44 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



" The weekly lessons and demonstrations in Nature 

 Study given to the boys from the local Secondary School, 

 mentioned in last year's Beport, were maintained with 

 regularity until March, when the Curator was obliged 

 to suspend them, in anticipation of the Easter vacation 

 work. They have now been resumed, and, with 

 improved appliances, will be continued throughout the 

 winter. Lantern lectures were given to large parties of 

 pupils from local and Douglas elementary schools on 

 various dates during the early Spring. 



" The plankton collections in the bay, twice each 

 week, have been made by the Assistant Curator with regu- 

 larity throughout the year. The only faunistic records 

 that call for notice, are the occurrence in Port Erin Bay, 

 on September 18th, of a specimen of the Fuller's Ray, 

 Raia fullonica, a species not hitherto recorded by the 

 L.M.B.C, and of the cuttle-fish, Sepia officinalis, in 

 Manx waters. Two clusters of eggs of this species were 

 found attached to a creel in the neighbourhood of the 

 Calf Island ; and quite recently a young fisherman brought 

 to the Curator the ' bone ' of what must have been a 

 large specimen which he had picked up on the beach at 

 Glen Meay, a few miles north of Port Erin. The 

 occurrence of the eggs excited more than ordinary 

 interest amongst the local fishermen, none of whom had 

 seen them before. 



" The number of visitors to the Aquarium during the 

 year — 14,132 — shows a substantial increase of nearly a 

 thousand compared with last year. The record day of 

 the year was August 14th, when 436 persons paid for 

 admission. The last copies of the second edition of the 

 Guide to the Aquarium were sold before the end of July ; 

 and the third edition, in which improvements and 

 additions in text and figures appear, was immediately 



