SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 385 



General Remarks. 



No especially rare forms have appeared in our 

 gatherings during the past year, and we had not so much 

 evidence in the summer of 1913 as in the previous year 

 of a marked inflow of Atlantic water bringing oceanic 

 organisms. 



The last three summers have differed considerably in 

 character. That of 1911 was unusually hot and dry, 1912 

 was wet and stormy, while 1913 was especially fine and 

 calm. Further North on the West of Scotland, 1911 and 

 1913 were noteworthy for the large swarms of the pelagic 

 Pteropod Limacina brought in from the Atlantic, while in 

 1912 none were present. In this latter year, however, 

 other oceanic organisms, such as Doliolum, were carried 

 into the coastal waters. None of these organisms were 

 found in the Irish Sea, and whether any connection can 

 be traced between the variations in the plankton that we 

 have observed and recorded and the weather of these varying 

 summers we cannot yet say. We give on page 386 the usual 

 weather chart for 1913, drawn up by Mr. Chadwick from 

 the daily observations at the Port Erin Biological Station, 

 and we show the similar chart for the previous year (1912) 

 for comparison. Again we notice an unusual run of 

 constant (low) temperatures, throughout March, from the 

 last week in February to the middle of April. The sea 

 was then at its coldest for the whole year. 



We do not propose this year to append any remarks 

 on plankton investigations in general, such as formed the 

 conclusion of our last report. We desire now to confine 

 the remaining sections of this report to brief statements of 

 the condition of the plankton each year until we come to 

 our final article, when we hope to give an adequate discus- 

 sion of the results of the ten years' work. 



The present Part, then, is only the necessary contri- 

 bution for tlie year 1913 towards tlinl final discussion 



