

MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 39 



plaice larvae, and that it was only in the remaining four years 

 (1908, 1909, 1913, and 1914) that there was apparently some 

 risk of the larvae finding no suitable food, or very little, in 

 the sea. The evidence so far seems to show that if the fish larvae 

 from the hatchery are set free in the sea as late as March 20th 

 they are fairly sure of finding suitable food ; but if they are 

 hatched as early as February they may run some chance of 

 being starved. This investigation is only started, but seems 

 promising. It should be repeated and extended in other 

 localities and in future years, and a comparison should be 

 made, if possible, between the results obtained in the laboratory 

 and the statistics noncommercial fisheries when these are given 

 in sufficient detail and completeness. 



Photo-synthesis and Nitrogen Fixation. 



Professor Benjamin Moore, F.R.S., with Mr. E. Whitley 

 and Mr. Webster, have continued their very interesting and 

 fundamental investigations on photo-synthesis, including an 

 enquiry into the sources of the carbon and nitrogen compounds 

 formed in the growing green marine plant. Their results have 

 been communicated to the Royal Society and will be published 

 in due course, but Professor Moore and Mr. Whitley propose 

 to continue this line of investigation further at Port Erin 

 next year. 



Micro-fauna of the Beach. 



Miss E. C. Herdman (Newnham College, Cambridge) 

 devoted many weeks, in spring and summer, to a detailed 

 examination of the micro-fauna and flora of the sand on 

 Port Erin beach. Beginning with the so-called " Amphidinium 

 operculatum," the occurrence of which in brown patches on 

 the sand between tide-marks has been recorded in previous 

 reports, she extended her investigation to other species of 



