10 



FOUBTH ANNUAL EEPOET of the LIVEEPOOL 



MAEINE BIOLOGICAL STATION on 



PUFFIN ISLAND. 



By W. A. Herdman, D.Sc, F.L.S., F.R.S.E., 



DERBY PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, 



LIVERPOOL ; CHAIRMAN OF THE LIVERPOOL MARINE BIOLOGY 



COMMITTEE, AND DIRECTOR OF THE STATION. 



[Read 14th November, 1890.] 



The Year. 

 The past year, although rather an uneventful one, can 

 show its fair share of work done both at Puffin Island and 

 also by means of dredging expeditions in Liverpool Bay. 

 In accordance with the decision of the Committee ex- 

 pressed at the end of last year's report, the Puffin Island 

 Biological Station was closed from the beginning of 

 November till the middle of March, but although it 

 seemed best to do this under the special circumstances of 

 the time, the Committee hope that they may never require 

 to close the station again. The interruption to work and 

 the disorganization of arrangements was considerable, extra 

 trouble and fresh expense were caused at the re-opening 

 in spring ; and although the former keeper, who had ob- 

 tained a temporary situation in Liverpool during the 

 winter, came back to the Station and was in charge 

 most of the summer, he had evidently become unsettled 

 and no longer displayed that single-minded devotion to 

 Biology which is essential in such a situation. Later in 

 the summer he became engrossed in other matters which 

 occupied his time and energies to an extent quite incom- 

 patible with any further tenure of the Puffin Island post, 



