212 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



round the North of Ireland and Scotland. It could only 

 do this by going under it, which would require deep water 

 such as does not exist to the North of Ireland, for the 

 deep channel which runs through the western parts of the 

 Irish Sea and the North Channel does not reach further 

 than 6° 40' W. Any other possible southward flowing 

 current could only be a small eddy-like branch of the 

 Gulf Stream. Since, however, the southern opening of 

 the Irish Sea is much wider and more conveniently 

 situated than the northern opening, it is far more 

 probable that a tongue of the Gulf Stream would run 

 through the Irish Sea from South to North, and not from 

 North to South. 



The results we obtained in 1908 would be very hard 

 to explain by means of a southward flowing current. 

 (See the chart in the Report of the Hydrographic Work 

 in the Irish. Sea during 1908.) 



Mr. D. J. Matthews,* of the Marine Biological 

 Association, as a result of his hydrographic investigations 

 in the English Channel, came to the conclusion that water 

 from the Irish Sea spread southwards over the English 

 Channel, and J. N. Nielsent has suggested in consequence 

 that there is an anti-cyclonic circulation of the water 

 round Ireland. 



When Matthews' evidence is examined carefully, 

 however, it seems to point conclusively in the opposite 

 direction. In the Second Report of the North Sea 

 Fisheries Investigation Committee, Part II — Southern 

 Area — (London, 1909), Matthews gives charts in which 

 all the available hydrographic observations for 1904 and 



* Matthews, Report on the Physical Conditions in the English Channel, 

 1903. First Report of the North Sea Fisheries Investigation Committee 

 (Southern Area) , London, 1905. 



f Medclelelser fra Komviissionen for Havundersogelscr . Hydrografi, 

 Vol. I., No. 9, Copenhagen (1907). 



