204 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



DEEP-SEA DREDGING FOR 

 AMATEURS. 



By W. F. de V. Kane, M.A., F.E.S. 



A LTHOUGH of late years natural history 

 tastes have been increasing generally, yet the 

 department of marine zoology has not attracted 

 so large a field of workers as might be expected 

 from a nation so fond of nautical pastimes, and 

 with a coast, especially the one now referred to, 

 so replete with objects of scientific interest. The 

 field certainly is very wide, but one in which much 

 can be done by mere amateurs in waters prolific of 

 varieties. The preparation and preservation in 

 spirits of animals with delicate tissues is an opera- 

 tion requiring, no doubt, experience and skill ; yet 

 the greater proportion of the contents of the 

 dredge or trawl is easily and sufficiently dealt with 

 by methylated spirits, especially Echinoderms, 

 which form the bulk of deep-sea captures. A few 

 expeditions have of late years been organized to 

 test the fauna of the ocean depths lying off the 

 south-west coast of Ireland, and in every case they 

 have reaped a harvest of the highest scientific 

 interest. There seems no reason why owners of 

 large yachts should not follow in their steps and 

 add to our knowledge of the interesting organisms 

 there discovered. Though the coasts of Cork and 

 Kerry are beset with precipitous headlands and 

 stormy seas, they are studded with numerous safe 

 and easily approached harbours and anchorages ; 

 and the scenery can nowhere in the British 

 Islands be surpassed in picturesque grandeur. 



The ornithologist, too, will find on the cliffs of 

 the mainland, and on the stupendous rock islands 

 in the offing, choughs and gannets, shearwaters 

 and storm-petrels breeding in great numbers, as 

 well as the commoner sea-birds of all kinds. Out 

 some fifty miles from shore fulmar-petrels are 

 numerous, and more than one kind of skua. The 

 entomologist will find himself at the head-quarters 

 of Dianthcecia cczsia, and other species of that genus, 

 and probably new haunts of D. barrettii remain to 

 be discovered. In the sea, at the comparatively 

 moderate depths of 250 to 300 fathoms, rare fish, 

 some of which are of grotesque form, as the two 

 Mediterranean species of Macrurus lately added to 

 our fauna from these waters, may be expected. • 



Though but few shells, except those of pteropods, 

 come up in the dredge, yet all are of great interest ; 

 and some, as among the fishes, are Mediterranean 

 species. But the most numerous of all deep-water 

 captures are the Echinoderms. Among these 

 Spatangus raschii and Cidaris papillata, with 

 its enormous stick-like spines, are numerous. 

 Among rarer species the two remarkable starfish, 

 described by Sars, from the Norwegian fiords, 

 Brisinga coronata, and its eleven-armed congener 



always occur ; and many species new to science, 

 some of great size and beauty, have been here 

 discovered. On the surface of the warm current 

 of the Gulf Stream, which here impinges directly on 

 the south-west angle of Ireland, various varieties 

 are to be taken also with the tow-net. The 

 Portuguese man-of-war and other Siphonophora 

 occasionally turn up, as well as Beroe with its 

 strange indwelling crustacean, Phronima sedentaria. 

 Carhiarias, with their curious shell attached, are not 

 infrequent, while rare pteropods are to be scooped 

 up by the dozen on calm days. The apparatus 

 required is easily stowed, most important of which, 

 however, is an ample length of steel-wire rope which 

 can be attached to the drum of a steam winch. A 

 few dredges and a couple of small trawls of from 

 eight to ten-foot beam and of the latest model, and an 

 ample supply of wide-mouthed bottles for spirit, 

 will almost complete the category of amateur 

 requisites. Many of the specimens taken in these 

 waters are only represented in the British Museum 

 by single examples. It is therefore of the utmost 

 importance to procure a series, especially of animals 

 so prone to variation as the Echinids, and so little 

 known as the allied group Phormosoma, with their 

 collapsible tests. So excellent a service to science 

 is rarely within reach of an amateur with a slight 

 knowledge of zoology. 



Drumreaske House, Monaghan, Ireland. 



THE PINE SAWFLY. 



MR. McGregor, of Perth, forwarded a box of 

 larva? early in the month requesting infor- 

 mation. They had been sent to him from 

 the Western Highlands by a friend who was anxious 

 to know what they were, as they were destroying his 

 pine trees. 



The larvae were those of the pine sawfly, 

 Lophyrus pint. Miss Ormerod, in her " Manual of 

 Injurious Insects," says of this pest : " The cater- 

 pillars cause great damage to pines, and especially 

 to young Scotch fir-woods, by feeding on the leaves. 

 In some cases they scoop away the sides of the 

 leaf, leaving only the mid-rib ; in others, beginning 

 at the tip, they eat the leaves almost down to the 

 sheath. They also feed on the bark of the young 

 shoots, and as they have voracious appetites and 

 appear in companies, the mischief they do is 

 enormous, and, unless checked by treatment or 

 weather, is continued year after year by successive 

 generations over large areas." As to the remedy, 

 she recommends "clearing away the cocoons from 

 under infested trees during the winter, and burning 

 them, as the best method of preventing attack in the 

 ensuing season. A large proportion of the cater- 

 pillars which leave the shoots in Autumn bury 

 themselves in dry leaves and decayed rubbish 

 beneath the tree, and for the most part form 

 cocoons near the stem of the tree, often as large as 

 a man's fist." These can be easily found and 

 summarily dealt with. 



