MAEINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT POET EEIN. 45 



tions that could be taken — such as eight in a proposed 

 traverse from England to the West Indies. 



A much more satisfactory plan, from the scientific point 

 of view, would be to have a series of special cruises, in a 

 vessel of the type of a fisheries steamer, a steam trawler, 

 or a steam yacht able to keep at sea, carrying lines of 

 closely-placed observations across those areas that 

 influence our British Marine Fauna. I would suggest : — 



1. A line from Land's End to Porto Kico and Jamaica 

 in the West Indies crossing Rennel's Current, and the mid- 

 Atlantic south of the Gulf Stream area, and tracing back 

 those elements of our floating fauna that we owe to the 

 S.W. Atlantic drift towards their tropical source. 



2. A line from Ushant to Iceland, so as to cross the 

 entrance to the English Channel and the drift of the 

 Atlantic organisms on to the west coasts of Ireland and 

 Scotland, and then across the entrance to the Arctic 

 Ocean and North Sea. 



3. A line from the Shetlands to the southern end of 

 Greenland, along lat. 60° N., so as to intercept any Arctic 

 flow which brings down the northern forms found in our 

 fauna. 



The British Islands occupy a central and commanding 

 position, touching, as Prof. Edward Forbes pointed out 

 long ago, upon the Arctic and Scandinavian faunas to the 

 North, and the Germanic, South European, and Atlantic 

 faunas to the south. 



It would also be of considerable scientific interest — 

 although having no bearing so far as can be seen at 

 present upon practical fishery questions — to explore more 

 systematically the seas to the north of Iceland and Norway 

 as far north as dredging and tow-netting are practicable. 

 Sir John Murray, it is well known, has recently revived 

 an old idea that the faunas of the two poles are closely 



