SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 329 



variations due to tidal disturbances.* On the remaining 

 monthly cruises observations are only made at 

 Stations I to VII. It is thought that the monthly 

 observations at Stations V, VI and VII will prove of 

 considerable utility in connection with weather fore- 

 casting. I have insisted upon this in several former 

 reports, and more recently in a paper communicated to 

 the Royal Meteorological Society. t 



The hydrographic observations made during 1912 

 are given in the tables which follow. The most striking 

 feature about them is the very high salinities which 

 have prevailed throughout the year. We have never 

 found such salt water in this portion of the Irish Sea 

 since we began observations in 1906. This applies 

 especially to Stations V, VI and VII, but also to 

 Stations III and IV. How is this increase in the 

 salinities to be accounted for? 



The annual variations in the salinities at Stations V, 

 VI and VII found in former years have hitherto in 

 these reports been regarded as indicating variations in 

 the strength of the Gulf Stream Drift. In years when 

 the Drift is strong higher salinities are found at these 

 Stations in the winter and spring months than in years 

 when it is less marked. 



There is every reason for thinking that this 

 explanation is on the whole correct, but at the same time 

 I consider that the conditions prevailing during the last 

 year have been quite exceptional, and that the high 

 salinities were not due to an unusually strong Gulf 

 Stream Drift, as might be at first supposed, but to an 

 entirely different cause. 



* See Lane. Fish. Lab. Reports, No. XV, p. 76 (1907) and No. XVI, 

 p. 57 (1908). 



1 Quart. Journ. Roy. Met. Soc, XXXIX, 43 (1913). 



