Mackintosh — On Irish Zoophytes. 65 



with an occasional small edible crab, the rocks were void of life, and 

 along the strand sand-hoppers were the sole inhabitants. 



The most profitable, though the most difficult, ground for dredging 

 was the rough bottom between Cable Eock and the Moulditch Bank. 

 Here a great variety would be brought up whenever a fairly long 

 scrape of the dredge could be obtained ; this, however, was by no 

 means easy, as the bottom being very rocky the dredge continually got 

 jammed, and the effort to free it frequently resulted in a foul, especi- 

 ally if the sea was at all rough. I made several attempts to work 

 over this part in detail, but it so happened that on nearly every occa- 

 sion when I tried the deep water three or four miles from shore, the 

 wind and sea got up and put such a lift on the boat that it became 

 impossible to get the dredge on the bottom without fouling, a circum- 

 stance mainly due to the lightness of both the irons and net. South of 

 the Moulditch the ground is pebbly, and hence the animal life is not so 

 varied. Lamellibranchs and Gasteropods were frequent, and enor- 

 mous tufts of a Polyzoan (Gemellaria) were brought up together with 

 quantities of a dark-purple ramified coralline, which must in some 

 places completely cover the bottom. 



I have now to give a more detailed account of the Invertebrates 

 which came under my notice, premising that the list is only an ap- 

 proximate one, my chief object being, as stated, the collection of 

 Zoophytes, my arrangements for stowage forbidding the attempt to 

 keep all the material obtained. 



Mollusca. — The Cephalopoda are represented chiefly by XoZe^o magna, 

 which is taken by the fishermen in the siene nets. They usually fish 

 from nightfall to daybreak, and the average sweep of the siene is from 

 one to two hundred yards from shore ; from this it would seem as if 

 the squids came in towards land during the night. They are often 

 taken in great numbers in the months of July and August ; I have 

 seen thirty or forty at one haul when the weather was calm. They 

 are hardly ever caught at other times, one or two being found in May 

 or June. They frequently reach a considerable size — one specimen at 

 present in the Museum of the University measuring fully 1 6 inches from 

 the apex to the origin of the tentacles. Occasionally, but very rarely, 

 Octopus vulgaris is taken in the sienes, but this species seems to fre- 

 quent deeper water than Loligo, and so is but seldom seen. Last 

 August, when walking along the North Strand, I counted five succes- 

 sive hauls of Loligo, making a total of at least one hundred and fifty 

 specimens, and in one of the larger hauls occurred a small Octopus, 

 the only one I have seen ; I was told by one of the fishermen that they 

 are sometimes taken on the long lines during winter and spring. I 

 do not know for what purpose the squids come in so close to shore ; it 

 can scarcely be for breeding, for I have seen bunches of their egg 

 capsules in May, with the young animals fairly well developed, indi- 

 cating their deposition some weeks earlier, and I have taken the cap- 

 sules in water as deep as ten fathoms. 



Of the Gasteropoda I noted the following species : Amongst 

 Gymnobranchs two specimens of Tritonia homlergii were taken on 



