REPORT—1896. 
been constantly in use, and has proved increasingly useful each season, 
both to members of the Committee and to other naturalists. Since the 
opening of the Port Erin Station, in 1892, fifty-six biologists have paid 
over 200 longer or shorter visits for the purpose of working at the marine 
fauna and flora. 
The British Association Committee for the investigation of the Marine 
Zoology, Botany, and Geology of the Irish Sea were appointed in 1892, 
and three previous reports have been submitted. The first, laid before 
the Nottingham meeting in 1893, gave an account of the limits and more 
prominent physical conditions of the area under investigation, with a brief 
interim notice of the dredging expeditions undertaken during the year. 
The second report, at the Oxford meeting in 1894, gave a fuller description 
of the methods of work on one of the dredging expeditions, and also in- 
cluded an account of the distribution of the submarine deposits of the 
area, and a notice of the chief results of the year’s work, including some 
new species. The third report, given last year at Ipswich, dealt chiefly with 
the submarine deposits, the investigation of the surface currents, and with 
the distribution of animals as shown from dredging statistics. The pre- 
vious reports have all been provisional only, and in none of them have 
more than a few of the more prominent of the animals obtained been 
mentioned. In this final report, consequently, we give for the first time 
a complete list of all the species we have been able to record from our area 
of the Irish Sea ; and to render this list more useful we append to each 
name a brief reference to the volume and page of the report or paper in 
which the species was recorded. First, however, we give a brief account 
of the work of the past year, so as to complete the record of our collecting 
expeditions. 
THE YEAR'S WORK. 
Since September 1895 the Committee have organised eight dredging 
expeditions, nearly all in steamers, as follows :— 
I. October 27, 1895.—Hired steamer ‘Rose Ann.’ Localities dredged 
and trawled :—off Port Erin and along S.E. side of Isle of Man, from 
the Calf Sound to Langness, at depths of 15 to 20 fathoms. 
II. November 24, 1895.—Small boats. Localities dredged :—Port 
Erin Bay, in depths up to 7 fathoms. 
III. February 2, 1896.—Hired steamer ‘Rose Ann.’ Localities dredged 
and trawled :—through the Calf Sound, and off its eastern and western 
ends, at depths of 16 to 20 fathoms. 
IV. March 14, 1896.—Sea Fisheries steamer ‘John Fell.? Off Port 
Erin. 
V. April 5, 1896.—Hired steamer ‘Rose Ann.’ Localities trawled :— 
out in the deep channel, 12 miles S.W. of Calf; bottom reamy mud, with 
many spawning fish; depths 40 to 50 fathoms. 
VI. April 21-24, 1896.—Sea Fisheries steamer ‘John Fell.’ Localities 
trawled :—deep channel, 12 miles S.W. of Calf, and further north to 
opposite Port Erin ; also west of Dalby, 8 miles off ; reamy bottom; depths 
20 to 40 fathoms. 
VII. May 29 and 30, 1896.—Sea Fisheries steamer ‘John Fell.’ 
Localities :—estuary of the Wyre and around Piel Island, in Barrow 
Channel ; shallow water. 
VIII. August 31, 1896.—Mr. Woodall’s 8. Y. ‘ Vallota.’ Localities 
