32 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



reliable results. It is possible that even the original 

 promoters of the scheme would now share that view, and 

 the opinion has recently been published by the American 

 Planktologist, Professor C. A. Kofoid — than whom no one 

 is better entitled, from his own detailed and exact work, 

 to express an authoritative verdict — that certain recent 

 observations " can but reveal the futility of the Plankton 

 programme of the International Commission for the 

 investigation of the sea. The quarterly examinations of 

 this programme will, doubtless, yield some facts of value, 

 but they are truly inadequate to give any reliable view of 

 the amount and course of Plankton production in the sea."* 



It is evident that before we can base far-reaching 

 generalisations upon our Plankton samples, a minute 

 study of the distribution of life in both marine and fresh 

 waters at very frequent intervals throughout the year 

 should be undertaken. Kofoid has made such a minute 

 study of the lakes and streams of Illinois, and C. D. Marsh 

 of those of Wisconsin ; and similar intensive work is now 

 being carried out at several localities in Europe. 



Too little attention has been paid in the past to the 

 distribution of many animals in swarms, some parts of the 

 sea being crowded and neighbouring parts being destitute 

 of such forms, and this not merely round coasts and in the 

 narrow seas, but also in the open ocean. For example, 

 some species of Copepoda and other small Crustacea occur 

 notably in dense crowds (fig. 11, PI. I), and are not uni- 

 versally distributed. This is true also of some of the 

 Diatoms, and also of larger organisms. Many 

 naturalists have remarked upon the banks of 

 Trichodesmium, of Medusae and Siphonophora, of 

 Salppe, of Pteropods, of Peridinians and of other 



* "Internationale Revue der Hydrobiologie und Hydrographie," 

 Vol. I., p. 846, December, 1908. 



