SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 



283 



may be, time will have to show. Certain it is that there 

 was something peculiar abont the conditions in the Irish 

 Sea during 1913, for although the salinities gave no 

 indications of any southward flow of the water, yet, of a 

 number of carefully-weighted drift bottles liberated 

 between Dublin and Holyhead in June, a certain propor- 

 tion was washed up on the shores of Cardigan Bay, and the 

 East coast of Ireland in August, September, and October. 

 It seems possible to explain this by supposing that the 

 north-easterly winds then prevailing had transferred 

 merely a thin surface layer of water to the South (and 

 with it the bottles), while the main body of water was all 

 the time slowly travelling northward. The number of 

 bottles found is, however, rather too small to allow us to 

 make any really trustworthy deductions from this experi- 

 ment. As regards the salinity changes in progress at the 

 time of writing, I will merely state that it looks as though 

 the maximum salinity (34'40 °/ 00 at Station 6) for the 

 present season has already been passed in December last. 

 This is what happened before the magnificent summer 

 of 1911. 



January 7 to 8, 1913. 



Stations I. to IV., 7/1/13. Surface observations only. 



Station. 



Time. 



mo 



Cl°/oo 



S%o 



0"t 



I. 

 II. 

 III. 

 IV. 



54°N. ; 3°30'W. 

 54°N. ; 3°47'W. 

 54°N. ; 4°4'W. 

 54°N. ; 4°20'W. 



12.50 p.m. 

 1.50 p.m. 

 3.30 p.m. 

 4.55 p.m. 



7-2 

 7-8 

 8-6 



8-7 



18-27 

 18-71 

 18-98 

 19-00 



33-01 

 33-82 

 34-29 

 34-33 



25-84 

 26-30 

 26-64 

 26-66 



