MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 33 



Liverpool, and with hotel or lodging accommodation on the 

 spot, would enable their specialists to do more work, and be 

 of more use to students and investigators generally. Also it 

 was becoming evident that after five years work on the shores 

 of the small island the greater number of the plants and animals 

 had been collected and examined, and that a change to a new 

 locality with a rich fauna and a more extended and varied line 

 of coast would yield increased material for faunistic work. 



After considering many possible localities on the shores 

 of the Irish Sea, the Committee unanimously decided that no 

 other spot seemed to be so suitable and to offer such advantages 

 for their work as Port Erin at the south end of the Isle of Man. 

 As a result of several visits and negotiations with local authori- 

 ties, a simple building*, containing a couple of small laboratories 

 and some aquarium tanks only, was erected on the shore close 

 to high- water mark on the north side of the Bay, and a formal 

 opening by the Lieutenant-Governor of the Island (Sir Spencer 

 Walpole), in the presence of a large number of marine biologists 

 and others interested, took place on June 4th, 1892. A full 

 account of the inauguration will be found in the Report for that 

 year. And so we moved from Puffin Island, Anglesey, to Port 

 Erin, Isle of Man — -as was said at the time, from " the Mona of 

 Tacitus to the Mona of Caesar " — a step that has proved 

 advantageous in every respect. 



The Port Erin Station occupies a fairly central position 

 in the Irish Sea, being about 30 miles from Ireland, 33 miles 

 from Scotland, 40 miles from Wales and about 45 miles from the 

 nearest point of England. The Bay faces nearly West and is 

 in most winds a good natural harbour with sand at the inner 

 end and bounded by precipitous cliffs beyond to the North and 

 South. From its position and the shape of the land Port Erin 

 has, within a distance of a couple of miles in three directions, 



•Replaced in 1902 by the present much larger institution on the opposite 

 side of the Bay. 



