INTRODUCTORY. 



In June, 1899, I made a cruise round the Shetland Islands, starting 

 from Stromness, in Orkney, and returning to the same place, and at 

 four stations, north, south, east, and west, I took careful temperature 

 observations, and made collections of plankton with silk nets. This 

 region and that of the Faeroe- Shetland Channel promising to yield 

 results of great scientific interest, both from a hydrographical and 

 faunistic point of view, and, moreover, having been hitherto but im- 

 perfectly examined, I determined to institute periodic cruises. At that 

 time this area had not been taken over b} r the International Committee, 

 the first cruise of the North Sea Fisheries Investigation Committee, 

 indeed, not being undertaken until 1902 (August 25 to September 1, 

 which was followed by a second cruise in December of that year), 

 since which period this area has been under systematic investigation 

 by the Scotch Fishery Board. The work which I had done in this 

 region was preliminary to the more extended observations of this 

 official body, and directly antecedent to it, and is therefore of interest 

 as giving a picture of the hydrographical conditions of the Faeroe 

 Shetland Channel for two years and a half previously to the observa- 

 tions of the Scotch Fishery Board. 1 As the plan of operations of the 

 latter body did not extend beyond the Faeroe Channel in a westward 

 direction, I made observations in 1903 from Valentia to the Faeroe 

 Banks, along the deep-water trough of the Atlantic, not only for the 

 purpose of making certain observations upon the plankton fauna, but 

 also with the object, by hydrographical observations, of adding to the 

 official work, by obtaining physical data of an area which did not come 



1 'Report on Fishery and Hydrographical Investigations in the North Sea and 

 Adjacent Waters, 1 Fishery Board for Scotland, 1902-1903. 



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