MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 



67 



to take what comes, and consequently are found feeding now 

 upon one thing and now upon another. 



At the time, early in July, when Mr. Scott was finding the 

 sea off the Lancashire coast swarming with Pleurobrachia to 

 such an extent that a 5 minutes' haul choked the tow-net, on the 

 West Coast of Scotland, off Mull, we found the plankton almost 

 wholly composed of Copepoda, and especially of Calanus 

 finmarchicus. 



Fig. 20. — A remarkable Plankton haul of the Ctenophore, Pleurobrachia pileus 

 natural size. [Photo, by Mr. A. Scott. 



The Utility of Plankton Investigation. 



It must be obvious to those who read these Annual Reports 

 that a good deal of our work at Port Erin of late years has con- 

 sisted in series of observations, and the collection of samples, for 

 the purpose of determining the nature and distribution of the 

 plankton at different localities, depths and seasons. Conse- 



