210 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



THE FLOW OF WATER THROUGH THE 

 IRISH SEA. 



By Henry Bassett, Jun., D.Sc., Ph.D., Assistant 

 Lecturer in Chemistry in the University of Liverpool. 



In my reports on the Hydrographic work in the Irish 

 Sea during 1906, 1907 and 1908,* I assumed that there was 

 a general flow of the water from South to North, without, 

 however, discussing the point. It seems, however, high 

 time that this important point should be fully discussed, 

 and for two reasons. In the first place, because it is being 

 assumed by some people that exactly the reverse is the 

 case, and that the water flows southwards from the Irish 

 Sea; and in the second place, because the data now 

 available are, for the first time, sufficient to prove without 

 a shadow of doubt that the water does actually flow from 

 South to North. Even before any detailed hydrographic 

 work had been done in the Irish Sea, generally known 

 facts were sufficient to show that in all probability there 

 was a flow of water through the area from South to North 

 — the current passing to the East of the Isle of Man. 



Thus the general set of the tides points in this 

 direction, the tides towards the North nearly always being 

 stronger than those towards the South. 



Then again, the sand and shingle on the English and 

 "Welsh and on the Irish coasts tend to travel northwards. t 



It is a well known fact that practically all wreckage 



* Trans., Biol. Soc. of Liverpool, Vol. XXII., p. 145 (1908), and 

 Vol. XXIII., p. 146 (1909) : also Lancashire Sea-fisheries Laboratory 

 Reports, No. 16, p. 54 (1908), and No. 17, p. 44 (1909). 



t Mr. C. D. Oliver, M.Inst. C.E., Engineer to the Dept. of 

 Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, in reply to enquiries 

 kindly made for me by Professor Grenville Cole, quotes numerous cases 

 which have come under his observation and which in his opinion 

 show that the sand on the East Coast of Ireland travels from South 

 to North, though probably very slowly. 



