SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 35 



After the experience gained last year, we arranged that 

 the gatherings should be taken in more seaward positions 

 during 1898. This has been done, but the results are 

 very much the same as before. The weather is frequently 

 quite unsuitable for our sailing boats to venture far from 

 land, and on calm days rowing out to the stations is 

 tedious and dangerous, owing to the tides. 



To gain an accurate idea of the floating plankton of the 

 Irish Sea other means will require to be adopted. The 

 method that suggests itself as being the most convenient 

 from all points of view, is to make use of the lightships 

 that are anchored off various parts of our coast. There 

 is probably sufficient current set up by the rise and fall of 

 the tide to keep a tow-net extended. By supplying the 

 keepers with bottles containing preservatives, tow-nets, 

 and necessary instructions for working the nets, pre- 

 serving the material collected, and the times (night or 

 day, or both) when the collections should be taken, a 

 more satisfactory knowledge of the plankton would be 

 obtained. One of the men when off duty might be taken 

 out in our steamer and shown the methods. Then the 

 steamer could visit the lightships when convenient, say 

 once a month, leave a fresh supply of bottles, replace 

 worn out tow-nets, and bring back the collections taken 

 during the interval. 



The success of this method, of course, depends entirely 

 upon (after the necessary permission has been obtained) 

 the zeal and care of the men themselves, and the en- 

 couragement we give them. 



The collecting stations which might be tried this 

 ensuing year are the North-West, the Morecambe Bay, 

 the Selker, and the Bahama Lightships, and if the results 

 prove satisfactory, which no doubt they will, the system 

 can easily be extended. 



