100 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



was not injuring the fish and shore fauna. The barnacles 

 everywhere between tide marks set free their larvae in the spring 

 of 1920 and 1921 in great abundance as in past years, and later 

 on the young barnacles attached themselves to the bottoms 

 of boats. The destructive action, so far as has been discovered, 

 was entirely confined to the birds. What probably happened 

 was that the birds regarded the floating masses as garbage of 

 some kind and dived into them, or they may have come up 

 accidentally into them after a dive some distance away. The 

 whole bird would at once be covered with the frothy oily matter, 

 which was very adhesive, and would finally become suffocated. 

 At that time vessels were being reconditioned, and the refuse 

 from the bilges, etc., was discharged into barges. It was then 

 conveyed out into Morecambe Bay where it was discharged, 

 and the southerly winds drove it ashore. The occurrence of 

 oil refuse on the shores of the channel was reported to Mr. J. M. 

 Mawson, the then representative of the Barrow Town Council 

 on the Sea-Fisheries Committee, and it came to an end. No 

 further complaints have been received from the local fishermen. 



There are natural phenomena occurring every day at sea 

 which set up perfectly smooth places on the wind-roughened 

 surface. Shoals of pelagic organisms may become massed 

 together by the action of wind and tides, and drift ashore as an 

 oily tract. The whiter invasion of Noctihica, described in the 

 Report for 1919 (p. 6), supplied a characteristic instance of wind 

 action and surface drift on pelagic life. The whole of the north 

 side of the water in the channel for a distance of nearly a foot 

 out presented the appearance and consistency of brick red- 

 coloured grease. It was due to a huge abundance of Noctiluca 

 drifted into the harbour by a slight southerly wind. An 

 uninstructed person might well be excused if he had reported 

 this as grease. 



The correct management of an aquarium depends upon 

 one of two things. There must either be a constant circulation 



