SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 347 



A few very small amphipods and some minute annelids com- 

 prised the total found in this present sample. 



II. [lb.] 18/2/13. 25 miles W.N.W. of Piel Gas Buoy. 



An examination of this deposit was made on similar lines 

 to that followed in I. On the whole the two are very much 

 the same, both in appearance and constitution. This sample 

 was procured on the same date as I, at a point about 

 half a mile further South. The small stones and shells form, 

 as in the previous case, the characteristic constituents, although 

 the proportion of the former is slightly higher than in the first 

 case. All the representatives of the mollusca found in I were 

 present in this sample also, with the addition of the following 

 genera : — Dentalium, Pectunculus, and Astarte. The shells are, 

 I should say, in the same proportion as those in I, but there are 

 more larger pieces and unbroken valves than in the first sample. 



The quartz sand is present as before. Echinoid spines 

 and pieces of shell, as well as a few zoophytes, polyzoa, and 

 annelid setae, were also found. 



III. [16a and 16b] 17/4/13. 25 miles W.N.W. of Piel Gas 

 Buoy. 



Two more samples were taken at this station on the 

 17th of April — one before trawling, the other after the net had 

 been hauled, so that the positions of the samples were 

 separated by a considerable distance. The examination serves 

 as confirmation of the fact that for a considerable area at this 

 part of the Irish Sea, known to trawl-fishermen as the " Hole," 

 the conditions obtaining at the bottom are fairly uniform. 

 A comparison of these samples with those obtained on the 

 18th February shows that there is little or no difference in their 

 composition. Small stones, shells, and quartz sand pre- 

 dominate, and the various molluscan genera arc practically 

 identical. The following genera were identified in the present 

 Y 



