MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION ON PUFFIN ISLAND. 43 
The Puffins (Fratercula arctica) returned to the island 
this year on the 10th of April, a week earlier than in 1888, 
and left on the 19th of August. Their number remains 
about the same. 
ZONING OF THE SHORE. 
About the middle of February, Mr. Thompson, Mr. 
Harvey Gibson and I visited the station for a few days, 
and we found that, notwithstanding the low temperature, 
work could be. carried on both on the shore and in the 
laboratory. Mr. Thompson collected Copepoda, Amphi- 
poda (including Pleustes glaber, new to Britain) and 
Isopoda; Mr. Gibson occupied himself with the Alge, 
and I commenced detailed observations upon the zones of 
life on the shore (a subject which was referred to in the 
first of these reports), and arranged with the curator for 
the measurement of the exact distances of certain species 
of animals and plants vertically from high and low-water, 
and for the placing of permanent marks upon the shore 
at each end of the island so as to facilitate the taking 
of future observations and measurements.* 
The ‘‘zoning of the shore” is no new subject, but it is 
one which is full of interest and may be susceptible of 
some new developments. From the earliest times marine 
biologists have noticed that the depth has a great effect 
* These marks which have now been made upon the rocks are:—at the north 
end, near the laboratory, the average high-water mark (18 ft. tide) is shown 
by a red paint line labelled A.T., and low-water mark of the lowest springs 
(21 ft.) is shown by a blue line labelled L.S.; and at the south end, near the 
beach, high-water mark of the highest springs (21 ft.) is shown by a red line 
labelled 21, ditto of ordinary springs (19 ft.) by red line labelled 19, ditto of 
average tides (18 ft.) by red line labelled A.T., and ditto of smallest neaps 
(10 ft. 9 in.) by blue line labelled 10.9 on rock at both sides of beach. The 
accompanying new Chart of the Island and neighbourhood has been carefully 
prepared by Mr. Rutherford, the curator. 
