MAEINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT POET EEIN. 49 



indicated above. While, if we pass from questions of dis- 

 tribution to those of structure and life-histories, even the 

 best-known regions afford abundant opportunity for 

 research to all who enter the field. 



Marine Biology has this peculiar advantage, that invok- 

 ing as it does the aid of several neighbouring sciences, 

 such as Geology, Geography, and Physiology, it is able in 

 its turn to throw light upon these subjects, and it bristles 

 with problems of that interesting and intricate nature that 

 characterises the borderland between two or more sciences. 



Some Kecent Woek. 



As a contribution to the borderland between our subject 

 and Geology, Mr. Lomas and I have, during the past 

 year, made a careful examination of all our dredged 

 deposits from the floor of the Irish Sea, and our results 

 have appeared in the last volume of "Proceedings" of 

 the Liverpool Geological Society. Amongst our results 

 we may note that we have shown how the material now 

 covering the floor of the Irish Sea have been the result (1) of 

 the denudation of the coasts, (2) of the redistribution of 

 the older deposits under the sea, (3) of vital agencies — 

 the remains of animals and plants living in the sea. We 

 give a revised classification of such deposits, and a detailed 

 description of all the samples we have obtained. 



As a problem on the boundary between Biology and 

 Geography (viz., the currents of the sea), and as having, 

 at the same time, an important practical application to 

 the sea-fisheries, may be cited our investigation of the 

 circulation of water in the Irish Sea by means of " drift- 

 bottles." Our records of those bottles that have been 

 found and returned to us show pretty conclusively that 

 there is, in addition to both north and south in-flowing 

 and out-going tidal currents, a slow drift to the north, 



